black dirt, green grass and blue skies

I'm back in the land of corn and pizza!

I love reading my midwestern friends' facebook updates upon their return home to the bread basket. Almost immediately photos are uploaded from smart phones documenting the culinary journey, where nostalgia and taste are on a level playing field. There's usually a blurry photo shot from the car window, of a corn field.. or an empty field where there once was corn.. and an accompanying snarky comment that begs desperately for the reader to believe we really do, hate cornfields and see no beauty in them at all. No, this is just a mockery, we HAAAAATE corn. dot, dot, dot.

Here in Illinois the dirt is black. The trees are tall and lush and big and fat. The skies are mostly blue with large puffy white clouds (unless its the end of June, or beginning of July, then the skies are greenish black in the afternoons). The rivers are muddy, and only pretty at sunset. Homes are inexpensive and schools are good. People are nice. I am nice. Thrift stores are cheap. And oh yes, food. Every bite of food is infused with a secret drug derived from "corn". It makes you want more and more and leads you to believe there is no other region in the world that serves food as good as this region. (It may also cause diabetes...)

I've been pretty bad about blogging recently, so since I've got this nice little set up in my moms office, I'm going to try to do a daily bit of blogging.. possibly with photos!!

Day One, Tuesday: Drove for 890 something miles. Beautiful weather the whole way. I arrived in less than 12 hours.

Day Two: Went to a few antique stores with mom and her friend, met pops at Arthur's for lunch. Left with pops, stopped at another antique store, purchased a Schwinn cruiser for, um, $15. S.C.O.R.E. (It has the most amazing baskets that fold out!! and a headlight and a taillight! I'm not to fond of the frame.. figured $15 wasn't a bad price for vintage baskets and lights!) Followed by a little trip to Folsom's Bakery. Yes, my favorite donuts and sugar cookies on the planet. shutup. Drove through two towns, caught ONE red light, where we sat for 15 seconds at most, and waved to two people we knew.
Drove to the Q.C. after waiting out a crazy string of storm systems to pick up grandpa C. Home. Sleep.

Day Three: Cooked breakfast for my pops and granpops, used fresh eggs from the guy up the street, awesome. Brewed some coffee I'm pretty sure they had to chew...
Sat on the patio. For no reason. Had an amazing conversation with my grandpa. Went to my favorite thrift store. I spent $35.00. You may not think this is a huge sum, let me just say this: I filled up five baskets while going through the store. I also had to walk away from an amazing chair for $4 (WHAT!? YES!! $4) A PINK vintage beauty chair.. one that leans back so you can wash your hair in the sink. It was SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK. =(

So, this is the evening of day three. I can hear a few cars outside, the tick of the clock, hum of the computer, and my dad sleeping.