alright, i want to get caught up so i can talk about the present again, so here’s the last few days of the trip:

tuesday; new year’s day

waking around two, we headed over to my high school roommate’s apartment at u of i (yes, i went to a high school at which i lived. no, it wasn’t private school. yes, there were girls. for more info if you don’t understand, visit the site) to say goodbye to the whole crew. then gabe dropped me off in the town i grew up in–the illustrious bourbonnais, illinois–on the way back to his house in gurnee. i spent that night at my grandparents’ place, and it was really nice to see them. they’re so nice and i love them, and all that family sappy stuff…

wednesday, jan. 2

late morning, my pal emily came and picked me up to bring me to her place in glendale heights. we didn’t have much of an adventure, although we did have some delicious giordano’s deep dish pizza downtown for lunch. i felt kind of bad because i think i was a little burned out by this point and maybe i wasn’t the most fun companion for emily that day. however, emily is another one of those people where i don’t feel like i have to be having some sort of exciting escapade, necessarily. just being around her feels good. top tier friends like that are not easy to come by, and i think she’s the greatest along with most of the people i spent a night with this past week. we wanted to stay up all night since i had to wake up at 7 or something to get ready to head to o’hare, but we fell asleep around 2:30 because, well, we’re so cool it’s exhausting.

thursday, jan. 3

woke up, and went to the airport. sad to have spent so little time trying to cram so much quality time with friends into a week out of the year. can’t wait to graduate and be able to travel more often and visit everyone more regularly.

the day was fine and all, except that the flight was delayed three and a half hours, and i wanted to get back here to hang out with my california friend shannon who had to leave early friday for her semester in italy. that, however, will pretty much bring me back to the present since nothing noteworthy has happened since that sad goodbye friday morning, so i’ll save that last juicy little tidbit until tomorrow.