so i am officially home in chicago, as of 6:30 last night. my manager wasted no time in putting me back on the schedule, as you would have noted had you swung by my store at five o' freaking clock this morning. really, i can't complain, because i need the hours and morning shifts go by so much faster, but the thought of opening less than 12 hours after i arrived back in town from houston via nashville was more than daunting.

let me update you on the rest of my vacation.

i stayed with sarah again on tuesday night last week, which again, was such a treat. her parents are so great. we ended up playing a rather rousing game of mexican dominoes that night with her family and her friend Russ, who i accused on more than one occasion of hiding dominoes and other essential parts of the game in his pants. congrats to you, sarah, for winning.

on wednesday morning i woke up to accidentally find a lump on the side of my breast. it was the first time that i had ever found anything like that before, and as you can imagine, it was rather upsetting. i proceeded to spend the next hour and half thinking over and over and over again about all the what if's. what if i have cancer? what if they have to do surgery? etc. while at first it was scary to think about, i started coming to some conclusions. the first and foremost being that i'm not afraid of dying. not that i think that is what is happening (because i don't), but it seems like a good thing to get out of the way. i mean if you're not afraid of death, then you can keep everything else (that pales in comparison) in perspective. i think more than anything, i would be afraid of being sick. i would be afraid of losing my hair. i would be afraid of having scars. that sort of thing. and yet, all of those, if they don't end in death, are either temporary or easily remedied. i can get stronger. hair grows back. i can wear a wig. scars fade. not really that important. and, on top of all that, i realized that regardless of how long that lump has been there, the Lord knew about it before it ever came into existence. it wasn't a surprise to him, it hasn't gone undetected by him, and to me that means a lot. it means i don't have to worry. i think for now that's all i have to say about that. until tomorrow after my first appointment ever with the girly doctor.

on wednesday sarah and her new man friend chase watched monster, and then drove over to cypress to help chuck and amy unload and organize all of their metal chickens in their kitchen. in case you, the reader, were not aware, when you move into a new place, the most essential items that must be in place before anything else can be moved are metal chickens. and if you don't have them, well... you're screwed.

it was great to see chuck and amy again as well. we rarely talk much outside of visits, but we all keep up with each other's blogging and so it does feel as though we have invested more time into our relationships than may first meet the eye. very cool.

on thursday i left chuck and amy's house and went to the old starbucks that i worked at a few times last summer. i saw some familiar faces and enjoyed being on the other, less stressful side of frappuccino hell. i drove over to the mall to kill some time and i found a pair of jeans that actually fit, so i had to buy them even if they did set me back $70. fall is coming and i think every single last pair of pants or jeans that i have are too big. for the first time in my adult life i am (i think) a solid size 8. and i'm finding that i really like it. it's not a huge change, but everything looks just a bit more streamlined and feminine without looking like skin and bones. i'm just enjoying it while it's easy to maintain, because that probably won't be for long.

i stayed with lisa on thursday night, the woman i lived with last summer while i was in houston. we went out to dinner, then to visit her tennis buddies as they celebrated the 50-something birthday of a woman who would not stop talking about how much she wanted to go to a vein specialist to take care of the vericose and spider veins that she had. it got really annoying after awhile, because i mean really, how long can an intelligent conversation on vericose veins last? the last time i checked, it was about 4 seconds. then you just start sounding vain. no pun intended.

friday i putzed around, got my oil changed, and went to walmart to purchase needless items simply because they cost half as much as they would if i bought them in chicago. i left houston at 7:15 pm, then proceeded to drive to nashville, TN (via Louisana and Mississippi, two states i had never been in before) all through the night on no sleep whatsoever. i wasn't planning on doing it sans shut eye, but i just kept getting second winds and third winds and fourth winds. by the time i started winding down i was too pumped about getting to nashville to stop and nap. so i drank large amounts of caffeine instead.

i made it to nashville at about 9:30 am the next morning, hung out with stephen for an hour or so, then crashed and slept for four hours. that night we went to napoleon dynamite, a movie which i DEMAND that everyone must see, and we drove around downtown nashville. i stayed with one of the coolest couples i have ever met while i was there, and i got to spend some good quality time with my dear friend stephen who, like his name would indicate, is very nearly an exact replica of me in a guy's body. quite funny. we parted ways the next morning and i headed back to chicago, not sure if i was happy or sad to be back.

more on that later. also, more on the aforementioned boy later. i know i promised juicy details in the contents of this post, but i lied. i need sleepy.