Love Thursday: July

I'm going home. For six glorious days next month, Moose and I will be out at my friends Chris and Justin's new home (their first!). I can't wait to do so many things, like:

• See Chris and Justin's adorable baby girl, who has gotten so huge since I've been gone
• Get hotdogs at Portillo's. There are no good hot dogs here. They GRILL them here. And put ketchup on them. (Mon horreur!)
• Visit my old church, and take Moose to see Timif and Petor, who he talks about all the time and misses as much as I do (maybe more)
• Eat deep dish pizza, drowning in cheese for maximum artery-clogging goodness
• Maybe see my cousins, especially Tracy who will have a new baby by then
• Go back to Portillo's or maybe Al's for an Italian beef. Dipped. Oh, goodness I'm drooling...

I just can't wait. It's going to be like waiting for Christmas. I can see the skyline already, as we descend into the city. We'll be arriving at night. I can already see the lights, and it's beautiful. Home. Oh, home. I miss you.

And when when we get back here to the Land of Mary, we'll have two days to do laundry and then we pack it all up again to head to the beach house for a week.

Then, before I know it, July will be over and it will be August and I will have survived one more long month since leaving everyone I've ever known behind in the Land of Lincoln. July is gonna be a cakewalk for me! Oh boy, do I ever love July*.

And then all I have to do is make it through August and most of September, and then it will be time for our Annual Big Vacation. We're going out to California to visit Disneyland and see my friend Michelle for her biiiiiiig birthday fiesta celebration. Moose is gonna be such a well-seasoned traveler by the end of the year. I even signed him up for his own frequent flyer number. I figured I gotta buy him a ticket so he might as well earn the points, right?

* And I love Mr. Felicia too, for being awesome and working hard so we can afford all these fun travel opportunities. And for being all "yeah I can survive just fine for a whole week without you" when I know he will be cryin' himself to sleep on his huge pilla every night without me, and won't know what to eat because I'm not around to feed him, and will probably forget to take his vitamins every day because I'm not there to put them in his hand. He's sweet. And generous. And compassionate about how much I miss my friends and my cousins and my hometown. When I proposed being gone for a week while he stays behind to work, he was all "Sure, baby. Go home for a week without me. That's way better than the bottle of wine you drink every night by yourself because you're sad and lonely. Airfare is cheaper than rehab." Well, he didn't actually say that, but I'm pretty sure he thought it. *shame* Anyways, I'm so excited that I'm actually going to fix him a nice dinner tonight to say thanks! I'm not such a prissy prissy princess that I'd ask for plane tickets AND dinner out all in the same day**.









**He can take me to dinner tomorrow.