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7-21-03 // 9.36 am like carlito's way there are no exit signs NP: Manics - "This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours" Chicago was a blast. A whirlwind up-and-back trip to be sure, but still excellent. Was a few hours late pulling into the city due to having to take Erin's mom to the airport on our way out, but it wasn't any trouble at all. Drove up I-55 (a drive I've done a thousand times over but still stands as the most boring drive ever -- corn, corn and more corn!), fought with the other trillion people on I-90/94 in downtown Chicago, then crawled my way down Diversey to the hotel. After much confusion (everyone was supposed to be in a bar around the corner, but which bar?), met up at the hotel room with Bill, his friend Kent from Bloomington, and more friends Todd and Judy from Texas, by way of Paducah, Kentucky (!) of all places. Had a few beers, then walked down to the Sheffield Walk festival where we proceeded to have our eardrums assaulted by the actually rather good Drive-By Truckers. Walked back to the hotel several hours later, stopping on the way for a quick Mexican dinner. The burritos were as big as your head, though oddly enough, it wasn't the place we ate at, but a different place a few blocks down with the huge neon sign in the window advertising "burritos as big as your head!" Anyway, everyone was well tired by the time we got back (Bill having passed out on the floor with a cushion due to a combination of beer, lack of sleep, and jet lag), so sleep came soon after. Sunday was spent playing tourist, but hey, that's what we were, plus it was Bill's first time in Chicago and the States. So we rode the El, wandered through Grant Park and along the lakefront, did part of the river walk, observed some architecture, and ate a pub lunch. An excellent day. Drove back to St. Louis mid-afternoon, and after getting stuck in an absolute beast of a traffic snarl around Joliet, got on our way properly and made it home about 9 o'clock. Other random Chicago thoughts: anyone living in city owning and attempting to drive a car is utterly insane. The hotel room I stayed in was a free upgrade to some sort of business class workstation type room, which meant it had a little kitchen, a living room and a weird antechamber with a bench right before the bathroom. I liked looking out the hotel window at the three-street intersection, complete with incredibly good view of the city skyline, not to mention the gigantic Crown Royal billboard on the building across the square. I saw a guy who looked just like John Cusack at the Adams El station in the Loop. It was great to see Bill again, and it makes me wish that the majority of my good friends didn't live so far away. Sighted this morning in a gas station restroom -- a vending machine selling "freedom ticklers". It had the word "French" in an 'exploded' font, with the word FREEDOM replacing it. There was also a red, white and blue flag-esque theme in the background. There was also a slogan along the lines of "do your patriotic duty!" So yes, you can now add condoms to the list of items that have fallen prey to kneejerk anti-French sentiment. Bizarre. Ack, I need a shave. It's my own fault, though, as this morning I traded a properly groomed appearance for an extra half hour of sleep. Nothing wrong with that once in a while, methinks. Looking forward to a lot of things at the moment, which is good. Looking forward to playing Magic with Ryan S this week, to going to the ballgame with my family on Friday, to hopefully going out for a nice dinner this weekend with Erin, to concerts (David Gray, Radiohead), to my vacation, to getting back into an exercise routine, to driving down to Cape to visit my sister and Ryan H. Heh, work is actually going smoothly for once (knock on fake wood), my vacation begins in less than two weeks, and to top it all off, I get to leave early today -- for a followup doctor's visit, but it's still leaving early. And with that, it's time to get some work done so nobody can complain when I tell 'em I have to cut out later.
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