The Windy City, the Rainy City, the City of Broncos: Chicago

NB: Wrote this at the airport this morning with no free wireless.  Fell asleep in NY before I remembered to post it.  Thanks for all the texts to remind me. Not. 

It’s 5:39am here at Chicago’s O’Hare International Zoo Airport. That means it’s 6:39am in New York (my destination), and 3:40am in San Francisco. I am waiting at the gate with a group of 78 senior citizens from some generic European country where they speak limited English but smile a lot—a clear sign that they are not from Chicago. I know there are 78 of them because I raced them to the check-in counter and heard their tour guide/bus driver tell the Jet Blue attendants to gird their loins get ready for 78 hard shell suitcases. 

I got into Chicago a little later than scheduled due to the awful weather last Thursday.  It was a very bumpy flight and, honestly, the first time that I felt a little nervous being in the air. I got over it aka watched tv, and we landed in the windy windy city.  I took the El to Hotel Huhs—Mike and Maureen’s condo.  They have the most comfortable pillows I’ve ever used and had cocktail hour at night AND breakfast in the morning!   Maureen, if this lawyer thing doesn’t work out, I think you two should open an Embassy Suites.  Mike and I made fun of Maureen a bit, and then she got home from work.  So we walked down the street to a taco related restaurant.  There was a 30 minute wait, so we crossed the street and went to a speak easy where Mike and Maureen had their first official date.  Third wheel that I am, I tagged along and had a delicious gin drink. The taco place across the street showed that famous Chicago charm by calling my cell when our table was ready and then telling us that we had 2 minutes to make it, or they’d give it up and call the next party. It isn’t called the friendly city for a reason… This taco place was delicious and at a converted auto garage- so all the seating was outside.  It was a beautiful night in Chicago, and we ordered way too much food and ate most of it. 

The next morning, Mike and Maureen left to be contributing members of society and the work force, and I contributed to my sleep quota. I woke up and did some laundry.  I was a little nervous to use the hotel’s machines, because I know Maureen already knocked over the detergent when they moved in… and that she washed their clothes in only fabric softener for 3 months.

I finally got off my well-rested and well-laundered ass and took the El down to the Art Institute of Chicago.  If The West Wing theme was my internal soundtrack during my trip to DC, The ER theme was on loop in my head the whole time I was in Chicago.  I wanted to see the Sunday on the Isle of La Grande Jatte painting, the basis of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s musical Sunday in the Park With George—one of my favorites.  So I stared at the painting for… 25 minutes and soaked it all in.  Meredith told me that she didn’t bother to see anything else in the museum, but I decided to walk around and see some other stuff—including this portrait of my roommates.

I met up with SCUer Gerhki and we walked over to have deep dish pizza with SCUer Bonk, who I haven’t seen in a long time.  The pizza was HUGE and we inhaled did our best to eat it. Shit was much bigger than I expected.  I had eaten deep dish one time before when Bonk’s mom sent her some in college—but then Maggie got drunk and tried to BBQ it instead of heating it up in the microwave, and that was the end of that.

Gerhk and I said goodbye to Bonk and headed over to IO Improv to see SCUer John perform.  The improv place was awesome—walls covered with headshots of famous people who started there: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch, Lutz, Chris Farley.   John’s team did a great show that was all based on the suggestion “tofu blender.”  Who knew health food and kitchen appliances could be so funny! Then they interviewed an audience member, named Jimmy, about what he did that day.  After the interview, they act out his dreams—using the people and places and things he mentioned.  Well, Jimmy admitted that he hadn’t done a whole lot that day besides drinking (roars of laughter) and that he had a 3 year old son (howling from the audience) and that he lost his job because of the recession (crickets).   We went out for drinks after with Gerhk’s boyfriend Mike, John’s cousin and his wife, John and his friend Angela. Rockin and rollin.

Maureen and I had hoped to take a Segway tour of Chicago on Saturday—despite the CEO of Segway’s ironic death last week.  Maureen and I are nothing if not risk-takers, so we were willing to look death in the eyes all for the sake of a funny story/picture.  It started raining and whatdya know, we had to pass on the Segway tour.  Rats. We also had to pass on the architectural river tour and the water taxi, too, but the wind and rain and freezing couldn’t stop us from having a Chicago style hot dog or taking a cab to the movies.  We saw The Social Network which made me think about getting rid of my facebook for a grand total of 27 seconds. 

We met up with SCUer Ashley and SCUer Joey for Indian food (spicy!) and it was so nice to catch up and see how they’re doing here.  (Shoutout to Joey for coming to dinner—and for being a devoted supporter of the blog. (I feel a lot of pressure…like using a public bathroom… writing this one, Chicago-ers…sorry it sucks!!)).  Ashley, Maureen and I met up with Gerhk at the Goodman Theatre and saw Mary Zimmerman’s new adaptation of Candide—yup, that old chestnut.  It was 3 hours long, but very smart and beautiful and the finale “Make Our Garden Grow” made our Greg cry (raise your hand if you’re surprised).  Chicago is a great theatre city, but still has that pesky problem called “other people” who sing along with the show or sing the songs before the curtain, during intermission, or after the curtain call. 

We took the Mike Shuttle to Southpark Grocery for breakfast yesterday—which was fantastic.  I had the bread pudding pancakes, which tasted as good as they sound.  And then Maureen and Mike and I went

(OH MY GOD, THE EUROPEANS ARE ALL SINGING AT THE TERMINAL RIGHT NOW.  SOME SORT OF EUROPEAN ANTHEM...WITH CLAPPING! IT IS TOO EARLY FOR THIS SHIT)

to Will’s bar for the Packer’s game.  This shit was AWESOME.  Full of every Packers fan in Chicago, everyone was decked out in Green and Gold gear—and swearing like a bunch of sailors.  There are moose (meese?) hanging on the wall... chandeliers made out of antlers...We had the biggest beers I’ve ever seen, and left at half time—but not after the RAFFLE!  They gave everyone a ticket and raffled off a bunch of Packers related swag: Christmas lights, cheese hats, cheese bras… my trip would have been better if I won, but I was happy just to see the phenomenon of the raffle happen.

The weather was much better yesterday—or at least sunnier—so Maureen and I went over to Navy Pier to catch an architectural river tour.  It was not a “booze cruise” as we had hoped, but they did have free coffee and lemonade—despite the fact that it was hovering in the 40s on the water.  And all the free coffee can’t make up for a boring tour guide.  This lady knew her architecture—but who goes on the architecture tour to hear about that?  I want to hear about Oprah and shit, not the features of Art Decco. Thankfully (and surprisingly!), Maureen supplemented the fun stuff.  The lady was also a wimp, and got too cold during the tour, so she took the microphone inside the cabin (?) to finish.   How rude.

We swung by to pick up my “favorite non married Green Bay friend”, Court, and went back to the Huhs House for dinner and general good times. And good times they were.

My flight was at 7am this morning, and I was worried that I would miss it and Mike was worried that there was going to be traffic, so I didn’t sleep all night and Maureen took me to the airport at the ripe hour of 4:45.  In a friendship that’s been built on “you owe me” moments, this was payback for all the times I drove Maureen to the airport in college when she was still drunk from the night before.  Thanks, Maureen.  And you’re still welcome.

Off to NY for a final farewell to my Jetting.  Home for good for now on Wednesday! 

G