Lesson of the Day
Depression
Rely on God, he’ll help scratch out the de and i, so you can Depression.
Chicago, Day 4
Also not exactly a day, but we’re still on our journey on the megabus. It’s well past 12 and I don’t think anyone has gotten any sleep. Those people are inappropriately loud. I even asked them to be quiet myself, which worked for about 15 minutes. We could al tell the adults on the trip were quite annoyed. We stopped in Effingham, IL. I got a pie, yum. The bus driver, who is very happy to be awake at 2 am for some reason called me precious. That continued to be my nickname from him for the remainder of the trip. When we got back on the bus and started to leave, the bus driver came over the intercom saying “dear passengers, we ask you kindly to keep enjoying yourselves, but many other passengers need to sleep on this night trip. So please tone down your conversations to just your neighborhood.’ The loud people responded, ‘so you mean us?’ The driver responded, ‘yes.’ This helped out so much, they finally went to sleep. I’m not sure who all noticed this, but somewhere in between Effington and Charleston one of the other black ladies on he other side of the bus, one of the quiet ones, pulled out a chicken wing and started noming down on it. I was flabbergasted. Do all black people keep chicken wings in their bags and purses? I just don’t know what to think about that, so I went to sleep. About 15-20 miles outside of Charleston the bus driver started swerving, which woke me up. Laquita was still awake. I don’t think she sleeps well in buses. A few minutes later he ran into a concrete guardrail. This woke everyone up. I called my dad to have him pick me up at Boomland. I decided just getting picked up in Charleston, which was 10 minutes away from my house, would be faster and a lot easier on me than going to Memphis, Henderson, and then drive back to Sikeston myself that day. I had to go to Sikeston that weekend because I had work Saturday and had to get my fridge to bring back to Henderson again. We got to Charleston, and this is where my Chicago adventure ended.
On another note, I made crepes for breakfast that morning. A meal worth 9.99 in Chicago made for maybe 3 dollars in my own kitchen.
Chicago, Day 3
Oh, well hello there Krista… again. How nice to find you on top of me… again. Maybe we wrestle in our sleep and I always loose. I’m not sure. Today’s our free day in the big city. The only set plan I have is to go to Yolks again for breakfast. I could totally be a regular there. Afterwards we headed to Walgreens to get Kaleb and Krista their first transit passes and to get a second pass for Stephanie and I, but we wouldn’t activate them until our first ones expired at 5:30 pm. While at Walgreens I bought a striped multi-color fleece blanked, which little did I know then, would soon be the best four dollar investment I made on the whole trip. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to check out and put our luggage into storage. On the way we ran back into our hey come on give me a kiss guy. I don’t remember if I mentioned him before. But he was definitely a character. He would ask everyone who passed by to give him a kiss, and he was there in the same spot every day, right outside of Yolk’s. When we passed by today he did his normal plea/be, but then he noticed Kaleb had a three females to one male ratio. He said, “oh you’ve sure got a lot of meat with you. 63 years and I still can’t get some” or something to that effect. Well duh, you’re a needy beggar, not to mention rude. Girls aren’t pieces of meat up for the taking. This isn’t human trafficking we’re talking about. After checkout the group split up, Rachel going off on her own to meet an old English teacher…? Who knows, I hope she makes it back to the megabus on time. Stephanie went out exploring the city, but we still ran into her many times. I hope Barbara and Laquita are still alive, I haven’t seen them since the Art Institute on Tuesday. Kaleb, Krista and I started our adventure off first at Millennium Park. I loved it. People watching there was so much better than at a mall. So many people went up to Cloud Gate and did stupid looking things. They may have looked cool in the reflection, but it looked painful from afar. We enjoyed a few songs of a symphony, and then went over the BP Bridge, which I called the mirror bridge. It was a swervy bridge that went across the interstate that had mirror like metal pieces all down the sides of it. It turns out that it’s structured that way to keep the loud sounds from the interstate out of the park. Once we got to the other side we could see Lake Michigan, which it was so large it looked like an ocean. So I figured out we had to get over to state street to catch bus 146 to get to the Aquarium, this wasn’t too far away and was located conveniently outside a Disney store. The bus came pretty quickly, but was already crowded when we got on it. We all had to stand for about four stops, then two seats freed up, I grabbed them quickly for Krista and myself. We got off at what I like to call the “let’s go learn stuff peninsula.” This peninsula has the aquarium, planetarium, a museum, and a few more smaller educational buildings. Once we made it to the front of the aquarium we were greeted by a half-mile long line waiting to get in. Totally not worth waiting to get into