It came to my attention this past Saturday that I have gotten way too used to not having a schedule of any sort to be operating on. Unfortunately, this came by way of missing my train to get into Valparaiso for my friend Adriano's wedding.
I returned from the suburbs to the city with Libby and Brian after the party with all my friends on Friday night so that I would be sure to be at the station on time to catch my two o'clock. My thought was that half an hour would be plenty of time to get on the bus back by my friend Jason's apartment where all of my stuff was and be downtown. Not so. It soon became obvious that I was not going to make it to my train. And what really made me upset was that I wasn't going to miss it by much. About eight minutes was all.
At 2:05, I jumped off the bus, hoping that the train would be running just a few minutes late. Now, I have seen people sprinting in a panic down Michigan Avenue before, but never had the pleasure of doing it myself. This is no longer the case. I was flying as fast as one can with a backpack and a crowd of people in front of them. Oh, did I mention it was raining?
The train had, in fact, left on time. By the time I got myself collected, it was 2:20, and the wedding was starting at 5:00. How does one get from downtown to Indiana in less than three hours? With a dying cell phone battery, I called a couple of people to have them get on their computers and help me out. There wasn't enough time to make it out to one of the airports and take a bus into Indiana. Likewise, Greyhound doesn't run from Chicago to Valparaiso. On top of all that, my only friend going to the wedding from the city called me an hour and a half after I called asking for a ride only to tell me she missed my call because she was listening to Billy Joel's Greatest Hits too loudly in her car.
My only chance was to take the metra rail South far enough to get off by Interstate 294 and have the people who were going to pick me up at the South Shore Line drive out there and get me. Erin and Nate were willing to come all the way out, so we just went for it. Praise the Lord it was Saturday because had it been weekday traffic we all would have missed the ceremony. As luck would have it though, we made it with about 20 minutes to spare!
I'm happy to say that the rest of the weekend went off without a hitch. Friday night was so great getting to see many good friends. We spent most of our time just laughing and eating. Thankfully, everyone is doing quite well!
Save the train fiasco, Saturday was also pretty great. The wedding itself was short (though since the Valpo chapel is not air-conditioned, that was OK with most people). We all had a great time at the reception, and it was fun to see even more friends.
Sunday was spent at the beach on Lake Michigan playing frisbee, going to the church I went to in Chesterton, and going into Valpo for food and drink. All I can say is I am blessed to have such great friends and the opportunity to see so many of them for a spirit-refreshing weekend!
Next post will be from Seattle!!!!
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