I'm back from Chicago! I've celebrated this fact by not going into work today, instead spending the day sleeping and seeing Norm and going to the library and catching up on a really ridiculous and flattering amount of email. This has been really nice and relaxing, although logging in for the first time in a week brought with it its own set of things to fill my brain and make me feel less restful than I would have liked.

As I expected, I didn't write any actual entries in Chicago, but I did keep notes, in my head and a few on paper. Things that stood out to me during the whirlwind of family and heat and parties and walking.

1. The airplane ride was really painfully long, but I did a lot of reading. I did a lot of reading the entire trip, actually; thirteen books all told, from Wednesday night after finally packing until yesterday night when I got off the plane.
2. I quit being anxious (if that small word adequately describes the emotional morass I was carrying around) when I got off the plane in Chicago, made eye contact with Jim's father, and saw his face light up.
3. Jim's mom cooked, twice, and went to an enormous amount of trouble to keep things kosher for me -- even going so far as to make me a separate pan of the main course without milk in the sauce for the meat, and boiled potatoes since the mashed potatoes also had milk in them. This might have made me self-conscious, but she was so matter of fact about it I ended up feeling very nice and cared for instead.
4. It was hot. It was so hot. Friday it got up to 103 Farenheit, and the heat index was 120. I'd forgotten what summer heat was really like, and how it feels to step into a very dark night and be surrounded by heat and the heavy sweet smells of gardens and lawns.
5. There was brick everywhere. Brookfield (the town Jim grew up in, and where the brother (Billy) and wife (Kath) we were staying with live) reminds me of Enid, which is the smallish town in Oklahoma my father & stepmom live just outside of. Specifically it reminded me of the neighbourhood my grandmother lived (maybe still lives; we haven't spoken in about six years) in. Small brick houses, with lots of small rooms inside. It somehow smelled the same too, which made me nostalgic and slightly uneasy all at once.
6. LaGrange (the town Jim's parents live in when they're in Chicago) had beautiful, beautiful houses. We saw some briefly on the way to dinner Friday, and then drove around for about half an hour looking at them with Jim's mom on Tuesday.
7. I finally understand one of my favourite Rush songs. We spent Monday in downtown Chicago, taking the train in from Brookfield and then a long hot walk to the Art Institute. We saw minatures and a great display on the architects who've won the Pritzker Prize. Then we went up to the Seurat painting and met Mika, and there was much wandering around peering at Impressionists and Surrealists, although this was so blurred in with the conversations that I still don't feel like I saw any of it properly. Another long walk, across crowded downtown, to meet Sean & Steph and Judith for sushi. After sushi more walking, ending up at an upscale Irish pub place, where I had absolutely fantastic Bailey's Irish Cream cheesecake. Conversation, conversation, and we finally caught a cab to the train station and next thing I knew we were back in Brookfield, walking through the quiet streets in soft night air back to Billy's place -- and I got the song, deep in my bones like I never really had before. The contrast between the noisy hot downtown night, with neon and crowds and cars, and the still almost perfect silence of Brookfield -- that was Subdivisions.
8. I've always known Sean & Steph were cool people who seemed fun to hang out with. I now know that they're even more fun to be with when I'm actually present.
9. I went to my step-sister Ann's baby shower and hung out by the lake, eating and talking with people. Afterwards we (me, Jim, my father, my stepmom Mary, Ann, Ann's husband Adam, their friend Dana) went to dinner. I had a really good time for all of it, much to my surprise, and have reached the tentative conclusion that this part of my family doesn't suck. It's a weird realisation, but a very nice one. I'm trying hard to be sensible and withhold final judgement until I've spent more time around them with my new suckage-detecting abilities active.
10. I had fun. Enough fun that I'm actually looking forward to visiting again in December.

Most of the books I read on my trip were pretty forgettable, but I did read four books by Laurie King and enjoyed them all really, really much. A Grave Talent and A Monstruous Regiment of Women were the two best; the first is her modern-day detective who lives in San Francisco, and the second was another Holmes one, following tightly up on The Beekeeper's Apprentice. They were both excellent in their own ways; A Grave Talent had a good mystery as well as some beautiful character stuff about art and the price of seeing too much, while Monstrous Regiment was almost all character, with a nice dose of theology and feminism. Good stuff.