A much needed break

Date: Monday, 5/12/08

I should have posted this one before the KC post, but that one was easier to write...

FIRST AWESOME WEATHER DAY OF TRIP! The sky is finally blue, and im driving all the way through to Iowa City under blue skies and 60 degree weather.

Moving from the city to the suburbs is, to me, a sign of maturity finally taking its part in our lives. I took the monday after game 3 for a little R & R. I stayed with my newly minted suburbanite friends Bob and Elaine, in Wheeling, IL. They found a gorgeous new townhome complete with garage, basement for gameroom, and multiple floors. All I can say is that it will probably be 10 years before I own one of those. Sigh, medschool and residency are a bitch.

The first of many good evenings to come found friends playing Whoonu and talking about mothers day. Elaine and Bob had hosted their families for the afternoon and Ben brunched with Joe's parents in Wisconsin, remembering to call his own in Chicago. My mother decided to call me, and before I had the chance to really say anything about mother's day, she called me out for forgetting mother's day. Typical.

Elaine, a new suburbanite, has yet to have the maturity of the suburbs affect her wonderful fun and ebullient spirit. I knew this would be the perfect time to make use of Sophia's frame. While the frame was a great idea from the start, the problem is that I do not have a friend to come with me to help hold the frame and take pictures with it. Luckily Elaine was into the frame idea. Hopefully more frame pictures will come when I get co-adventurers in June.

The get-up-and-go is a tiring proposition. It really hit me that this trip will not be ALL fun and games (all though it is wonderful) but like so many great things in life, its the sacrifice of a little short term comfort for a sense of immense satisfaction for something complete and good. The midwest has spoiled me, its too full of good people and flat driving and gorgeous green rolling hills, comfortable modesty. It really is a perfect way to start this trip, and I would suggest to any and all who choose to do it: start with the Midwest.

I got to go back to Iowa City a second time, Leighton hosting me AGAIN. Leighton is in the business of relationships, and he's good at it because he knows how to make them and keep them. Before I started on this trip, there were 7 cities where I had nowhere to stay, and now there are only 2, mainly because of Leighton. He's helped to keep me enthusiastic and make this trip as painless as possible.

Iowa? Well let me just leave it to the following timeless lines to describe Iowa:

John Kinsella: Is this heaven?
Ray Kinsella: It's Iowa.
John Kinsella: Iowa? I could have sworn this was heaven.
[John starts to walk away]
Ray Kinsella: Is there a heaven?
John Kinsella: Oh yeah. It's the place where dreams come true.
[Ray looks around, seeing his wife playing with their daughter on the porch]
Ray Kinsella: Maybe this is heaven.

Enough Said.