Odd Times

Already this is quite an unusual week. We had a relatively normal Saturday; we tried out a pizza place nearby that has double decker pizzas and we spent sometime enjoying the library. The weather is a bit odd - we had frost one night recently but yesterday I ended up having to take off a lot of layers a couple times and would just sit in my tank top outside for a bit. Then there's the rain. Lots of small thunderstorms, almost nightly it seems. And tomorrow we're supposed to get high winds with gusts up to 60 mph.

Then Sunday rolled around and Colin had to be downtown Chicago by noon for the start of his company's conference. We didn't know how long he would be down there but I decided somewhat last-minute that I wanted to be with him on the 1.5 hour one way train ride. It worked out really well because Tom and Keegan were able to join me for an afternoon and early evening of sitting in cafes. It was fun to talk with Tom about library science since I hadn't seen him for two months or so and he's in his first semester of lib sci school. Made me somewhat nostalgic for grad school but I didn't envy the introductory class assignments he's going through. I read a lot of "Coal: A Human History" which I'm finding quite fascinating.

I ended up getting home earlier than Colin at 10 pm. I had no reason to stay for another two hours until the next train and I knew I'd be worthless for socializing that late. My shoes and bottom half of my jeans were pretty soaked from the rain so I was very thankful to be able to hop right into a hot shower when I got home. Also, I'm glad I had every bit of clothing I did have including wool socks which meant my feet stayed warm even when damp, rain coat, wool scarf, and an umbrella which I loaned to Tom and Keegan when they needed it. Couldn't have really been more well prepared for the wacky weather I'd encountered during the trip, except maybe some waterproof footwear. Even then, I would have needed something that was not too hot and that I could walk a lot in comfortably.

I struggled to stay awake while reading a (exciting) book and ended up taking cat naps, which meant I'd dose off partway while sitting up. Finally Colin got to the station at midnight and I picked him up. It turned out I had to drive him back to catch a train before seven this morning. He was pretty wiped out when I picked him up and he wasn't able to get much sleep :( I went back to bed and crashed until almost 11 though ... I've been building up a sleep deficit for awhile from the virus we had and the lingering side effect of sinus congestion, so I was glad for the extra sleep.

Colin won't be home until who knows when tomorrow night. I'm trying to stay positive and focus on doing things I enjoy, perhaps things I normally wouldn't do with Colin. Perhaps I'll eat a dish with tons of mushrooms tonight ;) Or borrow movies from the library that he wouldn't like at all. I have some things I have to do but the list isn't huge and I need to focus on not getting too sad that he's not here. It was actually hard to see his train leave this morning, knowing it'll be longer than usual before I see him again.