A Cat's Thoughts

   Angels and In-laws

Sweetie and I went to Chicago to visit his parents this weekend. Maybe not the best weekend to go, but the only one available until after school gets out in June. We almost didn't get to go this weekend.

Our reliable, always there Neighbor who takes care of Uno on weekends we are away, had to go out of town this weekend too. So we ended up taking Uno to visit his soon to be Step grandmother (also known as my mom). Mom was happy to doggy sit her newest granddogger, so that was solved - It would be up to Uno (a westi) to put Vanna (mom's english bulldog) in her place. Apparently he got his point accross - Vanna didn't pester him much over the weekend.

Then we were on our way. Too bad neither of us bothered to check the weather before we left. Around 9:00, just past Madison, we ran into freezing rain. It didn't take long for the road to be covered in a nice smooth icy surface with no traction whatsoever. We slowed down, but apparently not enough. I hit a particularily slick spot at the wrong angle and we spun out. We spun one way and headed for one ditch. Then we spun the other way and headed for the other ditch. The we turned and spun back the first way and stopped just inches from a 15' plunge into the ditch. We threw on the parking break and sat for about 10 minutes trying to catch our breath and thanking every god we could think of. We also heaped praise on Emmiline (my car) because she was working just as hard as we were to not go in the ditch. Sweetie took over driving at that point and got us going back in the right direction (straight to the nearest bathroom).

We arrived at Sweetie's parents house at about midnight. We quietly let ourselves in and went to bed. Hugs and greatings could wait until morning when we would be calm enough to tell them the story with enough emphasis on the "but everything turned out OK and no-one was hurt" part of the story.

I finally got to meet Sweetie's younger sister. She's a cool kid and it's going to be fun being her sister-in-law. She's just getting ready to head out off to college next year - If she goes at the pace she wants to, she'll graduate before me too. Otherwise we might be graduating in the same year, and that will be awkward to say the least.

Now, I just need to meet his brother. I've heard so much about him that I'm anxious to meet him and form my own opinions. I've heard so much in fact that I'm not entirely certain that he's just one person.

And then I got to actually see one of the places that Sweetie has been telling me about. He's always telling me about how Chicago is so much bigger/brighter/better than Minneapolis. We went to an adult arcade, Dave and Busters, to compare it to Jillian's. He was right about the bigger part, but better... we never did get to play skeeball (because there were only 4 lanes) and most of the VR machines that he'd talked up we gone. We did have fun at the horse race game and a tetris like game called chip away. Ooh, and they had Ms. Pac Man - I haven't played that in years. He also showed me the Chicago subburb that he thinks has a better skyline than Minneapolis - I didn't agree, but then Minneapolis has grown a lot in the last couple of years.

Overall though, the trip was pleasant, and short. And we're home now trying to get back into life.

Posted by Becca at January 19, 2004 10:01 AM