chicago, 10/2
Nov. 4th, 2003 10:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jfbChicago provided the worst traffic moment of the trip, when I found myself trapped between three semi trucks in a right triangle, with only the one behind me still moving.
I have to say, though: When I was planning the trip, it seemed like everyone I mentioned it to had done a cross-country trip of their own, and they all shuddered in horror at the memory of the demon trucks. But in my experience, except for Chicago and one Fauber truck that plagued me for a full day of driving somewhere in the South, all the truckers were professional and courteous on the road. They put up with much worse behavior from stupid drivers in small cars.
I was in Chicago to see Kari and Emily, two friends from high school--although, as Emily pointed out, really, we were friends practically from birth. I've known them since before I can remember knowing them, but I haven't seen either of them for at least seven years, and it's been a lot longer than that since we were part of each other's everyday lives.
So dinner ended up being the most emotionally complex experience of the entire trip, which manifested itself as incoherent rambling by me late at night. I won't say much about that here, except that I was happy to see how, well, how okay everyone's life had become--we all have problems, but everyone seems more comfortable in their skin--and kind of sad not to have been part of those lives. Since that night I've been thinking a lot about the passage of time.
The next day, breezing through fall foliage in Wisconsin, looking up at a blue sky made slightly creamy with clouds, I was overwhelmed by the thought: What could we possibly have done to deserve a world this beautiful?
I have to say, though: When I was planning the trip, it seemed like everyone I mentioned it to had done a cross-country trip of their own, and they all shuddered in horror at the memory of the demon trucks. But in my experience, except for Chicago and one Fauber truck that plagued me for a full day of driving somewhere in the South, all the truckers were professional and courteous on the road. They put up with much worse behavior from stupid drivers in small cars.
I was in Chicago to see Kari and Emily, two friends from high school--although, as Emily pointed out, really, we were friends practically from birth. I've known them since before I can remember knowing them, but I haven't seen either of them for at least seven years, and it's been a lot longer than that since we were part of each other's everyday lives.
So dinner ended up being the most emotionally complex experience of the entire trip, which manifested itself as incoherent rambling by me late at night. I won't say much about that here, except that I was happy to see how, well, how okay everyone's life had become--we all have problems, but everyone seems more comfortable in their skin--and kind of sad not to have been part of those lives. Since that night I've been thinking a lot about the passage of time.
The next day, breezing through fall foliage in Wisconsin, looking up at a blue sky made slightly creamy with clouds, I was overwhelmed by the thought: What could we possibly have done to deserve a world this beautiful?
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no subject
Date: 2003-11-04 10:24 am (UTC)Hurrah for those moments!
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Date: 2003-11-04 11:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-05 09:54 am (UTC)