Out Tonight

It's fall break. I've probably been looking forward to this break since August [I moved to Iowa at the beginning of August] because I got to go home and see some of my friends and drive my car and feel one with the people when I go fifteen over the speed limit. It's definitely refreshing to be in a nice open space and room than in a cramped dorm room with one window and other people's stuff everywhere.

On Friday, my friend and I climbed into her car [two hours later than planned and with over five hundred pounds worth of dirty laundry/shoes we don't need/clothes we don't need/technology we "can't live without"/homework] and headed to her house in Cedar Rapids, where my mother would then pick me up. There was one problem with that: we had no idea how to get there. Conveniently, my mother and my godmother were unable to pick up any sort of phone. But, no worries, we did get directions and we set off towards Cedar Rapids.

Halfway there, we realized it might have been a good idea to get dinner from the caf because we were both starving. We had just gotten out of Independence, which, apparently, is the last place of civilization before 380 where there is no food. Once we figured that out, Chelsea and I reversed back to the Wal-mart we passed and decided to take our allotted ten-minute pit stop.

We were there for a half an hour [it's the Walmart pull, I swear]. We bought orange soda and these surprisingly good tasting sandwiches that came in plastic containers and a giant bag of chips. It was so unhealthy. It was so road trip food. But we were back on our way and we finally got on 380. We got to her house [which was pretty much awesome] and I switched over to my mother who was "in a hurry to go" but ended up talking to Chelsea's parents for about a half an hour. Fun times. After that, it was a four hour drive home.

I had planned on the bonding time between me and my mom to be during the drives to and from Elgin and then the ride to Cedar Rapids or whatever. Because I already had plans in Elgin that I wasn't too eagar to change.

There was never a prettier sight than when I reached Elgin. The familiar highways and signs and stores and the 24-hour Jewel. The orange skies because of the street lamps and Starbucks and all the construction that was still going on on McLean Blvd [though it was refreshing to see it on the other side of the street]. I stayed with my friends, since our house was being rented out and we spent a good part of the night talking and catching up... and risking our lives by walking to the 24-hour Jewel at two in the morning to get groceries. It was totally scary because we took the short, dark, unpopulated way to the store, instead of going around the school and taking the lit, heavily populated place.

I slept on a real bed, not that the dorms don't have real beds, but I don't have a mattress pad, and it's catching up with me. So I slept extremely well that night. I visited my bank and deposited my work-study money and then hung out with my two friends before they had to go to work. I had to wait for my mom to drop off the car and then I was on my way to check my email and spend some quality time in Panera, where I spent a lot of quality time over the summer.

That night, my super bestest friend ever was going to visit me. We had plans to go to the dance club, but... there were no funds for that. So we watched a movie, but then decided that it was too boring and too mundane for my only weekend in Elgin for a long time. So we made an impulse decision to go to Chicago... at midnight. Crazy? It was. That was why we changed our minds. Then we were back to the club idea, but my best friend knew how to get in for free. We stopped at her dorm and got ready to go. Then my other friend's [there were four of us] car died in the fifteen minute parking. It was probably around one in the morning.

No problems, her dad just had to wake up and travel a few minutes to jump start the car. Then we went back to Chris' house to switch cars, because Amelia had to take her car back home, since everyone was scared it wasn't going to start in the morning. By that time, it was around two, so there was no point in going to the club, since it closed at three.

So we went to Taco Bell and drove out to Genoa... to cornfields. We were totally going to be rebels and get lost in them, but when we were standing on the edge, me and Amelia heard something in the fields. I'm not even kidding. There was some sort of creature in the cornfield that was going to eat us--I saw the stalks move. So we ran back to the car dramatically, screaming and such. My friend climbed in and since her car wasn't an automatic unlocker, she had to manually open all four door from the inside. If there was an animal that was going to eat us, it definitely would have gotten us. Especially if it was the "Jeepers Creepers guy that was going to massacre us."

From there, there was another pit stop at Jewel, after a successful run of the Chinese Firedrill, and we went back to the house. By that time, it was four in the morning and we were done. There were problems with the sleeping arrangements, but I managed to get the bed. That was all I cared about.

Sunday, the day I was leaving, I, by chance, managed to see a friend that went to University of Illinois... about an hour after church ended [slept through it], so that was pretty nice. My mom and I went to the usual haunts we hadn't been to in so long and then headed west... back to Iowa. I got to stop by at my other friend's college, because she was on the way, and spent some time with her. Then we left.

Now I'm here, in Muscatine. I believe I'm going back to Cedar Rapids, to spend the night at Chelsea's house, tomorrow. Then on Wednesday, we're leaving to go back to school at noon. I have my work study at five-thirty and then it's back to the same old.

And that was my super Fall Break in a very, very long blog entry. ^^