OK, technically I'm not in Chicago anymore—I'm probably somewhere over Iowa or Minnesota right now. I didn't sleep very well last night, partly because I knew I had to get up at 3:30am, and partly because Sandy's upstairs neighbor got lucky at least twice on a very creaky bed.
Anyway, I was fairly awake at 3:25am (when I actually got out of bed and headed for the shower), and wide awake at 4:15am when the cab picked me up for the ride to the airport. I even made it all the way through the August 5 issue of Newsweek on the first flight, and to the commentary on George Bush the Younger's mismanagement of the country in the August 5 issue of the Economist before I finally dozed off. Of course, by that time we were in our initial descent into Chicago, so I didn't get more than about 10 minutes of sleep. I'd love to sleep again now, but for some reason I can't. Oh well.
Sandy and I had a nice day yesterday walking around Quincy Market. We didn't go into Fanueil Hall because it's all food shops, and we'd just had a large breakfast (or, in my case, the Great Big Breakfast -meat +blueberry compote) at IHOP. We poked into various shops, I bought a lemonade to combat the 90 degree heat, and I also decided to splurge on a $6 SpongeBob balloon when the balloon vendor assured me I could take it on the airplane by inserting a straw into a hidden valve to deflate it.
After Quincy Market we ventured out to the surrounding city streets, where I found a Barnes & Noble and picked up a couple Korean books. I'd like to learn a bit of Korean so I can say a few words to the wedding guests who speak the language, and so that I can label all the food on the buffet in English and Korean. I think my favorite parts of the day, though, were the ride in and the ride back on the T. I love mass rail transit—especially looking out the windows.
Since this weekend was a bit of a splurge for me, between the airfare and the random wedding- and non-wedding-related purchases, I plan to be more frugal this week. I do want to start putting some money aside for a rainy day and/or to pursue some of the business ideas and lifestyle changes Al and I have been cooking up. I should use Sandy as my saving model: her salary as a teacher can't be spectacular, but she still manages to sock away a good portion of her income in savings. I bet I could, too.
Posted by Lori at August 12, 2002 06:45 AM