I'm back in Chicago after a make-shift long weekend trip back to Regina. For some reason there are some late-night flights back to Regina right now so I was able to work some long hours at work last week and then come home Thursday night. It was a great trip home because I am now a Silver Elite Worldperks member so I get upgraded to First Class all the time!
On Friday I went out for lunch with my buddy and ex-co-worker Mark and current co-worker Shelley. It was nice to visit with them since I hadn't seen them in many moons. Mark was also kind enough to leave me his coupon book for Hawaii for me to use on the honeymoon! After lunch I met up with Rob at Bonzzini's where I had some post-lunch coffee with him and his fiancée and picked up our wedding rings from him! If you haven't seen them, they are gorgeous! During the afternoon I went into work for a meeting with my manager and to do up expenses so that kept me busy.
Friday night I went to visit with my mom and have supper. Dad was out of town for all the funerals so the two of us went to Wendy's for a light meal. After supper I went to Brad's and met up with him and Blair. The three of us piled into my car and went to 20-44 where we met up with Tyler, Janson, and Zab. We decided to make our own pub crawl so we left for Bushwakker's where we met up with Mike and his g/f. We had some expensive beers from around the world and then later went to the The Crooked Cue for some less expensive beer and pool. It was a good night!
On Saturday I slept in a bit and then I went and picked up my mom to go shopping. We went to the Canteen at Depot where I found some reasonably priced and reasonably fashionable clothes. When we were done we went over to the museum, where I bought some souvenirs to give to my team members here in the USA. It also gave us a chance to sign the book of condolences. It was a pretty surreal experience - the sense of loss was palpable. I've been to Depot hundreds (if not, thousands) of times (I practically grew up there) and I've never felt anything like that before. The tragedy really could have happened to anyone and everyone there knew it. My mom confessed to me that there were many times that Dad didn't come home at night after a surveillance op, and just the thought runs shivers down my spine.
Saturday night me and and Marco went out on the town to celebrate almost two successful years of living together, even though later we calculated that while he's been living in my condo for 20 months I've probably only been there for maybe eight at the most! We went to The Diplomat and had a great meal. I had never been there before and was pretty impressed with the layout, although the portions were small and the service was super slow. Though it was pretty pricey, luckily my mom had given me a coupon so we saved a bunch of cash! Afterwards we passed on dessert and went to DQ instead, which was good eatin', as usual. It felt good to live the high-life for a few hours!
Today I slept in and bummed around the house for a few hours before Marco dropped me off at the airport. My flight was delayed coming into Chicago so it took a long time to get here, even though it was very comfortable sitting in First Class! I am heading to D.C. this weekend to visit with Nick, so I am looking forward to that. We are also going out as a team on Wednesday night to my favourite place in Chicago, Gator's, so that will be fun, too! I only have 9 more business days left before I leave on vacation for the wedding ... life is good, my friends.