Driving nostalgic

::sigh:: It's Wednesday. And I can already tell that I need at least another week at home.

Which, let me just say, it's not the weather that's making me all nostalgic. This I could easily have missed without missing it at all. And then it's supposed to SNOW tomorrow. Which, it's possible I could get a little excited about that...

So I went to Tuesday Night Knitting last night, back at the shop I worked at last year. It was such a good time. But more about that in a minute. Because, can I just say, I am totally in love with the 355 Extension.

Who knew I could hold so much affection for a tollway?

Last year, it routinely took me an hour and a half to get to work from my parents' house. Maybe we could make it in an hour and ten, hour and fifteen if we were going when there was no traffic, and once my uncle shared his secret McCarthy Road shortcut. Maggie and I listened to a lot of loud CDs and got through a lot of audiobooks with that three hours of commuting time. We'd wind through the back roads, finally get to Lemont road, hop on 55, then take 355 over to 75th street or to 88 and then to route 59, and finally get to the mall. Then, the tollway folks decided to extend 355 almost directly to my parents' back patio.

It's wide. It's clean and shiny. And it took FORTY-FIVE MINUTES to get from the yarn store to my folks' last night. (Gasp!) Just, delightful.

Knitting was a big ball of fun last night, too, which, it always is. And I think this was the thing that made me the most homesick, by far, yet this week. Because it used to be such a rejuvenating ritual. My parents, I miss seeing them all the time, and I definitely wish they were nearby, but we talk on the phone every night I'm not on call. My cousins up north, my goddaughter, there have been times when I didn't see them for four months before. It was unpleasant, but, it happened. These people I used to see twice a week. And it was so restorative, and so much fun. And gosh, it was so nice to see everybody. It had certainly occurred to me earlier in the week, but last night it really hit me how much I miss everyone up here. I think Friday's going to be like this, too.

But, anyway, a good time was had by all. I acquired yet another ball of sock yarn, got talked into making the Fawkes socks, because Sarah was wearing them and they were super cool, had a good dinner, drank some good wine. I even got the scoop on what's happening with the sale of the old place (turns out one of the potential buyers is an old friend of mine), and managed not to growl anything sarcastic when my old boss lamented that I'd just missed the UPS guy (he knows I'm in town. He knows my number. And he's quickly losing any ground he may have had for future admonitions that I'm a bad friend). And I probably got talked into getting up far too early to hit a yarn sale on Friday. Ahhh, good times.

Okay. I need to go find my shoes and put some makeup on, because tonight I'm going to see my niece Lily. And her parents, of course, and my other friends from medical school. But they were all walking and talking the last time I saw them.