AMTRAK PART FOUR: Madison, Wisconsin. The longest and most significant leg of the trip AND unfortunately, the one I have the least amount of time to write about.

Day Fourteen: Left Texas. Train back up to Chicago, but this time it actually moved faster than I could walk. Breakfast with nice old lady who career counsled me. Saw Mississippi River. Finished some books, did some knitting, wrote in journal.

Arrived in Chicago on-time! And as you may remember, I was supposed to meet up with Pumpkinfucker because I had a significant lay-over at this point. However, when I looked at the schedule board, I noticed that there was a bus leaving for Madison 20 minutes from the time I arrived in the station. My ticket did not have a time on it. I went to find out if I could ride said bus with my ticket, and as it turned out, I could. There would not have to be a four hour layover after all. However, I had scheduled that dinner with PF. I was actually looking forward to seeing him again, but at the same time, I was afraid he'd forgotten or made other plans or wouldn't be able to make it and then I'd be in the station for 4 hours for no reason. And, I felt like if I left on that earlier bus, I would be standing him up somehow. It was like that dream (remember that dream? I told you to remember that dream!) and I was just passing through very suddenly and wasn't going to be able to meet him - though I had the choice to stay off the bus. I waited until the very last second, waffling back and forth - one last meeting with PF or arrive in Madison at 8PM instead of midnight? I stood at the door of the bus... and decided to head out of town early. I felt a little sick to my stomach as I was worried that PF would have remembered and possibly even planned on our meeting. It seems really funny looking back at it now - it wasn't that big of a deal - but in my mind, it was a momentous and important decision.

By the way, it was so cold in Chicago this time around, that it made me think about sex a lot. It was FUCKING COLD. FUCK.

I called PF from the bus station in Madison. He was out on a "date" with some girl he met in a bar. So, although I could have gone to dinner with him (he didn't meet his date until later) it was a good thing I headed out to Madison early - he had forgotten what day I was coming in.

My cousin, Erin, picked me up at the bus station. It was really really fucking cold. It was about -2 degrees. I remember being in weather that cold and even colder in Maryland from time to time, but in the intervening years, I have become what I like to refer to as a Seattle Weather Wimp. I'm sure I must have mentioned this before. If it is below 40, I'm freezing to death. If it is above 75, I'm dying of heat stroke. I put my long underwear on that night and didn't take it off until I was on the train on the way back to balmy Seattle.

Day Fifteen: Erin had to go to work and Julia had to go to graduate school. Julia is Erin's girlfriend, and word on the street is that they're quite serious. The funny thing is, Julia and I discovered that she knows my new housemate who was moving in while I was away - Quita. They worked at a camp together in Vermont one summer. Bloody small world it is. Erin provided me with a bunch of maps and pointed me out the door to the fun part of Madison. I put on: long johns (they were already on, actually - as I told you before), one long sleeved shirt, one tightish wool sweater, one baggy wool sweater, polar fleece, wool pea coat, jeans, wool socks, wool scarf (that Aunt Barbara weaved for Erin - Aunt Barbara is SO COOL), warm gloves, wool hat, polar fleece hat. And I was still cold.

I went exploring on State Street. It was a cute college town street. Madison isn't very city-like, though. It's like a Seattle neighborhood, actually. It's tiny and has lots of small, interesting shops. In fact, for you Seattle-dwellers, it was a lot like being in Ballard or Wallingford. I bought a new book (Kick Me) and had lunch at a nice little sandwich shop and then several lattes at a coffee shop while I read my new book. And then I headed back to Erin and Julia's.

While I was in Texas, I gave Erin's number and GJB's number to my housemates just in case something happened while I was gone and someone needed to get in touch with me. The idea occured to me in Chicago when I realized that I had neither email nor had I told them where I was staying or anything. This was a very good move on my part, I have to say. I must be psychic or something.

When I got to Erin's house, I noticed the answering machine light blinking. I pondered listening to the messages in case they were from Erin to me telling me that he'd be home late or something. I decided that I should just go ahead and read my book and relax for a bit. Erin picked Julia up from the lab and got home about 20 minutes after I did. And then he played the answering machine messages.

