Back to the land of the rain and gray...

Okay, so it's a bad take on a Led Zeppelin lyric, but it's true. We're back. It's rainy, it's gray, and we LOVE it!

Southern Illinois is a veritable hotbed of pollen and other allergens at this time of year, so both Jerome and I were struggling to not end up with sinus problems during our trip. As soon as we were in Minneapolis, Jerome said he could breathe again. My sinuses are still trying to get rid of all of the gunk from Illinois, but I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed being back in the damp air of Seattle when we walked into the parking garage last night. :)

The trip went very well, though. We got into St. Louis on Wednesday night and spent some time with my mom and her cat. Thursday, we made the drive down to Carbondale, got to have New Kahala again, and got to catch up with our friends at the rehearsal and dinner, and then play Rock Band with them till the wee hours of the morning.

We didn't do much of anything on Friday, except play Bang! with most of the same group of people, while we tried to avoid the insanity that is Halloween in Carbondale. No riots, as far as I know, though I did hear snippets of a story of 200 people in drag outside of Bryan and Vanessa's neighbor's apartment, I suspect after the bars closed.

Saturday was the longest day ever, with the whole getting up around 6:30 and not getting back to the house until after 1 a.m. Well, we were back for a bit in the afternoon, but it wasn't a particularly long stretch of time. I actually slept for about 4 hours at game, and still went back to the house and slept about 10 hours that night. But the wedding was lovely, the reception was fun, and the portions of game I was awake for were great. :)

Sunday was mostly spent sleeping, and then shopping, and then eating. Cindy had asked Thor to make egg rolls, and I asked Jerome to make stir fry. Because there are vegetarians in our midst down there, this entailed making a bit more food than originally anticipated, so they could eat with us. But it was all thoroughly delicious, and we're already planning meals for when we visit at Christmas. I've been tapped to make my spaghetti sauce, one version with meat and one without. :)

Monday was up relatively early, and then on the road to return home. We had a fun little bit when the road I wanted to take was closed, so we had to take a detour. I was convinced, however, that I knew this area well enough, so we took our own detour off of the detour, and eventually got back to the road we wanted to be on. :) The flight from Minneapolis to Seattle was exceptionally bumpy, but we got back safely, got a cab, and were whisked home FAR faster than the bus could have gotten us there. Totally worth the extra money for the cab. :)

So now I'm back at work, and it's election day. We're headed to the polls after I get off work, then dinner, and then buying groceries, as we have nothing to eat at home. Jerome decided that he needed today off work too, so he gets to take care of all of the laundry. Hopefully we'll be all back to normal by the weekend, just in time for me to run off to Kansas for a week. Whee!