Fodder

Well... it's just your average Thursday. But it's been a strange week. Because of the Jewish New Year, I had no students to teach in Deerfield on Tuesday. It worked out all right though, because I was actually needed downtown at the law firm to work on an urgent big project. So this week I went into the office on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the first time I've worked in an office for three straight days in... years.

Can't remember how long.

Additionally, on Monday I worked almost 12 hours on said urgent project, staying downtown until about 8:00 pm. Luckily, I have Friday off to go Lexington for Barret and Aoife's wedding. But the whole Monday-Wednesday thing made me appreciate my usual schedule of every other day in the office. Some people might not like the idea of one day downtown, one day teaching, etc., but I think I thrive on it. I think it keeps me on my toes and gives me some variation, so every day I'm using different parts of my brain and different skills. 

You can tell I was a Psych major for a semester, no?

Anyway, this whole upcoming weekend will be filled with Barret and Aoife's wedding. I'm really looking forward to it. Not only am I honored to be an usher, but I'm wearing a kilt. A kilt! Barret's wearing a kilt, and he asked the ushers if we would like to wear one too and I figured... how often does one get to wear a kilt? So I'll get my "If Jesus were Scottish" look on. And I won't be wearing underwear.

To boot, my whole family will be attending and the wedding, planned to the smallest detail by Aoife's mother, is going to be incredible. A fun weekend.

Speaking of fun weekends... last weekend, my wonderful wife surprised me with a belated anniversary trip up to Door County, Wisconsin. We stayed at a friend's cottage, located right on Sturgeon Bay. We had beautiful weather and nothing to do and it was fantastic. Friday night, we didn't leave Chicago until about 6:00 pm, so it was 10:00 pm when we arrived at our lodging. We couldn't see much of Sturgeon Bay (the town) in the dark, other than the gigantic ghostly ships which sit in the port, waiting to be repaired.

The cottage was perfect, and we high-tailed it down the road in search of food and some drink. We found both at a little roadside bar not even a mile away, and also found a jukebox with a lot of Earth Wind and Fire and a strangely intoxicated and horny clergyman. After sleeping in on Saturday, we drove up the coast about 40 minutes to have breakfast at a place called the White Gull Inn in (I think) a little town of 1500 called Egg Harbor. Or Fish Creek. Or Fish Harbor. Or something.

We had to wait about 40 minutes for a table, so we wandered the downtown area, finally settling in a bar for a bloody mary and a few minutes of the Wisconsin game. Breakfast was delicious, and we began to work our way back towards our cottage. Gina planned a couple of stops at wineries so we could live out our Sideways fantasy, and we also stopped in some of the small towns along the way. 

After buying an antique mirror for our living room, we finally made it back to the cottage. We sat on the lake, watching the sun set and drinking a bottle of wine we'd just purchased. It was one of those moments that strikes you as completely unrealistic, like you can't believe reality actually looks and feels like it does. It was amazing.

As my sister would say, nature has no sense of irony. After that, we headed into Sturgeon Bay for a great dinner at a place called Sage. More wine, more laughs. In the morning, we ate breakfast in town, and headed back to Chicago, this time staying off major highways in favor of the smaller county roads that hug the coast. It took us a little longer to get home, but it was a much more pleasant, interesting drive.

And we had ice cream. Mmmmm... ice cream.

The whole moment watching the sun set, drinking wine, listening to the lake... will no doubt rear it's head in song at some point. It was just one of those moments that deserves to be chronicled and... relived.

Let's hope I can do it justice.

jbg