Sweet Home, Chicago

Yesterday, I read 60 pages of a novel on the plane from New York to Chicago. I've been home for just over 24 hours. In less than six I will be traveling again, this time by car, this time 1400 miles, to visit my little Jewish grandmother in Florida. It will be WARM. It's significantly colder here than it was in New York. I already miss the feeling of being in the city, of having a countless million things to do and such a number of people to inevitably run into, even though I was home for four days at Thanksgiving. I think knowing mentally that this is an almost-five-week vacation as opposed to five days is taking its toll rather quickly. But I think of how fast the three weeks between Thanksgiving and now went, and know I will be back in the city soon. And, over the last year or two, I have come to appreciate being from Chicago. I like being able to call two cities home.

Snow fell today, thick and fast upon the streets so that if one went in somewhere and came out ten minutes later, the first set of footprints were gone. The night is soft and quiet and sparkling under streetlights and a cloudy sky that has turned the whole world sepia tones. Before dawn we will head east, losing an hour along the way, to spend the night in Atlanta. (Oh! The South!) My father is staying home for most of the trip to get some work done, so it will be just my mother and brother and myself. This will be the first road trip where my brother might do a decent amount of driving. (He's had his permit almost two years now but seems to be in no hurry to get his license.)

This will probably be the first time we have gone on a vacation since I started high school that I don't have any homework to do. Eventually, I will find out which of my proposed plays got approved and then get to work on preproduction dramaturgical research, but that may not be until after I get back from Florida, so presumably I have a responsibility-free couple of weeks coming up. The only thing stewing in my head is how to figure out what projects to work on, as everyone wants me to light design everything while I would prefer not to die.

I've been ruminating a lot on relationships, of late (well, as usual, but my alarm is set for about four hours from now and I suppose I should sleep. Perhaps an update tomorrow from Georgia.