14 August 2007 - 12:33 pm

So many random thoughts to share, so little time....

Lollapalooza was great. I miscalculated on a few things, like the area I was staying in was a commuter suburban area, so although I checked bus routes and times and confirmed buses ran to the area I was in, I didn't check for each individual day. So on Saturday and Sunday nights I ended up walking from where I could get to, the first night probably 4 miles, and in the last two blocks, it poured, soaking me wet. I just had to laugh, open my arms and get myself as wet as possible. So close to dry clothes and a warm shower, and a bed. The last night had me walking the full 7 miles I had found the El was from the motel.

Friday night I had taken a cab from the North of downtown Chicago, and it had cost me nearly $50. It should have been more, given the formula the taxi driver told me he needed to calculate, but I wasn't going to argue with him. It took him about ten minutes to process the payment, claiming it wouldn't take my debit card. Since I had never had any problems in Europe or other parts of the United States in the two decades of travelling I had been doing, perhaps instead he entered the number wrong? Fortunately, he called his dispatcher, and had them process the payment. Phew, I could finally get out of the taxi. So much for saving much time.

I am totally in love with Chicago.

The buildings are great, the people are wonderful, the public transportation is easy to use, it's a great city. I found a beautiful coffee shop that I went to every day, just stumbled upon it the first day, and went back every day.

What was especially great about Lollapalooza was the fact that I had a three day wrist band (put on so loosely that I could take it on and off each day, so I wasn't catching it on my hair when sleeping or showering; I love having thin wrists!) and was allowed to go in and out everyday. Since the festival was right in downtown, there was so much to see and do within a five block radius. Okay, so I didn't do hardly anything, other than find a coffee shop and finally find where the front entrance of the Art Institute of Chicago was.... But didn't have time to go inside. Next visit.

This was actually the fourth time that I had been in Chicago that I can remember, once through the bus depot, once or twice through Chicago-O'Hare, and once through the train station. The train station trip was in the middle of the winter, so I remember walking out of the station to look around, since I had a couple hours to kill, walking one block with the wind to my back, and realizing I would need to walk back into that wind, and I just wasn't dressed warmly enough. So that was all I had seen of Chicago before, one block outside of the main train station.

This was a much more extensive tour.

And I got hit on by locals a couple of times, my living in LA of no concern to them at all. I told one about the concept of geographically undesirables here in LA, of living somewhere other than the same area code as a dividing line on dating, so a different state definitely qualified. Both had relatives living in San Diego, strangely enough, as do I.

I am also in love with the Super Shuttle, for a mere $21 they drive me to or from the airport, no parking involved, get me to the doorstep.

On the way back from LAX, I was in a van with a woman from Minnesota who was staying with her daughter two houses down from where my landlord lives. She had been in Minneapolis when the I-35 bridge collapsed, had just passed over it a half hour before on the way to a play in a downtown theatre. She said there had been a memorial service for those lost, even though they still didn't know who was still missing. I began tearing up just hearing the quietness in her voice, our empathy for strangers we had never met, their lives lost so unexpectedly, as it might as well have been our own lives gone.

On a different note, we talked about luggage, and how crowded the planes had been. Full capacity on each flight she and I had both been on. I expressed my concern with how much people insisted on bringing on, how large their bags were. But I had finally had my luggage lost my previous flight, so I knew how important it was to bring carry-on to guarantee getting your luggage to your end destination, especially for a quick weekend jaunt. I expressed how I was surprised what with America's increasing girth and weight in general, that we aren't being weighed with our luggage to make sure we didn't exceed our weight quota. I will not be surprised the day that gets announced. And maybe, like Carbon Neutral trading, there would be the people like my brother, 6' tall and 135 lbs, who would then be able to sell his lack of weight to those who needed extra weight to cover themselves or their luggage. I see this in the not too distant future.....

That's the short and sweet of Chicago. I got back, wanting to see, do more. I asked my friend Yvonne if she would be interested in going with me, since it is where she grew up, show me the sights as only a native could, and I thought we could have so much fun, the people were so nice.... and she thought about it and said, yeah, maybe we could do that. I'm excited at the prospect. I saw things on the maps I had I would gladly go visit, but just didn't have the time or knowledge to coordinate.