However, this meant getting everybody up before dawn, so that I could drop Daughter #1 over by my Mom's (so her night help could drop her off at school) before I went to get the car at 8am, and The Wife had to drag Daugther #2 up to her daycare just as they opened the doors. Of course, to add to the hassle, there was like ZERO transit around this morning, The Wife couldn't get a cab, and I couldn't get a bus, which tightened up our schedules. So, I drop #1, go rent the car, drive up to get The Wife outside of #2's daycare, and head off to the expressway. Getting up to the Skokie court was OK ... but I had made a MAJOR mis-calculation for the rest of the trip. I had looked at the map and seen that Golf Road intersected with 294 a few miles west of Skokie. There were little access ramp lines and all that. I needed to get on 294 to get to Hinsdale (which is south-west, Skokie being north). But ... when I got to 294, there were ramps for the NORTHBOUND side, but NOTHING for going south! Now, all I had map-wise was the little dinky car-rental-map and the stuff I'd printed out to get me from Skokie to 294. So, I was LOST IN THE SUBURBS, desperately trying to get back onto an Interstate. In retrospect, what I should have done was just haul my ass around and go back to 94 ... instead I meandered through various suburbs, following various useless roads (and all those fucking suburban roads change their damn names every few miles!) which took me UNDER the highway, but never ONTO it. 45 minutes later I finally found my way to O'Hare and was able to catch up with 294 there. Fortunately, The Wife needed to be in Skokie at 9am, and my appointment was at 10, so with a little luck (in terms of the southbound traffic on 294 moving briskly along at about 85mph), I was able to get down to Hinsdale just in time for my meeting. Damn, I hate the suburbs. How can people STAND to have to drive everywhere???
Anyway, so, I drive back to the City (one good thing, this was the lightest traffic I've seen coming in on 290) and started to look for a parking spot. And look. And look. I drove around the neighborhood for a half hour before giving up and grabbing a spot about six blocks from home. I hate that shit. I think they were doing some re-surfacing and had a bunch of meters out of commission today, because it's not usually that bad in the early afternoon mid-week. I hung out at home for an hour and a half and went back for the car. The Wife had indicated that she would be done by around 4, so I figured I'd run up there and meet her ... she called while I was on the way, and so that worked out OK. Unfortunately, she got picked for the damn jury, so we're going to have to blow another $60 tomorrow for her to have the car (yes, you "can" get up there via public transportation, but it takes about 2 hours, and requires like 3 transfers, AND is dependant on making one of those once-every-hour suburban busses or being totally screwed). I'd like to kick in the teeth of the stupid motherfucker who decided that it would be a swell idea to drag city people out to siberia for goddamned jury duty!