reluctantly, i have returned to austin from my short but wonderful trip to chicago. the meat of the trip can be found in my photos and tim’s photos. here’s a summary…
thursday: got into chi at around 3pm… props to my parents for picking us up at the airport and taking us into the city. my parents were pretty psyched to find parking; tim and i were pretty psyched to be in a real city 
again. stepping onto fullerton avenue, the air seemed to breath a little cleaner despite the smog. hundreds of people passed me as we made our way across the 6-lane intersection, and the feeling of life in motion was more refreshing than the the cafe mocha i would soon indulge in at the bourgeois pig, a coffee shop situated in a styley old brownstone near depaul university in lincoln park. after caffeine, my parents left tim and i at our hotel, the omni ambassador east, home of the famous “pump room” (an elite bar/restaurant were frank sinatra and friends — among many other famous types — apparently used to hang out, but tim and i were never spiffed up enough to get in). 
the omni is a national historic landmark and prides itself in blending the luxuries of yesterday with state-of-the-art technology of today (i.e. a webtv and a nintendo64). tim hooked us up with a real honest-to-goodness SUITE, with a couch and everything! it was pretty nice and we probably should have spent more time in there given how much is cost. but after a shower we headed out for food. tim wanted to go to the Chop House, but surprisingly enough, the only veggie food they had was a side salad and potato pancakes. so we settled for some delicious deep dish spinach pizza at pizzeria uno. we did a little bit of wandering and found some drinks at a cool little storefront bar called Mondelli Lounge. afterwards: exhaustion followed by sleep.
friday: our only full day in the city. we managed to get out of the hotel by 9am for breakfast where i spilled coffee all over myself. after we ate and i changed my t-shirt, we began exploring… among our wanderings: The Loop, Grant Park, Lake Michigan, The Magnificent Mile. i got to check my e-mail at the Apple Store, and see someone on a Segway, and use my camera a whole bunch.
after walking around all day, we direly needed a drink. so back to the Mondelli Lounge we went for a few vodka tonics before catching up with my sis and parents for dinner at Raj Darbar. the cooks over there dished out some phenomenal indian food which i couldn’t help but gorge upon. afterwards, i was too full to movie so we went a couple doors down to Griffin’s Public House for more drunkeness and the Cubs game — it was insanely cool to be in a Chicago bar when the Cubbies won. “Aloooooooooou!”
after the game we headed out into the chaos of the north side post cubs victory. i got a call from one of my favorite people, cara, so tim and i got a cab and went even further north to meet up with her at a chill beer bar called “The Hopleaf”. more drinks, chit chat, catching up… i miss that girl!
by the end of the night i was drunk and tired and extremely happy that the convenience of public transport was close at hand. we hopped on the red line back to our hotel.
saturday: john and colleen’s wedding day. due to the chicago marathon, the omni was full for saturday night so we got gussied up and checked out. tim looked great in his suit. we were late for the wedding, which was boring anyway. it was a catholic ceremony which involved mass, a ritual i haven’t attended in years. that was vaguely interesting. aftewards, we spent the remainder of the day wasting time downtown. some tasty food — upsidedown pizza, salad, bread — was had at the Chicago Pizza and Grinder Factory. then we travelled to navy pier for some bullshit tourism before the reception. 
i was wearing a pair of incredibly uncomfortable shoes the whole time (my feet are still recovering). it was also cold, and the only jacket i had was a hoodie, so i looked incredibly ghetto the whole time. but alas, i had a reception to go to, and it was surprisingly fun. tim got along really well with the family, thanks to the open bar. i had a chance to catch up with my extended family, something i don’t do often enough.
we didn’t dance, but we sure did party… until about 2am. i had a reservation at the Hilton in the burbs (the only place i could get a room for saturday), but i made the crucial mistake of not calling early to confirm my reservation. when we got there, they had given away our room so they put us in a conference room with a couple of rollaway beds — ghetto! the good news is that they felt bad so we didn’t have to pay for the room, and they gave us some pop and snacks for our troubles.
sunday: a day in the burbs. tim and i were pretty out of it… all we could manage was a lazy afternoon with my sis — we took a walk by “hidden lake” and saw some pretty red leaves. then we stalked my mom at the sports athority (damn we’re cool). finally, we played mini golf … i came in last…. something like a 59 on a par 45. before the flight back, tim and i got our garlic on at a tasty italian restaurant for the benefit of our fellow air travellers.
so that’s it. i enjoyed the city so much that i’m almost considering moving back there when the time comes. but first i need to catch up with life here in tejas. i’m behind in everything from homework to laundry to exercise. but the weekend refreshed me, and i’m confident i’ll be caught up by the end of the week. and i should have no distractions as i left my phone charger in the room at the omni. and since i don’t have a phone, i can’t exactly call to see if they found it. one of these days i’ll get around to buying a new one.
back to life, but i’d rather be in the city.
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