Come on feel the Illinoise

Well, I'm sorry to inform you all that I will have to take a brief hiatus from my totally consistent writing. For I am going to Chicago! I am leaving Sunday! I'll be gone for 6 days! And a few more of !!!! for good measure!

I am going to visit Ana and Fernando, and baby Abe. I met Ana and Fernando during my first attempt at college as a career, down in good old Chattanooga, Tennessee. We attended Covenant College together.

I first met Ana while commenting on her lovely head full of long ringlet curls, at which she responded by asking me to come up to her dorm and help her iron them straight. Me and an iron on some girls hair--practically life or death! I agreed! So we made a lot of popcorn, popped Silence of the Lambs in to the VHS, threw an ironing board down on the floor, and watched the iron burn to life as Ana laid down her head on the chopping block..er..ironing board. Silence of the Lambs for a girls beauty night? Yes, that's how we knew we were friends.

In that six hours of nearly singeing her face at every stroke, we got to know each other fantastically and became fast friends, never leaving each others side much after that. We spent much time lounging out on the lawn, or in our portable hammock reading and studying, working on art, or chasing boys. But then next semester I returned home from the land of collard greens back to civilization as lack of funds demanded (damn those private colleges).

My frienship with Fernando was mostly as an onlooker to the volatile courtship of he and Ana (his pursuit and her volatile retreat). Fern resided in the Catacombs. If Christian colleges had frats, the Catacombs would be like the dirty hippy frat. Plus, it was deep down in the disgusting basement which reeked of furnace oil and boys--a terrible combination. It was dark, and scary. I knew of Fernando through his various stunts of hosting haunted halloween parties with various farm animals as props--both dead and alive. Christian college staff love that sort of thing. And that was only the beginning of their many weekly freakish stunts. I also knew him to be a nice guy, whom nobody doesn't like. And he hates shoes. I never saw him wear any. And he slept in a closet. It's ok though, his roommate slept in a box. Cardboard.

And, after all this, Ana relented to marry him, and they've been happy ever since. I was in their wedding in Memphis almost 2 years ago. They had a chocolate fountain. No wonder everybody loves them.

They're both in Med school now. Ana got accepted the same week she found out she was pregnant. Now, baby Abel, about 7 months, and the cutest baby you've ever seen, hides in a little bassinet along side his mother in Biology classes. Crazy kids.

They bought a cute house in Champaign, IL., a bit outside Chicago, for pretty much less than half the amount for a house in the normal Seattle market. It's a college town, and kind of farmish/suburban from what I hear. So I'm flying out Sunday to meet baby Abe! I'm very excited. We will probably hit up the town too. I've been once before and enjoyed it. I went to some museums, took my picture by the "Married with Children" opening credits fountain, and drank coffee liquors on the 98th floor of the John Hancock building while looking out over some ridiculously huge lake, which I'm pretty sure is actually an ocean, because I literally could not see the end--only the horizon--just like when you look out over the sea.

This week though I think we'll spend a lot to time catching up over cocoa and baby bottles, while I try not to poke the baby too much, or feed him canned cranberry slices (oh the joy of Thanksgiving). Well, actually, I will try to feed him canned cranberry. And maybe a turkey leg.

I'll bring back photos soon!