Last weekend we headed to Chicago to celebrate Wyatt's birthday and we had a great time. I think it was the first time since Jane moved to Japan that the tremendous trio was together. Besides Wyatt, Jane, and I, Jane's college bestie Bud and Rick joined us for the weekend. We got in late Friday night, stayed up late chatting, catching up, and headed out early Saturday to take in the city.
Unfortunately, the weather was cold and rainy, but we tried to enjoy ourselves anyway. First on my list was "the bean" since I hadn't seen it in all its glory (it was always being polished when I was in town...) For some reason the reflection is so exciting for me!
We also visited the art institute and Shedd Aquarium, trying to soak in the city before we were soaked. Rick hadn't been to Chicago before, so we thought we would give him a good taste of a midwestern city (crummy weather and all). By the end of the day, my shoes and pants were drenched, but we had fun the whole time.
We headed back to Wyatt's and dried off a little before heading out for karaoke. Much like the parlor we visited with Jane in Hiroshima, this was a place where you and your friends were in a small room; it's great because you don't have to wait for your song to come up or listen to someone you don't know. And, since everyone in the room is your friend, everyone belts out every song. It's so great. I'm not sure if these karaoke parlors have infiltrated smaller cities or not, but there needs to be more of them! We had a blast (and Jane never put down the mic)!
Wyatt almost drug Jane out of the room to head to a sketch show where they did 30 plays in 60 minutes. Some of it was funny, but some of it was too deep and too far from karaoke. But we had fun nonetheless.
Did I mention it rained the whole time we were there?
Back home on Sunday after brunch--a weekend is really too short a visit for Chicago. Back to school with a test today in immunology (I think I did a lot better this time around) and now I'm on the downhill slope coasting towards spring break (where, by the way, I will not be going anywhere and working on papers).And Jane has made a huge life decision to move back to Japan for good. Although I'll miss randomly seeing her, I am so happy for her--I know she loves teaching there and has great friends and a great guy back there waiting for her. I think I always knew she would move back (she's only been back stateside for 6 months), I just didn't know when. It's funny--she's my best friend and we've never lived in the same area and the longest time we have ever spent together was when I visited her in Japan. But we're great pen pals and now I'll always have a reason to visit Asia and someone to meet up with when I travel. It was so great to have one last weekend with my best friends before she left. Congrats on the job, Jane, and more importantly, on being true to yourself and finding where you belong. I love you.
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