10:15pm in Madison, Wisconsin where it was amazingly warm (over 60 degrees) when I arrived shortly after 6:30pm...one weird sight I won't forget soon: in spite of the warm temperatures and clear skies, all the lakes we flew over on the approach to the airport were still frozen!
Getting to the hotel was a trip since I really didn't know where I was going and the directions given over the phone made some sense but I was so tired I forgot the last half of them and so I called again when I made it to the mall that the hotel is named after, figuring it had to be close...and it was, but I was so glad I was able to drive around before it got dark; THAT would have substantially increased the degree of difficulty.
Going to dinner was made charming by two events: a huge family leaving the restaurant and marveling at the fact that it was still so warm out (I had packed my coat in my suitcase and decided to leave it there for now; it was that warm!)...everybody had taken no chances and brought along their heavy coats, and the infants were decked out in multiple layers, so much so that they didn't move much, or couldn't.
And then my waitress was a charming young lady named Amy who prefaced every question with 'sir' this or 'sir' that, and when I told her she didn't need to be that formal, she explained it as simply a habit, and not really a bad one these days. Anyhow, we had a natural banter going that was enhanced by a busboy joining in the fun...we fist bumped (all three of us) and it made the dinner a little happier and a little less lonely than it otherwise would have been.
I am SO ready to have my sinuses behave...I've gone through more kleenex than I've ever used on the road before!
Thank goodness for familiar things: music playing in the background, books on this and the iTouch, my little bronze horse from The Black Stallion, a crystal prism from a long-closed store in Savannah when I helped Nathan settle in that freshman year, already 9 years ago...amazing.
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