chicago: the lazy wrap-up blog post

Yeah, I never got around to telling the rest of my Chicago stories, then this weekend I went to Oregon and now I'm just totally behind. So here, I'm finishing off Chicago with one big post.


On Saturday we went to the Field Museum. They've got a real big dinosaur there.


A highlight of the visit: Chicago's Fluevog store isn't far from Grrrbear's house. It's in an old movie theater. I bought boots. They needed stretching (the guy almost pulled me off the chair getting the left boot off my foot) so I'm actually receiving them tomorrow - Grrrbear picked them up last week and shipped them to my office.


Clockwise from top left: Grrbear's girlfriend, Grrrbear, me.

Saturday night I went to former colleague S.Ball's wedding, the reason for my trip to Chicago. It was in a former billboard factory that now houses some guy's collection of sports cars. The guy also rents it out for events. The ceremony was on the top level, where they painted the billboards (so it had really high ceilings and natural light). Like how I cleverly made this photograph anonymous by shaking the camera? Totally on purpose. Nothing at all to do with the low light.


I wore my awesomest pair of shoes. In fact, I planned everything else I wore around the shoes. The other shoes in this picture belong to two very excellent people from my former employer.

I maxed out on wedding partying at about 11:30 and caught a cab back to Grrrbear's. I got in a little before midnight and was like, hey, sweet, I'm in time for Weekend Update! Stupid central time. Saturday Night Live was just ending.

And that is all. It was a quick trip but good fun.

chicago: the sociable cat

The Friday night I was in Chicago, I went to a pre-wedding cocktail party. It was fun - people were really friendly, which was good, because I knew exactly three of them, two of whom were the bride and groom. (And the other of whom I had met eight days before.)

When I got back, Grrrbear was asleep, so Grrrcat had been wandering the apartment alone for a while. Grrrcat likes people. If there are people, he really, really wants to be where they are. I'm allergic to cats so he wasn't allowed in my room. Every time I went in there, he'd start throwing himself against the door, then doing this:

It was pretty endearing. Here's what the rest of him looks like:

chicago: the park

People kept telling me I had to go see Millennium Park, and I was like, whatever, how good can a park named after a year be. But it's actually really cool. Lots of people out, neat public art, thumbs up.

In the foreground, that's a bit of prairie or something. Peeking over the right back wall, Chicago's very own Gehry building. (It's a concert pavilion thing. All my pictures where you can actually see it make it look terrible.)

Look how pretty the lawn seating at the pavilion is. So pretty! And such a nice day.

A sculpture cleverly called "The Bean." It may have an official name, too. But I don't know it.

That's me taking a picture of myself reflected in the bean.

chicago: the art! art! art!

After lunch, Grrrbear gave me his Art Institute member card, dropped me off at the El station, and sent me downtown. I adopted my normal plan for art museums: keep moving. If I try to look at everything, or even anything close to everything, my brain gets full after the first room and I can't concentrate on anything else.

So I saw all the famous stuff, like this:

which was apparently in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, because everyone keeps asking me about it, but I saw that movie once about 18 years ago and don't remember it at all. Other famous paintings: American Gothic and Nighthawks. But they pretty much looked like you'd expect, and I'd seen Nighthawks on tour a few years ago.

I considered skipping the European art before 1900, 'cause that stuff can be bor-ring, but I decided just to walk through. And I totally fell in love with this St. George and the Dragon from 15th century Spain:

Of course it was cooler in person. (It shows up better here - click on the painting to enlarge.)

When I was in Berlin this February, I went to the Egyptian Museum on a day when my brain was already full (sigh) and I couldn't appreciate anything but the one famous piece. I was bummed about this, because there isn't much Egyptian stuff in D.C. so I don't get many opportunities to see it. So I was excited about the tiny Egyptian room at the Art Institute, and would you look at this adorable chick?

So cute!

chicago: the strawberry lemonade

I got to Chicago around noon on Friday. Grrrbear works close to the airport, so he and a work friend picked me up and took me to lunch at some kind of suburban steakhouse thing.

It had really, really big drinks.

chicago: the luggage

Since I was stuck in a hotel for a night, I had time to take some travel still life photos. I was flying with United, which now (argh) charges for any checked luggage at all. It's only $15, but that's just obnoxious. So I was determined to fit everything in a carry-on. For a wedding, a party, and a few days of sightseeing.

My main worry was toiletries - normally when traveling I'm not too picky, but I was going to a wedding - I wanted to have the right hair product. It's in one of the little plastic jars on the left:

Also note such travel rarities as lipstick and mascara. Yikes. Behold how all that stuff fits in one quart-sized bag:

And here's all the other stuff. Let's see...two dresses, two pairs of heels (two different dressy occasions), one giant silk wrap, another alpaca wrap in there somewhere, a silk scarf, a very shiny bag, and various other pieces of clothing.


All in one bag! Normally I check stuff, just so I don't have to lug everything around the airport with me, but I must admit it's pretty nice to bypass the lines at the check-in desk and waltz right through security. Then skipping the baggage claim at the other end is nice, too. But, man, it took a lot of planning to fit all the liquids in that bag. (Like the TSA people pay attention. On my very early flight back from Chicago, I forgot to take the plastic bag out of my suitcase at security. And since my liquid prescriptions were near the plastic bag, there were clearly way more liquids in there than there should've been.)

chicago: the failed first attempt

Another trip...another set of blog posts! This weekend I went to Chicago to watch S.Ball get married.

The trip did not start smoothly. I showed up at the airport Thursday night in plenty of time for my 7:45 flight, grabbed some dinner, got to the gate - and the flight was leaving at 9. Whatever, I had a book and an ipod. At 9:10 we were all sitting on the plane when they cancelled the flight. Shoes off, bags stowed, everything. Some important system on the plane wasn't working and couldn't be fixed that night. But since it was mechanical, they put us up in hotels. Woo!!


I was totally impressed with everyone's attitude the whole time. People giggled when the flight was cancelled and helped each other figure out what was going on while we waited in line for rebookings and vouchers. For some reason United told two women (a mother and daughter, somewhat clueless) that they couldn't get their room paid for because they lived close by. They had no way to get home, so two other women - strangers - agreed to room together so the others could have a free room. It was a good day for humanity.

And hey, I was happy - the hotel had cable and a nice comfy bed. My new flight didn't leave til 11:30 on Friday, so I had a nice relaxing morning, too.