A long, long day

I am not even going to go into all the details that made up today. Let me just say it has seemed very, very long. What was supposed to be a 5 hour train ride ended up lasting for over 8! We had to stop and let other trains use the tracks and I kid you not, at one point we had to wait for almost an hour because there was construction on the track ahead and we had to let them finish or move or whatever they ended up doing. The train station in Chicago about drove me over the edge. There were SO many people and the kids were crazy from being on the train all day. I was just a nervous wreck! But we made it to our hotel, got settled then decided we would try to have dinner somewhere. I think it is mainly my fault because I thought that we should just go to the first American-type restaurant closest to us, which just happened to be PJ something or other. It took us almost 2 hours to get our food. I am not even exaggerating, as I am sometimes prone to do! The food itself was a little pricy for Applebees-type food but at least it tasted alright once it finally arrived. At the end there the waiter had the nerve to ask us if we wanted to look at a dessert menu. And of course for parties of SIX or more, they apply 18% gratuity, and this waiter didn't deserve 1%, let alone 18%!

Anyway, that basically wraps up my day. I hope that tomorrow will be better. I HATE shopping and I HATE standing, so the thought of walking around The American Girl store for over 2 hours makes me a little anxious already. But after the 'shopping' part, we will watch something in their little theatre and then have dinner there. I am actually going to see if I can switch my train ticket and come back on the earlier train on Saturday. Our train as it is now is supposed to arrive in St. Louis at 12:30am Sunday morning. Well, if today was any indication of how the trains run, I would not like to get home at 4am, then get up and get everyone ready for church and then go to church, which I don't really want to skip since Kris is preaching this week.

I'm tired, and so I am done for tonight.