*dramatic music here please*

BEEP "Hi, this is Pat B. calling for (Ms. Itzie). Could you please give me a call back at 206-blah-blah? Thank you." BEEP.

Pat B. The name was familiar. It was a Seattle number. WTF? Who was this Pat lady? We all looked at each other in surprise. I realized that it was still fairly early in Seattle being two hours behind and all, so I decided to give this lady a call back.

When she answered the phone and stated the name of the agency, I suddenly knew who this lady was. It was the adoption agency where I'd been volunteering. I'd applied for their front desk job back in October or thereabouts and didn't get the job. I figured that I'd better come up with a plan B if I couldn't get the front desk job, hence the Peace Corps and Grad school etc. (though I wanted to do those things anyway). She was with the China program and had interviewed me, though, at the time of the interview, I CERTAINLY didn't know that she was with any of the adoption programs - in fact, I thought that she was a psychologist or something because she was asking me weird questions that the other interviewers hadn't asked.

She was calling to ask me if I was still interested in working at the agency.

She was calling to ask if I was interested in working in the China program.

She was calling to offer me a job.

The only reason I had applied to the front desk job was so that I would eventually be able to get into the agency in one of the international programs. And here was someone offering me EXACTLY what I wanted. With a country that I'm interested in. Holy fucking fuckedy fuck. (I didn't say that to her, by the way) It was a job falling right out of the sky and into my lap. I didn't even know that this position was opening. I didn't even have to interview for it (though today, I discovered that I DID interview for it - they just didn't tell me I was interviewing for it at the time). Do you remember how I was saying that while I was in Chicago, it would be really nice if jobs fell out of the sky? Well, I'm going to start thinking that it would be really nice if I'd win the lottery.

I was in shock. I was excited. There were a few hoops to jump through first, of course. But for all practical purposes, I was offered a job.

I kind of forget what happened after that. I talked to my cousin, Becky (Erin's sister) for a while on the phone. We were headed out somewhere. I forget where we were going, though. Maybe we went to the grocery store. All I could think about was turning in notice, not having week on/week off schedule anymore, commuting down to the agency, the fact that I have a friend coming to visit on my first off-week when I got back, and would I be able to not work that week too? And would my current job accept one week notice or would they want me to work two of my work weeks which would make it three and a half weeks before I could start at the agency. Blah blah blah blah. My mind was racing. Erin, Julia and I were all bouncing around for joy. It was truly unbelievable.

I was awake all night thinking about it all.

Day Sixteen: I woke up before Erin went to work and had breakfast with him. Then I took a little nap because it had taken me forever to get to sleep the night before. I got suited up when I finally awoke and went to an internet cafe to check my web email for the job description that Pat B wanted me to read. I bought The Lovely Bones at the University book store. I went back to Erin and Julia's place. I got a call from Pat B, but unfortunately, we couldn't really talk about the job because of something going on at the office. So, I had to wait one more day to find out more about the job.

I discovered how lovely The Lovely Bones was. I was in the middle of Kick Me, but decided to read a little bit of Bones - and then I got hooked. I spent the rest of my time in Madison alternating between the two books. I felt like I SHOULD read Kick Me first, but the Bones was so GOOD.

We went to dinner with Erin's boss and co-workers from the kyak shop. I talked to some animated lady named Barbara.

Day Seventeen: I got a call about the job around noon. Everything was totally perfect. I accepted the job and called in my "two" weeks notice. The scheduling was tricky, but it's going to work out just fine. No one at my current job is mad at me - they're like an office full of moms - all proud of me for my new job etc. I'm also going to be home a good deal while Ben is in town.

