-- Frank Sinatra, "My Kind of Town"
--
Let's start now and work backwards.
--
In Chi-Town. Glad to be back.
Sitting by a twelfth-story window whose screen ripples and bulges with the gusts of wind coming off the lake, which is turquoise and perfect just hundreds of feet away. This apartment belongs to my friends Matt and Missy and their cat Max. Earlier Matt and I walked to an Ethiopian coffee shop a few blocks north and the wind blew over an umbrella and table.
Tonight, we're seeing a show at Second City. Before that, dinner with friends Betsy and Maggie. It's always good to be in Chicago.
--
Yesterday, Zach and I met with Maria and Little Matt in Lansing. It was raining but we walked to a restaurant a few blocks from campus. We bantered and it was like nothing had changed. Little Matt gave me a Grace Potter CD, which I'm looking forward to hearing. Zach and I stopped at a gas station, reflected, and diverged.
The drive to Chicago, as always, was a tollful. Got to Matt and Missy's at the late dinner hour, had a spectacular bacon cheeseburger pizza.
--
Two full days in Ann Arbor. Went to liturgy on Sunday with Erin at a monastery in a beautiful woodsy spot north of Jackson. There was a gourmet feast after, and Erin and I followed up with some coffee and a drive.
Also saw Get Low with Zach and Heidi. Good film. We wanted to see The Extra Man, which looks absolutely delightful. Grabbed late-night quesadillas and watched the drunk college students begin their semester. Were handed coupons for @Burger, got free fries and drinks. Went to the original Borders, where I bought a copy of White Noise, so I can finish it. In another store, picked up His Dark Materials (in pristine paperback) and Acting Professionally, by Robert Cohen.
Been shedding possessions as I go, too: a shirt, some food, papers, whole bags of things. It becomes easier and easier to see out the rear windows as the pile diminishes.
--
The days in Hillsdale were good ones. It is like Chicago for me in that way, a place where good days happen.
--
And last, the first night, before Hillsdale. Met with Matt B. in Ashland at a place with landscape menus.
From there, I continued north and had to stop three times for naps, quick spurts of rest in travel plaza parking lots. Drove for ten minutes, slept for twenty, drove another twenty, slept for thirty. Sometime between three and four, I stopped someplace and didn't wake up for three hours. Made it to Hillsdale that morning just in time for a shower in the basement of the Sage Center and a guest lecture.
--
And now, having just watched the latest episode of "Mad Men," we are off to catch a train to a place near Second City. Hello, Chicago.
