my eventful drive back to michigan (11/9/06)
i'm now back in michigan for good. no more illinois project for me--yay! anyway, my drive back was the most eventful one i've had in awhile. first, i was planning on taking 72 over to 57 and then getting off the highway on rt. 30 to avoid the awfulness that is the 80/94 toll. that didn't happen though. in my daze of being half awake (thanks to being at the bar and up until 1:30) i completely zoned out and missed the exit for 72 off of 55. i didn't realize this either until i had the choice to take 55 or a route to go to peoria. this was probably an hour outside of springfield. so i had no choice but to take 55 to 80/94. since i left at about 10:30 in the morning i was hoping i'd get to the 80/94 toll early enough where it wouldn't be ridiculously backed up. amazingly enough, it wasn't. there wasn't any traffic at all. they had finished construction so the open road tolling was done. this meant they didn't have everyone going through 2 toll lanes.
i also managed to spill water all over my crotch while trying to open a water bottle in the car (while driving). i didn't have any napkins or tissues with me so i had to opt for putting the brown paper bag that my fast food lunch had come in under my butt to try to soak away some of the water from my jeans. this sort of worked but when i got out at the michigan rest area just over the boarder from indiana, you could still see a wet mark on my bottom. yay for not peeing your pants but looking like you did.
the final thing was by far the funniest and the weirdest. i stopped to get gas at a marathon station near paw paw. i went in to use the bathroom and afterwards while i was debating getting a snack, i heard a constant dripping noise. i looked over and the cappuccino machine had gone nuts and was dispensing everything in one of the flavors all at once. the guy working the counter was starting to look over because of the noise and i told him something was wrong with the machine. he couldn't figure out how to shut it off and he and one of the other customers were unplugging plugs to see if that would work. i just ended up leaving. i wouldn't have known what to do anyway. i'm also wondering if the guy working there thought it was my fault or something but oh well.
and that's it. i'm back in lansing where i have a lot of housework to do this weekend and then i'll be working on my proposal. whoo hoo.