I am currently back in Chicago. I haven't been home since Christmas, so I thought it would be nice to return back to my stomping grounds for a weekend and just spend some time with my mom and oldest sister. Well, I am not the most rational person in the world, so the planning of this trip home was, to say the least, not that well thought out. I had two options in my head: 1) to leave right after work (at 9:30 pm) on Thursday night or 2) leave super early on Friday morning. I debated back and fourth for awhile, taking into consideration a number of things. It's about an 8-hour drive from Omaha. If I left by 10 pm once I got home from work, I would have to drive through the night and I wouldn't get in until about 6 am. However, if I got in at that time, my mom would already be at work and I could just essentially sleep until she got home, that way, when she got home, I would be ready to spend the rest of the afternoon with her. The thought of driving through the night did not sound appealing, however, so I considered the second option. If I left really early, I would be all rested up, wouldn't have to drive eight hours in the dark, and would get home at about the same time my mom would be getting home from work. Well, for some reason, I just decided to leave Thursday night after work and drive through the night... again, I am irrational in so many ways.
Here is how my trip went.
I left a little before 10 pm by the time I went back to my apartment, ate something super quick, and grabbed some last minute things before my adventure. Now, I don't know how many have actually driven to Chicago from Omaha, but the drive really sucks. Normally I don't mind it too much because it is a good time for me think about things, clear my head, pray and listen to some sermons, and bust out to whatever music I want, but even with these things taken into consideration, the drive is still awful. ESPECIALLY the two-hour trek to Des Moines. For some reason, those first two hours are just the worst. They just drag on and on and on. Once I make it to Des Moines, it normally goes by pretty fast. Well, luckily my good friend Josh called me and stayed on the phone with me for 45-minutes on my way to Des Moines, but after that, things started going downhill...
In Des Moines, I stopped at a gas station for coffee #1. After I filled my car up with gas, I walked up to the station and outside was one of the employees smoking. I thought this man was going to cough up a lung... he was just coughing SO hard and it completely grossed me out, but I walked passed him and went inside. I got my coffee, a bottle of water, and went to the register to pay. The man walked inside once he realized I was waiting and began to ring my things up. Right before I handed him my money, he looks at me and says, "I'm sorry, I think I'm going to be sick..." and low-and-behold, he grabbed a trashcan and just lost it. Yep, he threw up in front of me. There was a sink nearby and I grabbed him some papertowels and water to clean up. After I made sure he was okay, I just handed him my $5 and told him to keep the change. I left, got back into my car, and was back on the interstate ready to face the remaining 6 hours of my trip home... and then 10 miles later, I realized I left my coffee at the gas station. GOSH DANG IT. This was going to be a long trip.
Here is a series of other events that occurred on my trip out:
- I hit a bat. Yep, I hit a bat. It flew right into my windshield and freaked the heck out of me. I have only hit on animal before with my car in my entire life, so I was a little traumatized.
- I had this ongoing fear that I was either going to get in a car accident involving two creepy semi-drivers who were stalking me, that I was going to be raped by a semi driver, or fear that my front two tries would fall off my car, I would fly through the window, and then get run over by my car and then my head would get run over by a semi. I don't know what it is about semis, but I obviously have an immense fear of them and their stereotypical handlers. I blame this entire fearful situation to Josh Laughlin.
- I was nervous I was going to hit a deer. There is an insane number of deer in Iowa, so driving at night and passing by numerous scenes of "deer splatterings" on the interstate, I was nervous something like that would happen to me. Obviously I am just living in fear.
- My iPod broke. That sucked. I went old school and just listened to a crapload of CD's. It was pretty great.
- I started getting SUPER giddy at about 3 in the morning... like just laughing to myself, singing super loud, and just going nuts. Pretty glad no one was there to witness it because I probably should be really embarrassed.
- I had a pretty awesome discussion with a FedEx truck driver when I got coffee #3 in DeKalb, Illinois. We were both waiting for the new pot of coffee to finish brewing an he looks down at my feet. He notices my tattoo and asks me what the scripture was. I told him what it was and he just kept asking me questions like why I decided to get it, why I got it in that specific spot, what those verses mean to me, etc. After telling me about this, he told me, "Well, I thought I was going to get a Bible verse tattoo too. You know, John 3:16." Then he started going on and on about how that verse talks about being a light in the world. I felt bad because that isn't at all what that verse talks about, but I just listened to him talk. He was a pretty funny and goofy guy. Interesting talk with him about faith and life.
I got home at 6 am... it's funny how I left Omaha just when the sun completely went down and I arrived in Chicago right after sunrise.
Then I slept till 2 pm.
NEVER doing that again.
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