“Dear Katie, I have decided on what I’m going to do: I am going to take the train.” So began a 2:30am email from Cliff and our adventure through the tri-state area of the Ohio River Valley. I picked up Cliff from the Amtrak station in Indianapolis around midnight on Friday, and then turned around and drove back to Louisville. Ordinarily, I would have been worried about falling asleep, but we both yammered on and had enough stored up anecdotes (“oh! that reminds me!”) that the coffee and Hostess fruit pie proved unnecessary. A few hours later we were awake again and on the road headed to Oxford, OH to surprise Ariela at her graduation ceremony. She just finished her Masters degree at Miami University and had no idea we were coming. Cliff was the mastermind behind the whole operation, and we pulled it off (mostly) without a hitch thanks to our insideman, Toby.

We’d hoped to catch Ariela in between a formal brunch thing and the actual gown and tassel ceremony, but after sitting in traffic for nearly an hour and a half on I-71 on our way to Miami, we had to resort to Plan B. About five minutes before we lurched into bumper-to-bumper standstill traffic on the highway, I was thinking about how I needed to stop and pee. I was doing zen-like breathing exercises towards the end and every now and then I would clench my fists and scream out the window, like David after the dentist. It was rough. When we finally cleared the gridlock and made it to an exit, there was a line at the women’s bathroom in the gas station. A guy came out of the men’s room around the time I showed up and I kind of looked around to see if anybody was going to make a move. “If you guys don’t want to… do you mind if I jump line and use the mens’?” They didn’t. So I did. It was pretty awful, but desperate times…

My mood brightened considerably after emptying my bladder, and we made it to Miami without a single wrong turn. By the time we arrived on campus, the sun was shining and the graduates were lining up outside the football field. We grabbed a program, located Ariela’s department, and dashed around to the other side of the field to try to catch her. We spotted her and closed in, super sneaky. Cliff tapped her on the arm, she turned around, and hesitated slightly before bursting into excited screams. It was a great moment. =)

After lots of hugs and almost-tears (so close!) Pomp & Circumstance started up and Ariela made her way towards the field… aaaand Toby, Cliff, and I made our way towards the exit. Love Ariela to death, but there’s no need to sit through that shit. So, I drove downtown and had a 3-way with Cliff and Toby instead.

At Skyline Chili, that is! Hey oh!!! I crack myself up…

We bummed around campus a bit more, watched some baseball, and then later in the evening met up with Ariela’s family for a celebratory dinner at Olive Garden. It was great to meet Ariela’s family and I’m so glad we went. Soon after dinner, though, we had to be getting on the road so that Cliff could make his midnight bus to Indianapolis to catch his 4am train to Chicago to continue on to Minneapolis. True story. We stopped at Graeter’s on the way home so Cliff could get the full Cincy culinary experience and then went back to Louisville. With not insignificant reservations about his safety, I dropped Cliff off at the Greyhound station downtown and then drove away. By the time I was on Broadway, my cell was ringing. The bus was full. Of course it was.

Back at the bus station, Cliff got on the phone with his mom (conveniently, a travel agent) and was discussing options when a panhandler that I recognized tapped on our window. The last time I saw her was about a block from where we were and she needed money for diapers. This time it was bus fare. Rather than let Cliff know she was a regular, I just watched as he handed over $2. In my defense, I was really tired. And I guess it’s possible she actually did need diapers then and bus fare now and just didn’t ever stray too far from home. Anyway. The gato helped Cliff’s mom book a flight for the next morning (blessedly late morning) and we headed back to my apartment. Despite sleep deprivation rendering me nearly incapable of thought, I had enough mental fortitude to remember the Krispy Kreme on Bardstown, and we made a stop. We probably stood in Krispy Kreme watching the donuts go by for at least an hour.

I dropped Cliff off at the airport the next morning without incident and have been trying (pretty unsuccessfully) to catch up on sleep ever since. I had a great time seeing him, Ariela, and Toby, and it makes me pine for days when all the best people in the world were—at worst—a very cold 10 minute’s walk away.