Much Love

Hey, lovely ladies!

First of all, many thanks to our darling Mo for getting this up and running!

     For catching up: Amy and Mo, I'll leave you with a teaser of what went down Thursday night. Lis and Sai were out with their choir buds that evening, and my parents rolled in around eight. They were there for about an hour helping me get stuff out to the car, and then went back to their hotel in Naperville. Meaning that none of you met my parents. (Taylor decided that they don't actually exist.) Anyway, Lis and I were hanging out in her side of the suite when she got back; I was eating junk food and she was packing, and we BOTH were watching the guys over in Matt's room. Creepy much? I prefer lovingly observing. (Does that make it sound worse? Eh.) Anyways, Lisa sent a message to D-rek to see if they wanted to do anything on our last united night, and received a resounding YES. (Followed by some shouting from across the U.) We headed out to Fischer lawn with Saiboo's blanket, but it wasn't long before a black cat ran past and Derek dared Jeff to catch it for a dollar. ONE DOLLAR. And he agreed. So Jon and Jeff are running after this cat behind the SRC while Matt, Isaiah, Derek, Lisa and I are still chilling on the blanket. Then Matt gets a call on his mini phone and starts walking over there, so naturally Isaiah joins him. When they start running, Derek, Lisa and I decide that it's time to investigate. Who knows, maybe they actually caught the cat, right? Wrong. We get back in the dimly lit alley behind the SRC, realize that the guys are nowhere to be found, and then look up...to see Po Chip peering down at us from the roof. Yep, they were all on the roof. We then considered joining, but Lisa wasn't wearing proper footwear, I casually recalled a $500 fine for being on the roof, and Derek didn't want his phone to fall out of his pocket and break, so we stayed firmly planted on the ground.
     That was when I heard the car pull up in the parking lot. Public Safety had been mentioned a few times (aka I was lecturing about their imminent appearance) and now a van was parked down the alley. Derek and I casually meandered out of sight...but Lisa was standing right in the headlights, staring at the public safety officer (haha, oh how we love you Lisa--you did the right, non-sketchy thing!), so Derek and I casually walked back into the sight line and we tried to just walk away. But that sort of required walking right past the van, where the officer stood staring at us silently. As we started to pass him making awkward fleeting eye contact, he asked us what we were doing. Derek and I both gave non-committal 'nothing's, but Lisa came to the rescue with, "we were chasing a cat!" Naturally, I was fighting back laughter as he dismissed us. We went back to the blanket and watched as another van of PSOs pulled up and watched the roof. Many tactics for getting in contact with our roof friends were attempted, but in the end we just had a conversation about Morse code  and bacon. Good times...anyway, the guys came down, talked to public safety, and hopefully won't be fined for their shenanigans. (They're a little bitter towards whoever turned them in, though. Snitches get stitches.) Taylor then joined us and we did a late-night Denny's run, where D-rek got a free Grand Slam for his birthday! (Woot Woot Lisa making friends with the wait-staff Party!!) We said sad goodbyes to Taylor and Derek, and then went back for my last night in Suite 211-212 (insert tears, but not really).
      I left Wheaton on Friday, only to get stuck in Naperville at Ikea (pronounce it the Chris Anderson way in your head: ick-ee-ah) for over an hour with my parents. I'm pretty sure that they were debating throwing me and my belongings out of the car so that they could buy new furniture...but they thought better of it, and by four in the morning, I was back in the North Country (aka the US part of Canada). I may or may not have slept past 1 pm Saturday. It may or may not have been bliss. After church this morning (oh, how I miss College Church and even our newly dear Res!) I brunched at my favorite little bistro on the river, Bella's. Now I have the house all to my lonesome while my parents pick up Dad's motorcycle from the garage, so I'm relaxing in my new Wheaton duds with a cat on my lap and some steaming tea beside me. Ah, the relaxing summer life! (Lisa, I'll probably be blowing up balloons tomorrow for my Mom's 50th--she's old--and I'll miss your company!)
     I hope you are having a lovely time at home, girls! I love and miss you all!

Avery