My Kind of Town

It was college graduation this weekend, I skipped it! I think in my 19 years of working for the college this is only the 2nd commencement that I have missed. I'm okay with that though. Instead of sitting through another commencement ceremony I was road tripping west to Chicago. I was hoping to be a part of one of Oprah's final episodes, but instead I settled for shopping trips to Crate and Barrel and IKEA neither which are located in my little city.

The real reason for the trip was to spend a few days with my brother, his girlfriend and my parents. I'm blogging about this now so that in a year I have a written reminder to never, ever take a 9 hour road trip with my parents again, EVER! They invited me along saying how much Matt and Kim wanted to see me and how we could all share driving responsibilities. Share driving responsibilities? Apparently sharing driving responsibilities to my parents means on a 9 hour trip my mom will drive 3 hours, my dad will drive for 27 minutes and I will drive the rest. So yes, I guess technically we shared driving responsibilities.

Other things that Chicago has that my city doesn't? Well these two.

My brother and his girlfriend, who I keep reminded him needs to be his wife. I'm pretty certain that it is going to happen, I just like to pressure him to make it happen soon. She does not seem to be too worried about though. They are in fact planning a future together. Our time at IKEA proved that, they are talking about what their next kitchen is going to look like.

Other things Chicago has? Well yes I have already mentioned Crate and Barrel and IKEA but also Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Costco and oh yeah a sweet little diner called the Honey Jam that has of all things on the menu white chocolate, raspberry waffles and pancakes and did I mention deep dish pizza? Yes, we shopped a lot and we ate a lot and we laughed a lot. And the weather there? It's a lot like the weather here but it seemed like the spring flowers there were a few days ahead of ours. I think I've mentioned before maybe once or twice how much I love spring. Look at these beauties.


And these. I think pink trees prove that God loves beauty and that he also has a sense of humor. I don't think I would have ever thought to create a pink tree. Both these trees are located on the grounds of the country club where my brother is a golf professional. He was extra excited this week because the day before we arrive he spent the day golfing with two players from the Chicago Blackhawks. They both sent him text messages afterwords saying what a great time they had with him. For a hockey fanatic this was huge, he referred to his new bff's several times while were there, and every time it made us all smile. Kind of the way pink trees make me smile.