Home Sweet Home

We made it home after a long day of driving. The longest part of the drive was the few miles from the Indiana state line to 720 W Waveland. We arrived right around rush hour and I had decided that my bladder could hold out and didn't take the opportunity for one last release at a McDonald's. That was a huge mistake. I thought I could feel my bladder actually ripping from the strain as we inched along Lake Shore Drive. I ran many options through my head including wadding up a box of tissues that Rance had in the car as a makeshift diaper, trying to maneuver myself over an empty Aquafina water bottle, or just feeling the sweet relief on the leather seats and worrying about cleaning up afterwards. In the end I was able to hold out though admittedly it was touch and go for awhile.

The best part of the drive bar far was the drive north up Main into Canada and through the Quebec province. It was breathtaking. One of the most beautiful drives I've ever encountered. Made even more charming by the signs in French. Huge sweeping valleys surrounded by picture perfect peaks. Every way we looked was surrounded by lush green fields and dotted with quaint old homes. We had the windows rolled down and the sunroof open, listening to French pop stations. For just a little while it felt like we were in Europe, I'm guessing at that, since we've never been to Europe.

Rance and I shared the driving, though I'm not sure how I ended up with both traffic jam situations. In Toronto during the evening rush hour and then again when we arrived back here in Chicago.

We stopped in Grandby, Quebec for our first night stay. We had somehow found the 82nd street (Portland)/Pulaski Ave (Chicago) of Grandby. Which is also home of the largest zoo in Quebec. Everywhere we went we were being persuaded to visit the zoo. Though the persuasion was strong we avoided that visit and just stayed the night in our hotel room that I'm sure had seen it's share of one night stands.

We went to dinner at a nice little corner restaurant/pub. Think Rock Bottom Brewery in France. We ate outside and watched couples, all smoking and drinking and laughing. Our waiter was a cutie patootie who always checked on us by walking by and giving us the "thumbs up" sign, which of course we all know is the American sign of "yeah, I'm doing good dude."

It felt strange to cross over into the Province of Ontario and instantly feel more at home with English signs and understandable clerks in stores. It was however, infinitely less charming. If Rance and I were to go back to ImprovAcadia we've already talked about going North through Canada again and taking some vacation in Montreal.

Speaking of which, if you're reading this and you're an improviser I cannot stress how great my experience was with Larrance and Jen and ImprovAcadia. I've made friends that I'll have for a lifetime, had experiences that I never would have imagined a year ago and had the opportunity to perform six nights a week!!

Looking back I realized there are several things that I haven't written about, so my next posting will be a rundown of the experiences I had that haven't yet made it to the blog.