that aquarium. It would have been at least an hour in line. So instead we went over to 12 Beach Street. Lying under a tree in the grass watching the waves roll in, and watching the sea gulls fly by. That was just a perfect moment. The cool lake wind hitting our faces was just the refreshment we needed. Then we all shared a muffin I had stowed away from breakfast. After an hour or so of relaxation it was time to continue with our day. Next stop, Chinatown for lunch. The red line subway ride there was the best ride yet. It was down hill the whole way that made it so fast, oh man it was like a roller coaster, I loved it. Once we got to Chinatown we ate lunch at a teahouse. Kaleb and Krista got two lunch specials, which came with hot and spicy soup and hot lotus tea, both of which were amazing by the way. I got a double chocolate pineapple sorbie, which was very strange, but surprisingly delicious after the first two sips. We moseyed around for a while and found ourselves in a mall. After checking out a few shops, which had really cool video game knick-knacks, we found a natural remedy and tea store. I got mango tealeaves and Krista got Lotus. Kaleb couldn’t stand the smell though; he had to get out of that places a.s.a.p. So back to the subway we went, which wasn’t anywhere near as fun nor fast going back up hill as it was coming down. Back up to the magnificent mile we went. By this point in time (ten minutes underground) Kaleb and Krista are completely turned around. So as usual, I led the way back over to Michigan Ave. On the way we passed a place called marbles, which was a shop full of mind puzzling games. We played in there for probably 45 minutes. A few of the games I’ve played before, but some of them I had never seen. Everything was going great until Krista got a nosebleed and bled all over her shirt. Now that she looked like she murdered someone we decided that she should probably go get another shirt, so off to the Disney store we went. Krista got a Whinny the Pooh shirt and we left o get dinner. T.G.I. Fridays again, no complaints by me. We didn’t get Jacob this time; we had Chris instead, but whatever. There was this guy who seemed to have the job of serving desserts and serving lemons. I thought he was drunk at first, but no. That was his personality. Every time he had a lemon to serve he would get a lemon in some tongs, then would pretend he was an airplane with the lemon tongs, kind of like feeding a baby, how you pretend the spoon is an airplane. A check and a couple buses later we were back at the hotel ready to check out again.
No one listens to Kaleb or I. we knew that we had to take bus 7 to go to Union Station. Barbara and Laquita were like, no we’ll take this one. So we took that one, I sat in the floor. We then got off somewhere outside a Dunkin’ Donuts, which really doesn’t narrow anything down, there has got to be over 100 Dunkin’ Donuts in Chicago. We then waited and waited and oh look, bus 7. Hmmmm… Yeah, you should have listened, no bus cramming, floor sitting, catch another busing nonsense. Just listen to the people who have a bus schedule. Oh well, we got there regardless. So we wait. We got there around eight or so; the bus was scheduled to get there at 10:15. We took a quick trip down to CVS, which wound up to have closed at 8. What kind of CVS closes at 8 anyway? While crossing the street some business man asked us for directions, we’ve been mistaken for Chicagoans so many times now. Megabuses came and went, 45 minutes before ours was scheduled to come people started congregating along the sidewalk. I gave one last attempt at seeing Ed this week. Thankfully he happened to be 10 minutes away on the blue line. He came over a few minutes later and we caught up. But then, too soon, the bus came 15 minutes early. We took a picture together and went our separate ways. Ed’s been one of my best friends for years; it was so good getting to see him again. From then on, mass chaos formed, this bus was very strict about the one piece of luggage and one carry on per person rule. You couldn’t take someone’s luggage for them; they had to take it themselves. Thankfully everyone except for Brian got to sit on the lower deck this time. It was SO much more comfortable. We were around people we knew, there were only 24 seats, so 23 people and one infant was there. Even though the black people in the front were obnoxiously loud for many many hours, I would still take it over sitting upstairs with a possible drug dealer any day.
Chicago, Day 2
Oh, well hello there Krista. How nice to wake up with you on top of me. Either her unconscious mind misses living with me, or she was having more crazy dreams from reading murder mystery novels. Likely both. After editing some of yesterday’s pictures it was time to start our second day in the city. All of the students followed me on an expedition to Yolk’s. They had crepes, and that is the soul reason I brought them there. Stephanie and I love crepes. She got a peach cobbler crepe; Krista and I got classic crepes with powdered sugar. Kaleb played it safe and got something American. Rachel had a massive meal. It was half of a pineapple scooped out with watermelon, strawberries, pineapples, blueberries, granola, and yogurt inside. It was a work of art. The only down sides to yolk were the wait for the food and the slightly high prices.
