A Summer Day (In Three Parts) . . .

Today was best divided into three parts, so I will treat each segment as it's own indiviual piece of the whole day.

PART I: TO SIX FLAGS AND BACK AGAIN.




I Woke up relatively early since Tim, Angela, and me had plans to go to Six Flags Great America. On the way we had a variety of side tracks. The first side track was stopping back at the High School to pick up some of our art projects that weren't graded by the last day of school. I didn't really want to go back in there, but I made a book in photo II that was very special to me. After we ventured into school, we got back on the road. Side track number two was a maze of U-turns and side streets in an attempt to make it to the opposite side of Rt 120. Once we finally got to a Citgo with a cheap gas price (if you call 2.53 cheap) we went in. This gas station was about as run down as the owner, but both made up for appearance in character. The owner was explaining to me that he was 105 years old, and I explained to him that I was just graduating high school. That simple conversation seemed to offer respect on both sides, and by the end of our short convo I felt like we had a pretty unbique connection for two people so seemingly different. Ok, back on the road for a good 45 minutes until we got sidetracked again. On Rt 132 we stopped for Potbelly's subs, but I soon realized that there was a new Noodles and Company (My place of employment) a few doors down. I then remembered that that new NoodCo was run by my manager's mother (who I know very well), so I figured I would stop in and say hello. I stopped and, and to my surprise, my current manager was also working in the NoodCo. Rob (my manager) gave me a quick tour, and we finally got back on the road. At that point we finally made it to Great America (it was about 12:30 at this point, a good 2.5 hours after we had initially left.)

Great America was your typical day at a theme park; rollercoasters, screaming, laughing, and quality time in line with friends.

The ride home was pretty interesting, though. You see, I have a remote control for my radio/CD player, so I thought I would play a little prank on Tim. I handed the remote to Angela in the back seat when Tim wasn't looking. The incident went something like this:

Me: Hey Tim, wanna see a magic trick?
Tim: Sure
Me (in a tone that would only be appropriate for a street magician): CD PLAYER . . . Track 15.
(at this point Angela changes the track to track 15).
Tim: What the heck?!?!

We kept this going for about 2 minutes before Tim tried to do it himself. When I informed him that the Cd player only responded to my voice the jig was up. the rest of the ride home was a bit more peaceful, on account of our slowly dying energy levels.


PART II: MCHENRY SKATE SHOOT.





After Tim and I had recovered from Six Flags, we picked up Max, Ethan, Chris, and a few of Tim's other skate buddies and headed back up to McHenry to shoot some skate shots. After getting politely excused from a few locations, we finally settled in at an elementary school with a nice double stair set. From there it was a typical skate shoot; lots of falling, profanity, and the underlying alarm of constantly being on the lookout for cops. We didn't stay long though, because we had to catch Pirates 3 at the Drive-in.

PART III: FIRST DRIVE-IN OF THE SUMMER.



The Drive-in always detaches me from reality. I don't think the Drive-in has changed one bit since it opened (god knows how long ago that was), so whenever I am there I feel like I am in a scene from The Outsiders. My mom had popped all of us a big bag of her famous popcorn (which was almost completely devoured by the time the movie actually started). The movie was really good, and the ambiance of the Drive-in and the company of friends definately enchanced the whole experience.

After the Drive-in we had some difficulties getting all of the car seats back into Tim's van (we had taken out all of his seats so we could sit on them on the gravel). We decided to just throw all the seats in the van and drive to a gas station in search of better lighting. We had some difficulty getting the seats back in despite the better lighting, but I think that had something to do with everyone skating around the gas station instead of attempting to reassemble the van. Finally, we got everything straightened out and made it safely home by 1am.

Part IV(ish):

I really hope summer keeps up this same kind of momentum. Today was so long, eventful, and exhausting that it was hard not to smile for the entirety of it. This seems like the makings of a memorable summer.