Holy crap, that beach is hard to find

I haven't touched a laptop since I packed up Friday afternoon to visit Matt and his family... The past few days have been eventful, to say the least. I got on the train a bit late on Friday (for safety's sake it's preferred that I'm on the train by 5pm). And then the bus was a little late... But I got there on time. We watched the final disc of True Blood Season 3.  What a mind-trip. And so dark, dark, dark. Then some serious discussion time with Matt and a phone call with a friend. Serious times. I think I finally crawled into bed around 4am.

Because of the late night, Matt and I didn't get up early to prepare for our trip to the beach, Ohio Street Beach which opens at 11am. We only got up around 11am, something like that, to his brother telling us breakfast was ready. Which it wasn't, completely, but we helped set the table and all that while waiting for the gravy to be done. Yummy biscuits...

Then, afterwards, we readied our stuff. Matt did most of the work, finding the beach blanket, the beach chairs, the umbrella, the Frisbee, preparing the food, etc...

The last time we took a trip to the beach, on July 4th, it went horribly. We were suppose to meet one of my former high school friends and some of her friends up in Evanston, where we didn't know where the beach was or parking situation. We got there, we walked a lot of blocks with our heavy cooler, and my phone didn't get reception. >_< I used Matt's phone but I kept getting my friend's voice mail after several rings. OH MY GOODNESS, I felt so worried and guilty and tense, because it was my friend we were going to meet and the meet-up didn't happen successfully. Turns out she had forgotten her phone back where she's staying and so she had to use one of her friend's smartphones to look up my number in a Facebook message to her. I had called Matt's brother to ask him to pick us up, then I had to call him back and cancel it after he was already a few blocks away (couldn't go further because of roadblocks). My former schoolmates and her friends were way late, too.... It was awkward, tense. The fireworks were a nice show, but it still left a bitter taste in our mouths... It was a very tense situation.

Yesterday's beach adventure was suppose to make for the crap-show the 4th of July was. It did not.

We got on the highway fine, but then the GPS started getting all weird. Ohio Street Beach is given the address of 400 N. Lake Shore Dr n the Chicago Park District official website - though it's not on Google Maps by itself - and then it directed us to the middle of the highway. We're not familiar with the area and how to get underneath or beside the highway. Parking was horrendous. We went around and around for more than an hour? We finally got a parking spot in a parking building near Navy Pier, got a taxi and asked him to take us to Oak Street Beach, but then we noticed Ohio Street Beach was on the map so he dropped us off nearby. We had to walk a bit to find it.

That was around 5:45pm. The beach closes at 7pm. We left the house around...3:30pm? And it takes about 45 minutes to get there, by GPS and traffic. The remaining time was just...going around and around. We were very frustrated and tense... But we found it, in the end.

Ohio Street Beach is much smaller than North Ave Beach. It's at the end of Pfc Milton Olive Park. It's not on Google Maps, even, Ohio Street Beach. Anyhoo, because it's smaller there are no changing facilities on the beach. I had to walk all the way to Navy Pier to change - long line for the bathroom, with only 3 stalls - and then I had to walk back to the beach wearing only my bikini with nothing to cover me... It was a little embarrassing. (The dress I wore beforehand was too tight for me to wear over my bikini.) Stupid me didn't bring my phone with me so I couldn't let Matt know I was okay since I was gone for a while...

But...yeah...we set up the blanket, the chairs, got out the food and water... I got back to the beach at 6:15pm and we spent about half an hour in the water. That was nice... The lake really accentuated the height difference between Matt and I. He walked so far away from me before only his head showed above the water. A few times he dropped me in my height water but I was so clumsy I fell over anyway. :P And inhaled water.

( Ill feeling, fridge broke down )

Gratitudes

Friday, July 29
1. Got laundry done, despite the heavy comforter taking long time to dry
2. Arrived safely
3. Finished True Blood Season 3
4. Chicken enchilada for dinner!
5. Admitting some feelings

Saturday, July 30
1.Wearing a dress out
2. Freaking finally finding Ohio Street Beach
3. Playing in the lake
4. Chicken and strawberries for dinner
5. A long shower
6. Matt bringing me water and a cold towel

Still not sure about Ramadan,

but just in case I want to do it this year since I don't have academics as a reason/excuse to not, what with dehydration headaches interfering with my concentration:

We fast from dawn to sunset, not sunrise to sunset.

MONTHLY HIJRI PRAYER TIMES
 CHICAGO, IL, UNITED STATES

---

Ramadan 1432 AH1 August 2011 - 29 August 2011

Ramdn	Aug	Day	Fajr (Dawn)	Shorook (Sunrise)	Zuhr (Noon)	Asr (Afternoon)	Maghrib (Sunset)	Isha (Night)
1	1	Mon	3:49	5:44	12:57	4:53	8:09	10:04
2	2	Tue	3:51	5:45	12:57	4:53	8:08	10:02
3	3	Wed	3:52	5:46	12:57	4:53	8:07	10:00
4	4	Thu	3:54	5:47	12:57	4:52	8:06	9:58
5	5	Fri	3:56	5:48	12:57	4:52	8:05	9:56
6	6	Sat	3:57	5:49	12:57	4:51	8:03	9:55
7	7	Sun	3:59	5:50	12:56	4:51	8:02	9:53
8	8	Mon	4:00	5:51	12:56	4:50	8:01	9:51
9	9	Tue	4:02	5:52	12:56	4:50	8:00	9:49
10	10	Wed	4:04	5:53	12:56	4:49	7:58	9:47
11	11	Thu	4:05	5:54	12:56	4:48	7:57	9:45
12	12	Fri	4:07	5:55	12:56	4:48	7:56	9:43
13	13	Sat	4:08	5:56	12:56	4:47	7:54	9:41
14	14	Sun	4:10	5:57	12:55	4:47	7:53	9:39
15	15	Mon	4:12	5:58	12:55	4:46	7:51	9:37
16	16	Tue	4:13	5:59	12:55	4:45	7:50	9:35
17	17	Wed	4:15	6:00	12:55	4:45	7:48	9:34
18	18	Thu	4:16	6:01	12:55	4:44	7:47	9:32
19	19	Fri	4:18	6:02	12:54	4:43	7:45	9:30
20	20	Sat	4:19	6:03	12:54	4:42	7:44	9:28
21	21	Sun	4:21	6:05	12:54	4:41	7:42	9:26
22	22	Mon	4:22	6:06	12:54	4:41	7:41	9:24
23	23	Tue	4:24	6:07	12:53	4:40	7:39	9:22
24	24	Wed	4:25	6:08	12:53	4:39	7:38	9:20
25	25	Thu	4:27	6:09	12:53	4:38	7:36	9:18
26	26	Fri	4:28	6:10	12:52	4:37	7:34	9:16
27	27	Sat	4:30	6:11	12:52	4:36	7:33	9:14
28	28	Sun	4:31	6:12	12:52	4:36	7:31	9:12
29	29	Mon	4:33	6:13	12:52	4:35	7:30	9:10

Well, duh

there is such a thing as an "Christian extremist" or a "Christian terrorist" if you want to use his religious beliefs as the one defining mark. Extremists or terrorists are possible in almost every single demographic possible! (I'm excluding infants.)

JEEZ.

"Christian terrorist? Norway case strikes debate"