After getting back to the hotel and trying to get on the bus to take us to the magnificent mile, we found out ‘oh, well this bus fits about 11 or 12 people, there’s 6 of us and a family already on. Well good. So we went gallery exploring. A lot of them were closed, but a few were open. There was one in this guy’s apartment that was a bunch of paintings with house paint in lines and patterns. They were really cool. The lines were so small and so straight, but you could tell he didn’t use any tape on it. It was almost trippy looking, but really cool. Then we went to this salad shop restaurant. I was stuffed and had leftovers for less than 2 dollars.
We then went to the John Hancock Building. Up on the twenty-fifth floor there were a few galleries open. One had Robert Indiana’s LOVE stuff. As if I hadn’t seen enough of that in Indianapolis, but it’s all good, I had no problem looking at it again. I’ve always liked his work. Then another had random peoples work, but that room had an AMAZING view of the lake. To get up to the twenty-fifth floor we had to take the world’s fastest elevator. It didn’t actually have that award, but it could surely compete. Once we got done with that building we went to the Fine Arts building. Their elevator actually had an award. The Chicago Reader awarded them the “Chicago’s Best Elevator Award” for 2011. It was pretty nice. It was one of the old fashioned ones where a liftman had to be on duty to pull the lever up or push the lever down depending on which floor the riders needed to be on. Really old, also didn’t have the normal elevator closing doors, each level had a gate that locked shut, then when you rode up and down the elevator you could see the concrete in-between the floors and see whatever was directly outside of the doors on each floor. That night Rachel, Stephanie and I ventured off into the city. By ventured off, I mean we got transit passes, hopped on the subway then realized the stops were named by the name that that area of town had been given, not by street names. This proved to be a problem when we realized “oh, hmm… we’re underground. We can’t see where we’re at and our phones don’t get signal, so we can’t tell where we’re at. Well, we’re going pretty fast, but we need to go pretty far, let’s just get off here.” I thankfully made a good decision there; we had just passed where we needed to be. After a quick adventure back, we made it to the magnificent mile. So many stores, but sadly, most of them closed at 8. So after we ate at T.G.I. Friday’s most places had already closed. I had the Friday’s shrimp with Oreo Madness 2 for 10 deal. Both of which were delicious. The Oreo madness was also one of the more beautiful pieces of food I got to admire and/or consume. Our waiter was Jacob W. He was really nice. Then we wandered around trying to see what stores we might find open. Disney store was closed sadly, but Forever 21 was still open, so we browsed through there, and I got a shirt. Another bus adventure back to the hotel a few phone calls, and a shower later, it was time for bed. Good night for the second and last time Chicago.
Chicago, Day 1
We finally got to Chicago a little after 10. That was an eleven-hour bus ride. I didn’t like that at all. Maybe if we all sat together it’d be okay. Food time, KFC. Everyone else except for Brian, who went to subway, went to Dunkin Donuts. There is nothing substantial offered at Dunkin’ Donuts. We didn’t get to eat breakfast this morning so I was quite famished. Now we just have to meet up with the rest of the group and head on over to the Art Institute.
The Art Institute was fun, lots of famous paintings and sculptures that Id didn’t expect to be there. I also recognized a few from seeing in Indianapolis. But, my back hurt so bad from the excessively long bus ride here I don’t think I enjoyed it nearly as much as I would have if I were nonpained. Afterwards, Krista, Kaleb, Stephanie and I went to Lou Malnatis, a pizza place near our hotel that has really good Chicago style deep-dished pizza. Our group ordered two small pizzas to share. That would give everyone one half of a pizza of their choice. I only got through one slice, and barely at that. I had to take the rest of the pizza back to the hotel; I’ll eat it later tonight once I find a microwave. We all chilled out a while, checked out the pool, and the deck on top of the lobby/restaurant. We just barely missed sunset, but dusk was just as pretty, watching the sky change colors slowly to black behind what portion of the Chicago skyline we could see. After 9 or 10 we decided it was time for showers and bed. But, we ran into a situation. Krista tried to take a shower and noticed, ‘oh… well… we don’t have a shower curtain. Well that’s unfortunate.’ Rachel went and told management. Ends up someone stole it, which would be a lot of effort for a shower curtain that isn’t even fancy or pretty. Within the hour we got a new shower curtain. They had to take the entire bar of the wall to put the new one on, which means the thefts had to take the bar off the wall, steal the curtain, then put the bar back up. Good night, Chicago.
