Saturday, April 6, 2002 MISSING: Korean Dad Oh what a funny dad. Mom woke me up this morning asking me where I left the keys to the rental car. I told her and then she promptly told me that dad must’ve taken the car out for a drive. Ok. Zzzz… She woke me up an hour later to look for him. What? How? He’s in a car and we’ve only got our Nikes. I couldn’t take her fretting anymore so we took a brisk walk around the neighborhood. It would’ve been a nice one if my dad wasn’t AWOL and if my mom hadn’t decided to re-tell the story about my grandfather’s unfortunate accident. Here’s the brief version. My grandfather took off as was his usual morning routine but caught the wrong bus into an unfamiliar city. We was crossing the street to ask someone for directions when a city bus hit him. The driver took him to the hospital but couldn’t figure out how to reach my mom’s family so my grandfather passed away in the hospital alone. Hmmm… was my mother trying to draw some parallels between the two situations? It worked. That story got into my head and I started to freak out. Dad had been gone for about 4 hours and I know you can’t drive around Chicago for 4 hours. He must’ve gotten into an accident and doesn’t know how to reach me and my current address isn’t listed nor is my cell number in any directory. I tried calling 311, Chicago’s non-emergency alternative to 411. Let’s just say that city resources can’t do the cool stuff you see in the movies. Eh, I tried. When the intercom buzzed, mom and I rushed to the door. My dad was beaming like a little boy who just caught the biggest fish of his life when my mom started screaming at him asking where he’d been. Apparently, he woke up at his usual time, 5 am PT / 7 CT, and we weren’t awake. He wanted to try to look up an old friend who was in Milwaukee the last time he talked to him which was about 20 years ago!! My dad found the map in my bookcase and thought he could drive there and back without us realizing that he was gone but finding downtown Milwaukee took longer than he anticipated. Unbelievable! Even more unbelievable was when my mom told him that she knew he was ok. I reminded her about the walk and her story and dad laughed… for a moment. Then he got offended that we thought he was lost or in an accident. Something about us not knowing him at all after 25+ years. We should know by now that he's indestructible, I suppose. Being a Tourist in Chicago The rest of the day was nice. I drove around Lincoln Park to show them my old apartment buildings. On a whim, we checked out Lincoln Park Zoo and the Conservatory. I’d never been to either and was really surprised at how well done they are. The zoo ain’t nothing like San Diego’s but it’s great because it’s compact and attractively laid out. When we got to the Conservatory, mom was really excited because she’s always loved greenhouses. Didn’t know that. I really need to expand my Korean vocabulary. Dave had just finished up the prospective student program at NU so we picked him up from his hotel and went back to my apartment. Sunday, April 7,2002 Au revoir! Dave's flight was somewhere around 6 am. Thankfully, my dad took him to the airport. I took my parents to church. I tried to convince my mom to go to the English service but she objected since she wouldn't get anything out of it. Didn't I use that argument whenever they dragged me off to Korean services??? Anyway, the Korean service was a bit charged, to put it lightly. There has been some conflict among the leadership and this particular Sunday was supposed to be a voting day. Needless to say, I didn't let my parents stick around for that part. When they were about to drive off for the airport, my mom wanted me to get in the car with them for one last drive around the block. I was really touched; it took a lot of effort to not cry silly as it sounds. All in all, it was a good family trip. Friday, April 26, 2002 Family Reunion! The highlight of work today was checking my Yahoo! account. Dave let me know that he made the decision to go to NU’s law school so he’ll be in Chicago for a few years. Tres cool! We probably won’t live together but I guess that might change. My dad was pretty adamant about us living together if Dave comes out to Chicago so he might get his way. NEXT or... PREVIOUS or... Back to TABLE OF CONTENTS |