Writers and the City

Spent the day in Chicago. I met a fellow writer at Union Station. Two meals, a few iced mochas, one Cosmopolitan, and a few pieces of Hard Rock gear and she is on her way to Germany and I'm tucked in a pretty decent Holiday Inn Express room, preparing to rest up for my day tomorrow to Hemingway's birth home and then the rest of the day with friends.

I really like Chicago. I fell in love it the first time I visited, which was years ago. I drove out here one summer with my parents and friends of the family to see the Cubs play and tour the city.

I returned again a few years after that with a friend and we spent our time getting drunk at the Navy Pier and trying to figure out what subway to get on to get back to our hotel.

The next time I was in Chicago, was in 2006, when I came up here to shop on Michigan Ave for a dress to wear when I got married. Another trip was just this past summer when I came up with a friend to go to a Cubs game. We rode the train back and that was different.

This trip might just be my last for a while, like the other trips were oh so close together; but really, I won't be back here for a long time, so in one short afternoon, I tried to absorb all I could.

I like the traffic, the horns, the people on the street, the cops on the ATVs. I couldn't live here though, work here. I'd get run over, the people move so fast! You have to, I suppose. It just moves that fast here. I guess every really big city is like that.

O'Hare is truly a masterpiece of an airport. That place is so big that if you blink, you'll forget where you are.

My company was great for the day. Theresa, my new writer friend is really just a gem. I wish we'd had more time to chat and explore the city, but she said she wasn't much of a big city gal, and I guess I could be a bit but more so just in the moment, since I'm there, I want to see it all, but eh, I'd seen my share of the town more than once. I hope I was able to make her trip to her plane as smooth as possible.

I miss Daisy, she's at home with the ex. I'm sure she's fine, and truth be told, I needed a night out of there. While the end of June will be here soon, I just needed to get away. I would have left a while back, but circumstances prompted otherwise. Regardless, it's nice to get away. There won't be much getting away for a while to come once I do move, so I guess it's okay to do it know.

I always loved traveling. We traveled very often when I was a kid. I loved staying in hotels. Each place we went was new and exciting. I'll have to think about some favorite places I've been and get back to you.

I'll be reconnecting with some old friends tomorrow and maybe they can become an option for coming out to visit the area again. I also reconnected with a few family members this week. They might just be on the summer "who to visit" list. Okay, so maybe that getting away thing was false. I might just have some places to go this summer, but visiting family and friends, I mean, you don't have to stay in a hotel, you have a place to sleep if they are kind enough to have you. But I guess that's still "getting away."

Long day, early day tomorrow. I'll post about Hemingway's museum for anyone who might be a fan of his. Maybe more on the whole travel thing. I like writing about the places I've been, the things I've seen. It reminds me of the good things life and this country have to offer.