Chicago, Day 0
Today’s not really a day in Chicago, but it’s when we started off on our adventure. 8-8-11 at 8pm-ish we left good ole Hendo to head over to Memphis. Easy, slept almost the whole two hours. Played Kaleb in a paperless game of tic-tac-toe and lost epically. I didn’t think he’d tac there. We started off our Memphis adventure by getting lost. Found out we were quite literally across the street from the North Station. There I met more interestingly drunk/high black people in one area than I think I ever have in any one given area. Then it rained. I like the rain. Once the bus finally got there, Kaleb and I started singing church songs like we used to during our freshman year ever Wednesday night after church. Laquita laughed and smiled at us, Krista told us to hush, but then Rachel joined in for a few songs. Kaleb and I once created kindly a remix of “There is A God” into its country version, “There Be A God.” This attracted a student from Memphis University. He asked us if we were in college, and quickly was excited to learn that we were a group of (mainly) art majors. He is an art major emphasizing in graphic design. We were quickly separated on the bus though by inconsiderate people who wouldn’t move their bags for us, they later had to because they were the only seats on the bus left open, but I digress. Our class is now pretty well completely separated. I don’t understand why people who are traveling either alone or in groups of odd numbers don’t sit with someone who is already in a seat. It makes it so much better for groups later down the line. I found a seat by the back stair well on the upper deck next to a guy in a jumpsuit. His jump suit didn’t match. The suit itself was brown, but his jacket was black. We quickly bonded. He agrees and will openly express how much he dislikes the inconsiderate people in the world, I told him I blamed it on their parenting, and he wouldn’t even get started on that conversation. It probably would have lasted us until at Charleston, maybe even Mounds. It also turns out that he has property in Henderson and Jackson, which really surprised me that someone knew where dinky Henderson is. Once we stopped at Charleston, which I was bitter about, it is 15 minutes away from my house, we all got some food, Stephanie got a blanket which she clung to proudfuly. After that twenty minutes had passed we all got back on the bus for another two-hour journey until our next stop. Oh, I forgot to mention my seat buddy’s nephew and I assume son, friend, or nephew as well. They’re annoying. About an hour or two into the trip they pull our chicken wings and eat them. Chicken. Wings. They have yet to stop talking and keep putting their feet and knees on my chair making it really uncomfortable. Any who, after the pit stop they got back on the bus and smelled like they had just smoked weed for an hour in a small-enclosed space. They still smell like they smoked weed in a small-enclosed space for hours. That kindly makes me wonder why this guy has a lot of property in random places, I mean, Henderson of all places. I suspect I’m sitting with a felon, but I could be wrong. He’s nice and I’m not going to judge. After their super happy weed kick wore off a little the boys got into a heated God debate. The younger boy went to JCCS, the older one I had no idea why he was there but he apparently knew the younger one. The older one said, ‘now check it out, check it out… I don’t believe in going to church. You know why? Because I know of a pastor who owns six churches. Every church donates money, but he doesn’t give it to charity or anything good, he just keeps it himself. So I don’t go to church. I just believe in karma. If you’re good to other people, then good things will happen to you. For example, I had my computer stolen, but I was still nice, and then I got a stolen x-box. I mean, I didn’t steal it; a friend stole it and gave it to me, so that makes it okay because I didn’t steal it. That is how karma works.” Krista, who was a row behind them on the other side, got to enjoy this rather loud conversation too. We both disagree with their philosophy of all pastors steal all of the church contribution, that karma exists instead of God, and that having a stolen object is okay as long as you didn’t steal it yourself. Oh bus ride, you’re going to be a long one.
