We left Chicago with the fluid grace of someone throwing a beanbag chair.  Mike woke early, I next, then Suzie, and we left a standard deviation after I hoped as I vacillated between “stay” and “go”.  The day was bright but the roads were unkind and we missed a visit to someone due to delays from road construction.  Mike will never meet Banks.  We had lunch at a McDonalds where two middle-aged men were arguing over Christian rock.  We received no ticket on the way through Indiana.

Before dropping off Suzie, I asked my standard question of “how do we make this better next time?” to which I already knew the answer: don’t drive to Chicago after spending two days in New York City.  Suzie left our company and Mike and I puttered home taking turns being sleepy and being the driver.  Mike and I parted company in his driveway with a hug and wave and we turned our backs to each other and walked our separate ways to go become adults.

NYC+ was the last trip in the extraordinary run of good trips I had that spanned a six month arc and I set myself the 12th as the first day where I’d need to parlay my job into a career, switch industries, or go back to Act Sci.  Mike and Suzie had the first days of their next semesters to attend to so we all took a small lurch towards being our future selves.  I think I lingered too long in each place not for fear but for loathing of having to face that Monday.  Let’s see where it goes.