Every raspy cucumber wailed Monica Lewinsky.

Mr. Alligator came up with an awesome today, I tell you. The only question is: was Monica Lewinsky wailing "Every raspy cucumber?" OR were all of the raspy cucumbers wailing "Monica Lewinsky!"? The world may never know.
This past weekend Tonya and I took a trip up to Chicago to celebrate her birthday and about the 1 year mark for us dating. It was an awesome time. We went to all the museums we possibly could, saw the traveling King Tut exhibit, ate dinner at the Signature Room ( http://www.signatureroom.com/ ) on the 95th floor of the John Hancock building, and ended by gorging on deep dish pizza the night before we left. There are several regular trip stories I could share, but since the readership of this blog is mostly family and very close friends, I'll share one in particular that you all will sympathize with.
I love public transit. When I go to big cities I like to take the buses and trains, etc, and read a book and feel like "big city Joe." But the El in Chicago makes me a bit nervous at the same time. I am always scared that I'll get off at the wrong stop and be hopelessly lost forever. So, last Saturday, we took the El from Midway to the Loop to get to our hotel. I had printed out exactly what stop we should take and how many miles it would be to the hotel and an alternate bus route to take if it was raining. I was prepared. Oh yes. But then, the stops announced didn't match the one on the website. I started to get nervous, standing up every so often and almost falling on Tonya each time we took a curve around the tracks. Eventually we started to loop back toward the airport. My worst fears were confirmed. We got off at the wrong stop!
Tonya wasn't worried, but I was in high gear, imagining all the different ways we could never make it to the hotel. So we got off and walked to the corner. There stood a police officer. We asked how to get to the hotel and she told us. Simple enough, right? Wrong. We now had the option of walking 10 blocks or taking a bus, neither of which had I previously planned or mapped out. Tonya mentioned that we might look for a map. Then it happened. I said it. "What would you want one of those for? We are lost!" It left my mouth and traveled by slowly. I watched it float through the air, perfectly rediculous, until it hit Tonya's ears. She said "to know where we are going." I said, "oh."
Eventually we just walked and it was quite enjoyable. The rest of the trip we collected several maps. Lots and lots of maps. With the aid of those maps, we mastered the transit system, and all was Ok.

Ok, just one more.
Mr Alligator: "Bouncing and polkafying is fun."

It certainly is, Mr. Alligator.

I hope everyone is well.
Peace,
Joe