The Adventures of Andrei and Kristina: II

The Adventures of Andrei and Kristina: II

So today was pretty psycho ridiculous… and we are kind of far from done with our ‘adventure’

Background info:

Andrei had to go up to Hudson, Wisconsin to make an attempt at lessening the intensity of a speeding ticket he had gotten over spring break up there.

So, I offered to go along for the ride and keep him company.

And here we go:

So, we were up and out of the house at 1:55am. Insane, right? That’s only the beginning.

Driving, driving, driving… I was awake for the first bit, then the last thing I remember before falling asleep was a sign to an exit to Beloit, WI, which is right on the Illinois Wisconsin border. Then I woke up for a few minutes around the exits to Wisconsin Dells, at which point the sun was just rising over the horizon and totally in my eyes, so I put a pillow in the way of the sun and went back to sleep. I think I woke up…. Well, I’m not sure where, but it was like 7 am maybe? And keep in mind that we had only gotten maybe 3 hours of sleep before leaving.

So we got to good ‘ol Hudson, WI like 5 minutes before Andrei’s 9am appointment with the traffic people.

For future reference, getting speeding tickets in Wisconsin bites. Just don’t do it. The minimum penalty is three points on the record and a bunch of money. And they totally sit around at random points on the highway just waiting for someone to speed so they could get some money. Insane. He did manage to get his fine and stuff reduced by as much as they could. Which is good.

Then, we totally went to Mall of America…. Considering it was like 30 minutes from where we were in Wisconsin. Yeah… ummm, so that place is crazy massive. Like unnecessarily so. Multiples of stores, tons of food places everywhere, a full out Aquarium in the basement, Lego world, 14 screen movie theatre, and a full out theme park in the middle complete with a ferris wheel, crazy spinning rides, and a roller coaster. Seriously now people. Haha. It was kind of cool though, I must say. It was really well kept and neat and pretty and stuff, so that was cool. We ate at food court world, then were like, ‘what now, yo?’. So we decided to do something that didn’t involve walking, so we watched Spiderman 3. It was pretty alright. I haven’t seen the second one though, and I hear that one was really good. Anyway, so this one kind of jumped around a ton- storyline wise up until the end-ish where everything tied in and decided to make sense. So after the movie, we walked around a bit- like one and a half floors worth and then left to go to get some ice cream in St Paul. Oh and on the way, like right near the mall some random car next to us I guess tried to race Andrei or something. It was a supercharged (I think) version of the engine he has in his car and he managed to not only keep up with it as it was accelerating to 50 mph, but also got like half a car’s length ahead of it at one point. It was kind of amusing how excited he was at that. But its understandable… I mean, he puts so much work into his little Buick Regal to make it full of power and all kinds of random upgrades and tweaks and improvements and what not, I like seeing him enjoy the car he likes so much.

So, the other day I asked Dan what there is to do in the twin cities area since he likes it so much and will be going to school at the University of Minnesota there in the fall. He was at the mall and sounded ridiculously distracted when I was talking to him on the phone. Anyway, he said that we should try to go to this ice cream place called Izzy’s in St Paul. We totally did. The flavors they had not only were unique, but pretty amazing. I had a half scoop of peanut butter (yummmmm…) and a half scoop of marshmallow (also, yummm! Sounds weird, but marshmallows are so good and so was this ice cream. Really), also, they have what’s called their Izzy scoop, which is just a smaller scoop on top of your other scoops in whatever flavor you want- I got cotton candy (yum!). for the most part, I get peanut butter and cotton candy flavored ice cream when we go to the ice cream place in Michigan by the beach, by my uncle’s house. Honestly, those tasted very much alike and very good in both places. The only difference was the marshmallow ice cream. Sounded like it would be weird, but I tried it and was like yum.

Anyway, so we were sitting outside eating our ice cream, Andrei talked to his mom on the phone for a little bit, and we just sat there. Its kind of amusing… ive noticed that the two of us don’t really talk much while we’re eating… like at all. The other day we went to a pretty nice Mexican restaurant up in Chicago and we talked up until our food came then it was all about the eating. Also, it seems like we’re both kind of distracted by the rest of the restaurant- like looking around at the place and the other people. Ha, well anyway, back to our adventure… so after he finished his ice cream, I was still eating and he kind of just left me to go inside the café or coffee shop or whatever it was we were sitting near and I was like… ok, cool, nice one abandoning me…. But then a few minutes later he came back with two yogurt smoothies- strawberry and raspberry flavors. I was like, ahh! Yay! Raspberry yogurt stuff is amazing, yo. I was like yay! Yay! Yay! It’s so yum! It was a super super nice surprise. Haha funny how excited I can get about simple things like food. Ah, oh well. So then we left to head home.

Oh my goodness, so for a little while there he was being so funny. Like we had a full out Wisconsin and Minnesota stink majorly fit and complained about how people were driving and how its annoying that pretty much only old/ old-ish men drive corvettes and don’t even have fun with them. And how some random old lady I think? In a Saturn kept kind of cutting him off and how saturns bite. So we passed by a Saturn dealership and I was like, hey! A Saturn store! Let’s go! Haha.

