Went to Great America with my Nicole on Friday, after I got her Thursday. Hurricane Harbor - nice idea, bad procedure. Creating the park, and it's still in process, was a suka. There's no shade and all that tempting water (and girls, lol. not that I have to worry, I resist the latter quite easily) makes for a hellhole to work in. Thankfully I was able to duck the hottest day in 6 years to enjoy my toilings with Nicole in getting wet. Anyways, the waterpark is amazing, from the guests' point of view. The water itself was quite chilled, but when coupled with a scorcher of a day, it felt wonderful. We wandered around Skull Island for a good time. Think of a school's playground thingy, with slides and climbing things, and all that jazz. Now make it twenty times as big and add hundreds of gallons of water. There are huge buckets that dump water, squirters, jets, everything you can think of to get wet. And then there are the slides all over the place. Have yet to try them all. We splashed around there, and Nicole's mood brightened immensely. Both of us were sick of the heat and long car ride, so when she was smiling and laughing again my heart swelled. I talked to some of my buddies at work (I did bum the day off) and introduced Nicole to them, everybody was happy. I'm sure I would be too if I was sweating hard at work and my co-worker brings up and shows off his sexily hot girlfriend in a swimsuit to me. Haha, crazy days and thoughts. ah, we went over to the lazy river afterwards, and floated on down. I loved going under waterfalls they had on the sides, as the torrent of water on me felt really good. I unfortunately got a healthy amount of sunburn from that, Nicole less than me by far, but it was worth it. We both enjoyed it to no end. We tried the wave pool, and although it also was quite good, it wasn't the best thing there. We wandered around, looked at shops, got hot feet from the pavement, then cooled off again at the island. We then headed into other parts of the park, ate good food, then left for the mall, where Nicole got a shirt that fits her very well and I enjoy it too. Curious thing, girl's clothing... That night we watched Star Wars IV - A New Hope because we've seen Episode III and now it makes more sense to her. I love Nicole. She suggested it actually, and it truly surprised me. I knew she liked III but then to ask me if I wanted to watch the next one with her - woo it was like heaven. Kinda. There are other things closer to. She let me rest on her lap and again, her face held a beauty around it I don't see as much as I'd like. Just interesting, and I hope to capture it more often. Saturday we went to Taste of Chicago. FUN!!! I love the city; hot, dirty, and strange as it is. I had some deepdish pizza that I shared with my darling, a piece of amazing key lime pie, while she had a chicken taco (good I heard), and some watermelon Italian Ice, made with real watermelons. It was very tasty. We also shared a piece of Eli's cheesecake. Wow is that rich, and it was cold too. With strawberries on top, it was great. I got a picture of her in front of the Buckingham Fountain on my phone, and it's now the background. Very beautiful. After that we struck out for the Art Institute, and although we saw a lot of exhibits, her feet were hurting from the day before and so we returned to Union Station (she said it was the best she'd ever seen) and got some food. Fries and a pizza puff from this corner place, and for three dollars it was really good. She got a magazine and I a paper, and we read some while we waited for our train (that's how we got to Chicago - my bad). It was packed! At least the waiting crowd to get onboard. We were sneaky in getting on and found a more or less vacant car and went up to the second level. It was relaxing; I almost fell asleep there. That night we played some cards, soaked in the jacuzzi (she looked lovely) and then basically passed out from our adventures. Today we went to IHOP for breakfast. Tasty. Otherwise, just been relaxing, reading, playing xbox, and now talking to my baby actually, lol. My dearest I love so much, and I can't wait until next weekend when I go down and celebrate 4th of July with her. Another thing I can't wait for. I don't like having to shave for work. I love having just the right amount of facial hair. It just seems to fit my image more...I dunno. I have to work on my feelings toward others and myself. What I have been worrying about has been mentioned again and it troubles me. I always try not to be that way but in actuality it is me. I wish it not to be but wishing won't do anything since I lack a genie. I will have to work for it, and a better person I will be. I feel good.