Just Throw a Brick

That's right, I was in Utah (AKA The Promised Land) about a month ago for a few days. One of my sisters graduated from high school, one got her endowments out, and one got a prestigious award, given to only four students in the sixth grade. So, basically, my family is awesome and I am obviously the weak link in the awesome chain...except that I have a BLOG so clearly I am also awesome. And I apologize to all the people I left hanging since the Cubs post. (Since that time, I have learned that the majority of my coworkers are White Sox fans. I'm not sure why. I guess because tickets are cheaper..? Apparently we're going to a White Sox game sometime in early July so I'll keep everyone posted.) Regardless, it's been awhile, so I made sure this post had tons of pictures to make up for it. Important Things that Happened: 1. R's Graduation She's in the first three rows, somewhere... R graduated like the champion she is, with all sorts of cords and meda...

The next day we visited a Dunkin Baskin Donut, aka a Dunkin Donuts and a Baskin Robbins in the same building. I guess it makes sense, since most people want coffee in the morning and ice cream later in the day. Unless you’re me, and you want ice cream all the time. I got a chocolate chip muffin and it was totally encrusted in sugar. I tried to scrape some of it off (I’m not a huge plain sugar fan) but some of it was just anchored on there. It was still good though. Then we drove out to Millennial Park, home of the famous Chicago Bean. That thing is weird. You have to see it personally to have it make sense, but it’s weirdly cool. Since the park is adjacent to the Chicago Institute of Art, I guess all the stuff in the park used to be an exhibit and then they just left it up since it was so popular with the public. There are fountains with moving faces, boardwalks, and a little garden right in the middle of it. You have to donate like five million dollars and your first and second-b...

After our little jaunt around Pennsylvania, on to Chicago we went! After a foggy landing (couldn’t see the ground until we were on it,) we found a Sonic, it was after 8 pm so duh, half-price shakes. Let this be known to all – their peanut butter cookie shakes are divine. It’s like someone took like 50 Nutter Butters and smashed them into tiny pieces and put them into a cup. Ahhhhhhh. We took a tour of the school interested in C and met with a few different people and made some great contacts. Teresita, the secretary in the math department, was awesome. She’s one of those people that once you start talking to her, you feel like you’ve known each other your whole lives. She was a great contact to make, and she said she’d help us out with anything we needed if we ended up moving out there. She was awesome. We also met with a friendly math professor. It was adorably obvious that he was a math teacher that doesn’t deal much with people, but he did his awkward best to make us feel welco...

Next, we ventured to Philadelphia, to tour around and see the sights with C’s friend K. What are the sights? First, we saw the Philadelphia temple, which is in the process of being built. It’s right in the middle of the city (I think?) and it’ll be really nice when it’s finished. C wanted to eat a cheesesteak from a famous place (Pat’s) that required lots of walking, but the sandwich was good. My favorite part was the bread, I don’t know where that stuff came from or how they make it, but I want to find them and make their bread forever. However, to reach the magical sandwich land, we had to take a subway and public transportation is not my friend. The end. Also, the subways in Philadelphia are not like the subways in While You Were Sleeping. They’re below ground, where the sewer smell is the worst. They’re also magically about 10 degrees cooler than the outside temperature, a fact that mystifies me. And, when the Great Rat Uprising takes place, they will definitely crawl...

Finally, the post you've all been waiting for!  THE TRIP! Part one! I survived four planes! However, I’ve been highly disappointed so far in our airports, because there are no members of the Amazing Race running around, and it’s always been my dream to see The Amazing Race in person (especially the episode where they roll cheeses...) Our first plane stop took us on a scenic sky voyage to Seattle, where we resided for approximately enough time to buy and eat a cup of oatmeal. I am highly entertained by all the tiny trucks and carts airports use to transfer things. And when I saw that the trucks that hold the food that’s going into the plane could raise themselves up (like in the below picture), I was freaking out. How cool is that? Magic! Our next sky-venture took us from lovely Seattle, where you can smell the ocean in the air, to Philadelphia, which smells like city. Want to know what city smells like? Sewer. Sewer and questionable-looking greasy food bein...