Come On, Feel the Illinoise

Good day readers. How are you? That's good to hear. Blog time. (can't touch this)

I've added a fun little thing to the side bar of this blog, my last.fm recent tracks. It lets you know what music i've been listening to, and it's very very up to date. I checked it, and it pretty much has the one-before-current song on my iTunes listed. Pretty nifty huh? Enjoy.

Ya know, I realized today that I really love Illinois. It's a pretty damn good state. It's not in the south (+), it gets to fully experience all four seasons (+), I live here (+), and there are many other great things as well.

I think the Chicago suburbs are a near perfect place to grow up. I'm sure I complained a lot as a youth that Cary was lame, there was nothing to do (or maybe I didn't.. but probably at least once or twice). But really, it was pretty awesome. The city was close enough that I got to go live out some punk rock fantasies there; the education system was pretty stellar; and the town itself was just a good place.

I drove across the state twice this past weekend. Once down to Rock Island to visit Katie, and then back. I love driving across Illinois. Sure, it's flat, full of corn, and boring as hell, but it's a perfect boring. It was uncharacteristically warm for October on my drive, and drove with all my windows down and the music blaring. The smell of fresh bailed hay blasting into my nostrils was invigorating. I even kinda liked the smell of the farm animals, when it wasn't too overwhelming. The monotony of the seas of corn is really a great way to clear your head.

And the city. Living in Chicago is more than I could have imagined. It's amazing how quickly this has become Home. Coming back from Rock Island, heading north on 55, I could see the skyline through the haze, the Sears thrusting its antenna into the air. When I moved here, I told myself never to take that view for granted, so I make sure to look up every now and again, even if I look like a tourist, gawking at the skyscrapers.

I feel like I'm on some sort of Illinois Tourist Board.

Anyway, this past weekend was a good one. It was parent's weekend down at Augie, and there were lots of parents (imagine that). Katie's came in shortly after I got there Friday, and we went out to dinner at Olive Garden and then came back and chilled with her roommates and polished off a bottle of vodka (I made some really really bad jokes...). Saturday, we went out to brunch with her parents, and then we went to see 3:10 To Yuma, which was a really freakin cool movie. I highly recommend it.

The rest of the weekend was pretty low key and relaxing, which was good. I needed one of those.

I have my first midterm tomorrow, but I've done some good studying, and I'll get some more in tomorrow, so wish me luck.


Did you wish me luck?

Ok, thanks.

Bye.