Andrei was like, super duper tired, so we stopped at some random rest stop at some random little town in Wisconsin pretty near Hudson and he slept from like 5:30 til 9 when I woke him up. During that time, I tried to sleep but it didn’t work, so I read. And finished up the book I was reading. Which was good. Now, on to book three of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series… it was kind of amusing how at 9pm it was still crazy light out… not like daytime light, but light enough to think it was light out. And so we left.

I drove his car for a little while. It was kind of scary. The only car I’ve driven… like ever is my green one, so it was weird. It wasn’t so bad though. We then went to Burger King. I have not been there in ages! And we sat in the parking lot and ate our food.

Oh my goodness he can be so so so goofy. It’s pretty awesome I must say. I think I’ve laughed more today than I have in the past week at least. It was great.

So driving driving. Oh, and we totally decided to take the ‘scenic route’ home… aka not the main highway. We’re going to be driving along Lake Michigan once we get to it. We decided why not… even though it’s dark now, we won’t be in Chicago until like 4 or 5 anyway, so may as well be along the lake for the sunrise. Umm, yeah, we’re in the car now, yo. Oh and he also definitely was on the phone for a while and he was so so so amusing talking to his people. I laughed at how he was talking and what he was saying. It was funny!

Oh, and supposedly, when we’ll be in California, which by the way is coming up and I am getting quite excited for that, his friends and everyone will be like ‘who in the world are you and what have you done to Andrei?’. Haha. He’s been around me too long. He’s taking on some of my insanity. But you know, it only makes everything more fun and interesting. It’s great.

So it’s a few minutes to one in the morning right now. I’m getting really tired. I haven’t slept since like 7am and didn’t even have a full nights sleep at that, but I can bet Andrei is even more tired. He just opened a bag of chips and they smell funny. Haha.

Ok, well I’m going to probably watch a movie now…

I’m so glad I came with him on this trip. It has been quite the random adventure. And we still will be on the road for another few hours. Then sleep. Finally.

<3

Some additional stuff that took place on the adventure:

On the way home, we drove through Green Bay and it was probably the strangest thing ever…. The speed limit was like 25 or 30 through the city-ish area where there was a four lane road. What gives? And then there was one stretch of road where seriously we were the only car out of like 7 cars out that was not a cop. No joke. It was like, hey look a cop, (look left) hey, another one!, (look right) hey, another!, (look forward), another!. And then one came from behind us, kind of pulled ahead a bit, then slowed down, got in our lane and followed us for like 3 min, then pulled into a parking lot. Super strange. And keep in mind now, that this was like, Wednesday at 2 am. Yeah, so that was funny.

Then I went back to sleep.

Oh yeah, so I put on In Good Company to watch on my laptop… Andrei seriously saw more of it than I did. Yup, I slept.

We got back to Chicago at like 5:15am. No sun yet really. It was just starting to almost come over the horizon, so it was just a little bit light. We went to bed, and totally woke up at like 1:15pm. Nice.

Then I watched him install some new stuff in his car and attempt to put in some HID headlights. That didn’t work so well, but then he switched around the wires that connect to the power supply when we got back to my house and they worked. Those lights are pretty awesome, I must say. :D

Before we got back to my house though, we ate at that place that we go to a lot by his house. Food was good.

Then we went to Sports Authority in Frankfort so he could get the other tennis racket he has with him strung, but instead, he ended up buying two totally new rackets that were like…. A third of their original price. Which is cool.

Then we got back, had some sherbet, he fixed his lights, then we went to play some tennis at like 9pm.

Tennis is pretty fun. I just have to take some time so I could actually play correctly. Then it’ll be really cool.

Oh my goodness, I was so so so tired last night. At like 2 I was like, hey, can you leave so I can go to bed. Like I could barely walk straight or even stand up. I dunno. I guess the trip messed up my sleep routine or something. I really slept a lot in the past few days. Its really weird. Anyway, I hope to wake up tomorrow morning decently early, like 9 or 10 am, maybe do some yoga, have some breakfast and go outside and run for a little while. I would love to do that more often, but its pretty impossible when I wake up at 11am to do that. Its not only too hot outside, but its like, mid day. And mid day bites for doing stuff. I like mornings. I used to love skating in the mornings, yes, even though I was on the ice at 6. I just somehow have more energy then and feel more awake for the rest of the day.

Wisconsin is pretty. Really green. Hilly. Tree-packed. I just wouldn’t want to live there. At all. It was so nice to be back in Chicago.

Minnesota… yeah, ummm twin cities? I wouldn’t live there either. The only reason I would ever go back would be to either visit someone or go to mall of America just once more to actually explore it better… but you really have to be in the mood to shop to go there.

At first, I was like, hmm, it doesn’t feel like we’re all that far from home, but then after a while of actually being in the atmosphere there, it got to be like, man, I can’t wait to go home.

Umm, yeah so Andrei and I spent a solid 48 hours together. :D

That is all. Adventure II was way fun.

<3