4:28pm — Rockford, IL

Dear Jesus,

This month has started out kind of rough for me.  As you know, I went up to Minnesota last week.  Overall, I would rate it as a definite moral failing, even though some good came out o it.

Monday 6/23 — I was very tired, but caught the bus at 12:10 to Madison, and then the Megabus after that to Minneapolis.  It was nothing less than semi-torturous.  I couldn’t get comfortable, or fall asleep.  I kept getting distracted by things, even though I KNEW I should have done my best to go to sleep!  — I finally arrived in Minnesota around 8:00ish.  I WAS planning intitially to stay with my friend Dan Puumala at his rental property, but, I decided to just get a hotel room for the night instead.  It was $100 at the Ramada.

Tuesday 6/24 — This was Sara’s birthday.  I was going to try and make it down to Apple Valley to watch Austin play soccer.  Before I left the hotel, I decided to send Sara a text message to find out for sure if he was playing or not.  She texted back and said that they were not going to soccer that day because they were doing something special for her birthday.  So, instead of wasting a trip down to Apple Valley, I decided to try and find another hotel for the night.  I went to the Mall of America.  I WAS going to try and meet up with my friend Jon Bliss, but, he suddenly had a work commitment for the night.  He originally said I would be able to stay at his house that night, but wasn’t sure when he would be getting back.  I decided to get another hotel.  For some reason they were really hard to find on Priceline.  I was sitting at one of my favorite places, Tony Roma’s looking online for almost anything.  Finally, and for some weird, last minute reason, I finally WAS able to find something.  I ended up taking a cab to a Marriott.