Do you know what the midwest is...

Young and Restless.

OK, not really. But, since Illinois is Kanye's home state, I put on The College Dropout when I crossed the state line. And now I'm feeling like a pimp (yes, I rocked Jay-Z's Grey Album, too. Gotta get the ghetto out of my system before I pick up my mom tomorrow).

But I digress...

In actuality, save for a few college towns, southern Illinois is one big cornfield. As, I've been warned, are Missouri and Kansas. So it should be a riveting couple of days...

Still, the September weather is perfect, I'm staying with a great friend tonight, and this time tomorrow I'll be stuffing my face with barbecue in Kansas City. Not much to complain about here.

Right now I'm in Urbana-Champaign: Home of The University of Illinois, aka the Fighting Illini. Don't know what an Illini is? That's ok, neither does Laura, my friend who is working on her masters in urban planning here (and therefore currently making some sort of computerized map at the computer next to me). Apparently, their mascot used to be an Indian Chief but that wasn't PC, so they had to come up with something new. But let's get real, they're a Big 10 team, so no one really cares anyway, right? (low blow, I know, but I'm moving to Seattle, ok?? I have to get the college football trash-talk out of my system before no one cares. SEC owns it, Y'all!)

I'd originally planned to make it to Chicago this week, as I visited for the first time this spring and loved it. But it just didn't work out this time. So to honor the Chi, which is so close but yet so far away, here's your song of the day: Kanye West feat. Coldplay's Chris Martin, "Homecoming."

Homecoming - Kanye West