I've mostly finished reading for EnLit, so I'll try to add in some spring break adventures...
One more thing about Monday--we were watching the news on Monday night and we found out that President Bush had given a 48 hour deadline for Saddam Hussein and his sons to step down or else we would take military action. Everyone was pretty disgusted by this. We knew we would be at war in two days, and no one wanted that.
Tuesday: Slept in once more (yaaay) and went running early. We made plans for the day, figuring out that we could drive around the Michigan State campus and then downtown East Lansing until we had to go pick up Joan from work. Mark was our reluctant chauffeur in the '88 Dodge Caravan and showed us around. He took us to this ice cream place called Scoops where you could make your own sundae and then just pay for it by weight. I got a massive chocolate sundae with kiwi slices and gummi bears on top. It was awesome.
Aftering picking Joan up, we headed out to dinner with Mark's parents and Craig and Craig's girlfriend, Kristin, who was also visiting. The place we went is apparently a favorite of Mark's. It was half sports bar, half sit-down restaurant. It was a very good dinner, except there was a giant TV in one corner blasting CNN at us and all the talk about the war. After dinner we ended up watching All Dogs go to Heaven, which we concluded is NOT a children's movie, what with its scary depictions of Hell and whatnot. I stayed awake for this one, but was definitely ready for bed when it was over.
Wednesday: Joan left us money for brunch, so Mark and Craig decided us out-of-towners should be exposed to the delights of Sparty's, a short-order place where they apparently used to go all the time. I ordered one pancake on Mike's advice of the night before, and it turned out to be plenty--it was bigger than the plate, which was not small. It was a very, very good pancake...I ate almost all of it, except for bits of the fringe. Beat Hannah, even though she had eggs along with hers so it wasn't exactly a fair contest. Feeling very full, we left and hit the road for Chicago. Once again, I slept part of the time, but I also read some Aimee Bender and have decided the woman has the weirdest mind ever. But in a good way.
We reached Hannah's house pretty early, but after running and showers it was time for dinner, and then afterwards we watched American Idol, which Hannah's mother had taped for her. We also watched Donnie Darko, because Michelle hadn't seen it, and we decided that she should. Then we watched it with the audio commentary on with the director and Jake Gyllenhaal. I couldn't stay awake for the last of that, but apparently it didn't really explain what the hell the movie means so I didn't miss out on much. Although it was really funny. Zonkage ensued.
Thursday: After waking and eating, we all got our grades (B+, B+, A-, whew) through e-mail. The Trib headline shouted about how the war had started, about an hour and 15 minutes after Bush's deadline. We had bombed Baghdad. We had wanted to go to downtown Chicago for the day, but found out that protesters might be trying to shut down the city. Partly out of a somewhat naive desire to see the protests and what a city would be like during a crisis like this, we took the train. Union Station is really well situated in Chicago. Within walking distance was the Sears Tower as well as the lakefront. We also saw the big lions in front of the Art Institute. We walked around downtown and along the lake, all the way around the Planetarium and the Shedd Aquarium, which was really fun. Then it started to pour down rain. I didn't mind that so much..it was warm enough to be enjoyable rain. We got sorta lost on the way back, but found Union Station again and were safely back on the train to Westmont with no mishaps. After dinner we went to Oberweis and I swear I had the best ice cream ever. Rocky Road, mmmm. We then watched The Ice Storm and then it was definitely time for bed.
The final episode of the road trip still to come...
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