Surprise Trip to Chicago aka The Time I Turned into a Creepy Stalker

So in the crazy rush of finals, I forgot to talk about my latest adventure!

I went on a quick weekend trip to Chicago earlier this month!

This all started one Sunday morning in mid-October when I had this really weird dream about some of my roommates in college randomly showing up in San Francisco, without telling me and I ran into them there. And there was something about a bus driving on the sand and not getting stuck until someone asked how we were able to drive on the sand. Anyway, I digress...

So one of the roommates was Lisa (and Nicole--who I had seen in August when we went to Utah and I got to go to the Salt Lake City temple with her and do a session...so super cool...and again I digress...)--one of my roommates both our junior and senior years. It was epic. Anyway Lisa and her family live just outside of Chicago and about a year and half ago, I went and spent just over a week with them. It was super fun!

I've missed them since then. So when I had this dream, I woke up with the certain knowledge that I need to go visit them asap.

Then a plan, a deviously awesome, secret plan began to unfold in my mind. Lisa was going to turn 30 on December 2nd. What if I surprised her for her 30th birthday?! [Insert maniacal laughter here.] I immediately texted Adam, her husband, and asked what he thought. He got so excited. So after several days of checking ticket prices and stressing and getting disappointed when I thought it wasn't going to happen, I found the ticket.

A direct flight from San Francisco into Chicago-O'Hare. YES! Interestingly when I looked up this flight, it was cheaper to have a layover in Chicago and then continue on to Milwaukee. Well that's silly, so I just decided to skip the Milwaukee portion. Which ended up being a really good thing because the return flight from Milwaukee to Chicago ended up being cancelled on Sunday. So glad I didn't have to deal with that.

So the ticket for the weekend after Lisa's birthday (which was also the weekend of her party) was only $226! That's almost half what my ticket last time was. Yippee! So I quickly texted Adam to make sure the dates and times worked (someone needed to pick me up!) and then nothing. I didn't hear back! After a frantic hour of waiting for a response, I said a prayer that it would work out and bought the ticket.

Turns out Adam was tied up in a meeting, but called when we were both off work and said the times were perfect.

Can I just say how hard it was not to spill the beans?! I thought it would be easy since Lisa and I don't chat all the time, but suddenly she was messaging me on facebook and commenting on things and emailing me, etc. It was like she subconsciously knew or something. There was one particular day it was really hard because Adam and I were texting making plans, and then Lisa started emailing me the same day and I was having conversations with both of them. It almost drove me crazy. It was quite hilarious.

So that Wednesday after work, and school, I made a somewhat mad-dash to San Francisco (super confusing to find the long-term parking!) to make my red-eye out flight, landing in Chicago about 6:00am. Perfect. Adam picked me up and then we headed back to their house to wake Lisa up and surprise her.

It was totally awesome.

6:30 in the morning, we both walked into their bedroom and Adam woke her up. Here's the conversation:

Adam: Lisa, honey, wake up. I have a surprise for you.
Lisa: Nothing. She sleeps like the dead. And is totally not a morning person. Mwahaha.
Adam: Lisa, wake up there someone here to see you.
Lisa: Wha?! Who? [she was so confused]
Me: Nothing. I was just standing in the doorway.
Adam: Its someone special all the way from California.
Lisa: a couple of seconds go by of her looking at Adam confused.
Me: Hi Lisa.
Lisa: She whips her head around. "Megan?" and attempts to fly out of bed and gets tangled in the blankets. It was hilarious. She was so confused and mostly still asleep.

We hugged and she just stared at me.

Lisa: You're here. In my bedroom.
Me: Yep. Surprise! Happy Birthday!

Another hug.

Lisa: You're really here!
Me: Yes I am.

Another hug

Lisa: When did you get here?
Me: About half an hour ago.
Lisa: I can't believe it! You're here in my house. Oh! You haven't seen our new house. I need to give you a tour. This is our bedroom.
Me: It's nice and big.
Adam: Happy Birthday, Lisa. I'm going back to bed so you guys go downstairs to talk, okay?

We laughed and went downstairs. And talked as fast as we could for about an hour and half catching up on everything under the sun and then both fell asleep till Lisa's two kids woke up. It was pretty fantastic.

The rest of the weekend was spent with Lisa and her family and their friends. Lisa's party was really fun. Adam themed it as a "Death to Lisa's 20's" and everyone wore black and gave eulogies. I then realized that Lisa and I have known each other since we were 19 so I had known her all of her 20's! 10 years we've been friends. It's crazy!

Thursday and Friday nights we had "game" nights with their friends, the Sessions and Atchinsons. Love those people. They are super fun and so nice. Thursday night, during the conversation about how Lisa and I knew each other, we realized that we knew way too much about each other. And at one point I realized that I was pretty much a stalker because I knew so much about her AND showed up in her bedroom in the "middle" of the night. Yeah....creepy. And freakin' hilarious! :)

The weekend was totally casual and we never made into the city. We planned to, but Saturday kind of got away from us and so we didn't make it. But it was okay. Lisa and I went to breakfast at this little restaurant we went to before (Wildberry--soooo good!) and then went to the Chicago Temple. We didn't have time for a whole session so we just did some other stuff. It was really fun to hang out with her there and have a really great discussion--and I got to see another temple. We both needed that. Later the three of us went to a really awesome hole-in-the-wall Chinese place. Their group of friends have a babysitter swap each week (genius!) so the kids were left with some of their friends.

The days were long and involved lots of playing with the kids, reading, relaxing, eating, and talking. There was little sleep and it was awesome--exactly what I had anticipated. I hardly even took pictures because it just felt so normal. It was perfect. Lisa and Adam even tried to convince me to move in with them--"rent free." Ahhh. I wish. :)

It snowed all day Sunday (yes!!) which led to my flight being delayed 3 hours (2 of which were spent on the plane on the tarmac--but I honestly didn't even realize it was that long. It didn't feel that long.). This meant that I few in that Sunday night and landed at 12:30am (technically Monday morning) and then had the two hour drive home. Fortunately I had texted my boss before my flight took off that I was going to be in late due to the delay, so I was able to get some sleep.

So it was a perfect trip (except the part when Adam got really, really sick--but he survived...) and Lisa was beyond surprised and excited. It was totally worth it.