I had a very good weekend with alanka for her birthday, and got to spend some time with icespark and lildomino as well.
On Friday when I got off work, I stopped by the Abbey with the hopes if picking up some hot ciders for icespark and me, but alas they were out, so we had to settle on mochas. I also grabbed some late dinner since I only had a slice of pizza for lunch. I met icespark at my apartment and she helped me carry my stuff upstairs. We sat and ate chicken nuggets while she regaled me with tales of her roller derby adventures at practice, from which she was still very happy but sore.

Saturday morning afternoon I slept until I woke up instead of setting an alarm, partially so that I wouldn’t be tired during my drive up to Chicago. icespark and I snuggled for a while while I woke up, and then I finally dragged myself out of bed and dragged myself into the shower. The drive up to Chicago was pretty easy – the weather cooperated, and the roads were clear until I neared Gary. I got delayed by construction, but I called lildomino and got an alternate route.

When I arrived at alanka’s aunt’s house, I got to meet alanka’s aunt, mom, nephews, uncle, and one of her sisters. There was lots of teasing of alanka, followed by a birthday cake with candles and singing. Finally we headed out to a family reunion Christmas gathering, where I got to be introduced to more of alanka’s extended family, and enjoy award-winning barbecue chicken. alanka had the standard introducing-people-to-family jitters, but really, they were a pretty cool bunch.

After the family dinner, we went back to alanka’s aunt’s house, where we hung out for a while and got advice on a good place to stay for the night (alanka’s aunt’s was pretty full already). We settled on a Super-8 hotel, and found it and checked in without any problems. The room was pretty nice. alanka and I enjoyed some quality alone snuggle time, and called to extend our checkout time so we could sleep another hour on Sunday morning.

When we did have to check out, we went to IHOP for a long breakfast (alanka wasn’t anxious to return to a house full of rambunctious nephews just yet), and then returned to her aunt’s. We hung out and snuggled on the couch with Nicktoons in the background, and talked about going to a comedy club. However, it was getting late, and I decided to leave before it got too dark, because I still have one headlight, and also because I was worried about the roads freezing.

I got back to Indianapolis without incident, and stopped by my apartment to pick up my laptop. I then went over to lildomino’s to hang out with her while she finished her last paper for her English portfolio. After reading over submissions, I changed into my new Star Trek jammies, and we snuggled on her couch and watched Stargate: Atlantis and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. As always, we were tempted to stay up all night watching Star Trek, but again we decided to be responsible, and eventually went to snuggle up under the electric blanket in her cold bedroom, a snuggly warm end to a fantastic weekend.

Obama/Kucinich 2008!