red wheel no. 2.

got in safely to chicago.

i didn't sleep at all last night, but i was very glad to get to the airport and make it through baggage check and security with absolutely no problems at all. the last time i made this trip my airport experience was absolutely miserable. darned TSA.

anyway. my lovely amazing boyfriend picked me up and we went out to breakfast, then we headed over to his studio located at willow creek to potentially record some piano tracks. unfortunately, after walking around that GIANT MASS of a building for what was probably about an hour and a half or more we could not find a sufficient acoustic piano that was in tune. so we scratched the whole plan and decided to head home.

i've been deprived of my daily smokes for a few days now, which doesn't bother me all that much but i do have a hankering for one now and then. so we stopped at a gas station, picked up a pack of marlboro 27s and took a short detour to find a place to have a squiz (squiz being phil's word for smoking).

we found a little industrial railroad area that had a parking garage, and by one side of the area was a little alley where we finally camped out for a few minutes to indulge in our addiction.

kind of cool, eh? i insisted on the two of us taking a picture by one of the big red wheels to document our little rendezvous.

there's the gorgeous man himself, and of course he and i together with red wheel no. 2.

we headed home, watched food network (we are both big, big food network fans..giada is my faves!!), and eventually we went out to dinner with his family to a quaint but cute authentic mexican restaurant.

a little later we were blessed with an absolutely gorgeous sunset on our short errand to get some starbucks coffee, then we came back, did a little of this and a little of that, and that was our evening.

minus our extreme tiredness very early in the evening, today was a fun day. it's really nice to be with phil again, and the rush of seeing him for the first time since early april is incredible.

i am now on a relentless search to find an apartment in the suburbs, so i can move away from the dreaded east coast and be closer to my love, friends, a great church, and a large network of people that i cannot find anywhere else. tomorrow will hopefully bring more exciting news for the future. and otherwise, i will really just enjoy having some kind of social life even if it's just for a few days, making some good memories, and spending quality time with the man i love.

i'm exhausted. time for bed. :)