< by Nate >

All I wanted was to watch the Rose Bowl with some Badger fans … was that too much to ask?

I asked myself that question as I stood on the side of the Kennedy Expressway next to my busted up 2002 Ford Focus. A cab had rear-ended me, and I was a mere 10 minutes from my destination.

It was December 31, 2010. The Wisconsin Badgers were playing in their first Rose Bowl since 2000 the next day, and I wanted to watch it somewhere, ANYWHERE, other than Nebraska, the state I worked in at the time.

The logical choice: Chicago. Plenty of college friends. Plenty of Badger bars. Too much fun to pass up. It was going to be a great weekend.

And yet now, I was pacing back and forth on the side of the Kennedy. After several calls were made — to the police, my folks, and my host, Jill — I found myself in downtown Chicago with a car that worked, but didn’t feel right.

Eventually, I made it to Jill’s place in Lakeview. As we sat on her couch and reminisced about our college days, all my car anxieties washed away.

The trip didn’t go totally as planned — there was the car accident, the Badger loss, and a two-day layover in the city —but at the end of it, I knew two things for sure:

My car needed some repairs, and I’d found the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

Like I said, a great weekend.