This post is being written at 4:42 eastern time – the train left Union Station about 45 minutes ago.  I should hit the Battle Creek station around 7pm.

I would have liked to stay longer, but unfortunately there’s a family at home and work to be done.   I talked to Wil and discussed coming back sometime in July for a few days.  His fiance may be out of town on business, so that’ll give us plenty of time to kill each other playing Ghost Recon 2 or Halo 2.   Actually, when I come back, I’d like to get out more and see more stuff in and around Chicago.

Overall, I had a fantastic time.  Not only did I get to relax, catch up with Wil and play lots of Xbox, I got to try some new food (sushi on Tuesday night and Greek food on Wednesday).  Both nights we basically ordered a bunch of appetizers / small main courses and shared.  The sushi was…well…different — way out of my comfort zone.   The Greek food was cool, especially when the waiter set stuff on fire at our table (some kind of flaming cheese).

On Wednesday night after dinner, we headed to a pretty nice bar in the Lincoln Park area named Sheffields — I wish I had been hungry because the stuff on the menu looked pretty damn good.  While our waitress was a bit ditzy, the drinks were mixed well and the the company and conversation was great.

On Thursday, we stayed in and played Xbox, talked, drank and had some deep-dish pizza.  As the night wore on, the drinks kept coming and talk turned to music.  We tend to like the same kinds of music, but at some point the talk turned to Van Halen.  I made the comment that I think VH was best with Sammy…Wil jokingly told me to pack my bags and get out.  

Wil and I had a chance to talk about his time in Iraq.  He had some pretty amazing stories, many of which I read about in emails or in a private section on his blog.  I’ve always had a lot of respect for the men and women that put themselves in harms way and hearing his stories certainly didn’t dampen my opinions at all.  It’s one thing to hear about Iraq on the news, quite another to hear them from someone who was on the ground for 7 months.

Tomorrow night, I’m headed to a party at my friend Red’s house.  I’m looking forward to that since that’s where I tend to see a lot of my old co-workers from Sequoia. 

Update: train arrived ON TIME!  Woohoo!