Erin and I went on a "hike" at some park with "spectacular" views (according to the guidebook). The "park" was located on one of the highest hills in the Madison area. And uh... yeah. A hill. Huh. It was like being on the second floor of a house. Ok, maybe a little higher. Maybe three stories up. The park was tiny too. It actually reminded me of my backyard in the house I grew up in, in Maryland. The coolest part though was the puffballs. I haven't seen puffball molds since I was a kid in Maryland. There are these little fungi that look like... well... dead leaves or something, but when you step on them, puffs of smoke come out (spores) and they can go for a really long time. One puffball is good for about 50 stompings. The Wisconsin woods were FULL of them. They were a real find in Maryland when we were kids. I have never seen them in Washington. Erin and I spent a good ten minutes stomping on puffballs. Though it had warmed up to a balmy 20 degrees, I was still a bit chilled, and we decided to head back into town.

That evening, Erin got his LSAT scores. They were excellent - good enough to get him into Harvard should he want to go there. New job (probably) for me, excellent scores for him - this was definitely a call for a celebration. We made a super-fancy dinner which included my special biscuit reciepe.

Day Eighteen: We went for a drive in the country. When we started to head out of town, we noticed a bunch of sails on the very-frozen lakes. There were ice sailors out there! We drove to the launch spot and walked out on the ice to where many of the ice sail thingies were. They're these aerodynamic boat things with skates mounted on the bottoms and sails attached. People were just flying up and down the lake at over 80MPH on these things. They were SO cool. But it was SO FUCKING COLD on the ice that we didn't stay out long.

Then we drove all over scenic rural Wisconsin. I was starting to feel a bit nostalgic for that whole rural dream thing that I have - living somewhere cute where I could ride around on my bike through the country and maybe buy produce at a roadside farmer's market stand. I took some pictures of barns. We bought cheese (of course we did - I HAD to - it's Wisconsin for godsakes).

That evening, we went to Ann's house, a friend of Erin and Julia's. We went ice skating on a pond. I was AWFUL at it. First off, the skates hurt and secondly, usually I skate around next to a wall in a rink and then when I feel more confident, I don't worry about the wall anymore. But there are no walls around ponds. So, I looked like Bambi on ice and I fell a lot. Thank god I had a lot of padding - I had the usual suit-up AND a down vest on (I could barely move my arms and I looked ridiculous - the price you pay for being a Seattle Weather Wimp). We made lasagna (oh, and it snowed - so yes, it did indeed snow in every single place I visited on this trip) and had a fire going. Then we played Loaded Questions. I admitted, in front of Erin, that I had sex on occasion. I don't usually admit this fact to anyone. I'm very shy about it and I blush terribly - but this was extra bad because Erin is FAMILY. He's like a brother or something. And yes, he lives with his girlfriend and they sleep in the same bed, but... well... there are just some things you don't want to think about sometimes. As far as I'm concerned, Erin is still a chaste little boy (he's a year younger than me) thankyouverymuch. Anyway, that was really embarassing. And furthermore, I had to talk about a really awful experience I'd had at one point that makes me cringe just THINKING about it let alone admitting to it in front of my little cousin. But still, the game was a lot of fun, and we stayed out until pretty crazy-late.

Day Nineteen: Six AM, I had to be at the bus station. Erin dropped me off. We said our goodbyes and congratulations. It was great to share that whole job thing with Erin, though I have to say, it did distract me an awful lot while I was there. But I was glad to have someone who was as excited as me there to share it.

I slept on the bus. I got into Chicago, called PF and told him that I was just going to hang out at the station, sorry that lunch or whatever wouldn't work out blah blah blah. I read my book. I got on the train.

Hmm... ok, look, I'm sorry, but I REALLY have to go to bed now. I just wanted you all to know about the big news because it's been hard to keep from blabbing it every single day since I've been back. I'll finish the last leg of the trip later. There's only the train ride to write about now. So that's the biggest earthquake of all: new job falling out of the sky, into my lap. Also, my apologies for not being as eloquent as I'd like to be (and not using discresion and writing about every little detail day by day - I know these litanies of "what I did today" are kind of dull, but when I don't have time to write, it is what I keep falling back on). I'll explain a bit later.

Goodnight all! Thanks for being so patient.