Learn (almost) anything you need to know on youtube
How to print your own T-shirt: http://bit.ly/159Hpi
How to speed read: http://bit.ly/2FRRi
How to look like @ladygaga: http://bit.ly/Rb9pv
How to tie a tie: http://bit.ly/JXHZo
How to make fresh pasta: http://bit.ly/TeKAS
How to make fire without matches or a lighter: http://bit.ly/pSyZw
How to open a beer with a pen: http://bit.ly/2usCi1
How to knit: http://bit.ly/16oQBg
How to cut your own bangs: http://bit.ly/Ib3pq
How to make ice cream in a bag (preschool edition): http://bit.ly/X8s65
How to do a banana kick: http://bit.ly/1JJT0f
How to count to 20 in Japanese: http://bit.ly/4gCv3q
How to peel a melon: http://bit.ly/BmXlB
How to get better mileage: http://bit.ly/2zdzm
How to create perfect red lips: http://bit.ly/15sezH
How to escape from handcuffs: http://bit.ly/jHQPr
How to flirt like a pro: http://bit.ly/2Rv5Zm
How to surf: http://bit.ly/Ga8Dk
How to train your dog to stay: http://bit.ly/xJWUb
How to make a bacon-infused cocktail: http://bit.ly/mameg
How to build your self confidence: http://bit.ly/dwZpZ
How to beat writer’s block: http://bit.ly/3x5kek
How to be funny on a first date: http://bit.ly/m8Dvx
How to be a DJ: http://bit.ly/cfEj4
How to make mac & cheese, mmm: http://bit.ly/Ov8tC
How to use gel liner: http://bit.ly/TrMRD
How to give a presentation: http://bit.ly/12ny4U
How to make a how to video: http://bit.ly/6SKe8
How to do the Windmill: http://bit.ly/RdWO9
How to get watermelon nails: http://bit.ly/czp8n
How to shoot penalty kicks: http://bit.ly/5qREA
How to wrap a gift professionally: http://bit.ly/LhEpU
How to make your own bicycle crank: http://bit.ly/10fe45
How to make chicken biryani: http://bit.ly/4hqV9R
How to make wine: http://bit.ly/tdafs
How to draw a “realistic” manga face: http://bit.ly/108hUx
How to understand integrals: http://bit.ly/Bzc6B
How to look sharp for a job interview: http://bit.ly/hksI0
How to play violin - lesson one: http://bit.ly/2DnJDh
How to properly chop vegetables: http://bit.ly/1dq9I4
How to make a camisole in one minute: http://bit.ly/rLNCx
How to grow strawberries indoors: http://bit.ly/Mo5bz
How to shave: http://bit.ly/3kv7IE
How to crack a coconut: http://bit.ly/3XTfvw
How to buy a house: http://bit.ly/RSVng
How to make Rigatoni Carbonara: http://bit.ly/MsK57
How to make a BristleBot: http://bit.ly/unPlZ
How to do makeup for small eyes: http://bit.ly/1McfOw
How to make a custom beer pong table: http://bit.ly/1D5n2i
How to fuse plastic grocery bags into a reusable shopping bag: http://bit.ly/1eS6zf
How to fold a fitted sheet: http://bit.ly/4kxbJI
How to save money: http://bit.ly/3sd0u6
How to improve your memory: http://bit.ly/eCILa
How to sew a dress: http://bit.ly/13xkKx
How to backflip: http://bit.ly/1Awqto
How to curl hair: http://bit.ly/WpwdS
How to recycle beer bottles with limes: http://bit.ly/1z8yM8
How to hem pants: http://bit.ly/k7sW3
How to make a green screen: http://bit.ly/pPtJW
How to polish shoes: http://bit.ly/45dXNu
How to repair a bicycle puncture: http://bit.ly/ocqzX
How to make kimchi: http://bit.ly/3kFvLs
How to recycle used computers http://bit.ly/3SkN6a
How to make veggie sushi: http://bit.ly/oE6tZ
How to record better webcam videos: http://bit.ly/2rbn5E
How to speak French - meeting and greeting: http://bit.ly/OTfiU
How to make a “Where the Wild Things Are” Halloween costume: http://bit.ly/28qjv1
How to do yoga: http://bit.ly/1cGeeW
How to cook Cola BBQ pork chops: http://bit.ly/3eWonX
How to deliver a baby in an emergency: http://bit.ly/469fc5
How to melt away pounds: http://bit.ly/2BW8BE
How to wear different types of scarves: http://bit.ly/2sGH8s
How to Casper: http://bit.ly/1WwYHI
How to fold origami: http://bit.ly/1Q9T84
How to do self-defense when confronted with a gun: http://bit.ly/2l47Fz
How to make a camisole in one minute: http://bit.ly/rLNCx
How to make ramen noodles: http://bit.ly/16JKhC
How to care for a pet shark: http://bit.ly/1is544
How to apply fake eyelashes: http://bit.ly/2AvRV3
How to make a card: http://bit.ly/2M8YaO
How to make simple, delicious compound butters: http://bit.ly/Q2USo
How to dye your clothes: http://bit.ly/4nkbEZ
How to transform a boring school uniform: http://bit.ly/49P2I5
How to plant a vegetable garden in 30 minutes: http://bit.ly/1qdPEn
How to solder copper pipe: http://bit.ly/3Fsit2
How to make an upholstered headboard: http://bit.ly/iCh9a
How to dress appropriately (according to Tim Gunn): http://bit.ly/2Jjiux
How to make sage risotto (as taught by a kid): http://bit.ly/27jyEd
from happymeal.soup.io/post/54606863/what-can-you-learn-on-youtube
Side doors.
I’m currently at Horizons. Well, Horizons ended, so now I’m just at Freed. Last night was the last night to have campers in the dorms. I woke up every 5 minutes to BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP from the side door being opened past 12. The first night this happened it was campers sneaking out. This time it was because a lot of them got baptized.
Bittersweet at its finest.
