Rough Draft

Final Cleveland Roadtrip

Last Tuesday I took Lynn back to Cleveland after she was here for my party. It was really nice having Lynn at my house for a few days. She met most of my family at graduation, but she hadn't met my Dad yet or Aunt Shawnee and Erica. She also got to meet my dog Missy and Mimi's dog Peaches (who is an awesome, if crazy and easily excitable dog). We didn't really do antyhing extremely exciting while she was here, so hopefully she wasn't too bored. We did make some Orange Julius and I took her to the mall and she found a pair of shorts and a pair of pants that were pretty cheaply on sale (each under $15 I think). Of course we played Dr. Mario a good bit and played badminton a few times. We also ate over at Mimi's on Father's Day. We ate out on the porch and had strawberry shortcake for dessert.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday Lynn went in to work in her lab. I walked down to school with her each morning. It's about half an hour walk to campus, but it's a nice walk, it's not hilly or anything. I kept myself occupied in Nord researching cars, reading blogs, talking to Dave when he was around, and visiting Angie in the Fribley area office. Thursday Lynn and I ate lunch at the Winking Lizard with Angie. I hadn't been there before, but we've been meaning to go and have their root beer (which was excellent) and their spinach-artichoke dip. I also ran into Brendan on Thursday and found out he's going to be in San Francisco over the summer, so that was good to find out. Wednesday night when Phil got back from work he, Dana, Lynn, and I went down to Chipotle for dinner. Since their apartment is pretty much right next door to Chipotle, we got "take away" and went back to eat at the apartment. We also ran into Angie at Chipotle so she came back and ate with us until she had to go to a meeting back on campus.

On Friday Dave, Dana, Lynn, and I ate at the Mad Greek which I had never been to before. I had Lamb Curry and it was really good. Originally Dave had sent an email to a bunch of people saying we should eat at Mongolian BBQ as a going away dinner for me since he had a buy one get one free coupon. But Dave never made reservations, and not that many people were interested in eating late or thought it was too expensive so just a smaller group of us ended up going to the Mad Greek. Afterwards, we went back to Angie's dorm and played some Pinochle and then watched a couple episodes of Blind Date (I think because we were all too tired to do anything else). I'd seen part of an episode before, but there are some really strange people on that show. The one guy hit on a least one girl (not his date) at each of the places they went to. I'm not sure if the contestants get to pick where they go on the dates or if the show does but one couple went to this place in their pajamas where they were on this bed with another woman whom he started making out with. Another couple went to a lingerie store where the guy was trying on lingerie. Weird stuff. I have to wonder if anyone actually has a successul date on one of those shows.

A few other things we did during the week. Lynn and I took the cat, Egon, to the vet on Friday since Phil and Dana were at work and Chris was at his mom's. We also stopped by the Cleveland Heights Library since Lynn finished the book she was reading and we went to the Asian bakery to get some delicious coconut buns. Lynn and I also stopped for gelato on the way back from school one of the days. That stuff is so very good, especially the peach.

Saturday was the BBQ at Setsuna's parents lakeside house. There were a lot of people there, some of whom I knew, some I recognized from DDR club or Anime Society, and other's I didn't know at all. It was a really fun time though. A group of us played a game of Chez Geek, and we went swimming in the Lake for a while. Surprisingly the water was not too cold. We walked out along the wall which was rather treacherous as it was slightly under water and slippery and when waves came it was difficult to not get knocked over. We swam for a little bit inside the wall and then decided to venture on the outside of the wall. The main fear with that was that the waves might smack us into the wall, but if you got out far enough, they weren't breaking yet so it wasn't really a problem. That was the first time I had been swimming in a lake and it was pretty fun. Lynn did get a little scratched up on the wall though. After we were done swimming there were hamburgers and brawts being cooked. Lynn and I also cut up half of one of the watermelons, but there weren't too many people that wanted any. We enjoyed it though, even though the watermelons were seedless. After eating Lynn and I joined the game of Apples to Apples. We played for maybe half an hour but there didn't seem to be an rationale behind the way people were judging so after Jacob got back with the DDR pads we went downstairs to play some DDR. After that Lynn and I went out to sit by the dock and watch the sunset by the lake. It was a really pretty scene and I really enjoyed watching and listening to the sounds of the waves. Setsuna's dad also started making a bonfire at that point. We went inside and played a game of Pinochle. Jacob, Lynn, and I played a three handed game while a game of 15 was going on with four other people. Then we went out to roast marshmallows and make smores. Setsuna as been having these BBQs for at least the last 4 years, but this was the first year I really knew her and the first time I've been in Cleveland during the summer at all so it's the first one I've been too. It was lots of fun though and I had a really good time.

Sunday I had to leave to come back home, so that was not a very happy day. Lynn and I did get some frozen custard at the place right by her apartment. Peach was one of their special flavors of the day and it was quite tasty. Finally, after a tearful goodbye I left for home. The weirdest part about getting home then was that it felt empty without Lynn here. Even though she had only been here a few days, having her here felt very natural and it just felt like she belonged here and not like she was just visiting for a few days.

I'm really glad we've gotten to see each other so much since the end of the school year. It's kind of hard though not knowing exactly when the next time we'll see each other is though. Hopefully we can arrange something over Labor Day Weekend. Fortunately, this Internet thing makes it really easy to keep in touch, so even when I'm in California we shouldn't have any problem talking every day. Knowing that makes it ever so slightly easier, but it's nothing compared to spending every day together like we have this last week and a half and the entire spring semester.