Well, it wasn't the mostfun filled weekend I've ever had in Chicago, but it beat the fuck out of being here.
I got back to find out that there had been a riot in Kalamazoo. The reason? After the opening game at Western, a bunch of obnoxious college kids had gotten rowdy. When the cops tried to break it up, they rioted. (After all it's their god given right to act like they were raised in a barn.) The cops wound up having to bring in the tear gas and everything. Jesus Christ. Get me out of this town. I don't want to live anywhere that a football game is seen as justification for drunken riots.
So my weekend in Chicago...
Well, I went after my Thursday night class, which is turning out to be a fairly good time, with some interesting folks and headed for Chicago. It took us longer than we expected to get to Chicago, and were relieved to finally arrive at the Drake hotel.
The Drake is a famous, five star hotel on the gold coast. Rob had always wanted to live there, due to its reputation from the 20s and its unique style. They were running a special so he booked a room.
The lobby and elevator were lavish though the room was sorely lacking. It was tiny, and really we had stayed in much nicer for less. It seemed to be more of a society place, where people go to be seen, and so we were paying for the name. Oh well. We still made due, and it was a nice enough place overall.
It took less than a day for us to realize that, even if our current landlord doeshave property on the gold coast, that we don't want to live downtown. We had contemplated moving there for convenience, but after seeing the throngs of obnoxious tourists and society people decided vehemently against it. We wouldn't even live there if it was cheaper than the rest of the city, let alone more expensive.
The next morning, Rob got up at 6 AM to make the drive to the meeting in Green Bay. I got up at 9. I meant to get up at ten, but I had forgotten about the time change between Michigan and Illinois, and by the time I realized my mistake, I'd already ordered coffee. So, slowly I got ready and caught a cab to union station for the train out to elmhurst. I got there with about twenty minutes to spare, but then I ran around for another fifteen trying to find where to buy my tickets until I realized it didn't pick up there. So, dejected, I walked on. It was hot as fuck out, and I had hardly slept and hadn't eaten. I decided to go to Wicker Park for breakfast. I got on the train, but it wasn't until I heard the announcement "UIC-Halsted will be next" that I realized I had gotten on the wrong one. Oh well. I decided it had been too long since I'd been to Taylor street so in a daze, I found a cafe for breakfast and coffee. Feeling better after a bit, I felt bad about the Elmhurst thing and concocted an excuse why I couldn't go. Well, they told me they could fit me in for the last appointment of the day, and I felt kind of obligated, so I agreed to go.
Bad idea.
By the time I left, it was really hot. I got to the el, and was so hot I skipped a couple stops just so I would have ac to catch my breath. Stupid idea, I know, but I was too hot and too tired to think clearly. So, I backtracked and found my way to the right metra station. Exhausted, I got on the train and enjoyed a half an hour of air conditioning. I got to Elmhurst early, so I went to a little Italian deli for cannoli and a lemonade, ignoring the looks of all the insulated suburbanites. I walked around for awhile more until I found Elmhurst. The first thing I saw was the sports complex, where some dippy blonde chick gave me vague directions to the admissions office. Luckily, I found some professor type who was heading that way and walked with me to show me where it was.
I got to the interview. The first thing the admissions counselor, Michelle, said was "what can I do for you?" Like she was a receptionist or something. I thought this was odd since I had been told that an interview with a counselor was a requirement of the tour. But I came up with some questions. To almost every one she didn't know. She knew the school had internships but didn't know with whom. She didn't know anything about the courses repeatable for credit, she didn't even know the software the multimedia program used. She said they weren't listed in the catalog because the school was afraid of "intimidating the students". Well, that said volumes about the program. She told me that I couldn't see the facilities, or any of the school because it was "late in the day" (it was maybe 3:30 in the afternoon by this point) and everyone went to sporting events in the weekend. That clinched my decision to not go. I was a bit annoyed since I had originally called for a tour, and no one said on the phone I wouldn't be able to get one by rescheduling. I sure as hell wasn't trekking out there for a fifteen minute "interview". She told me that I should have specified I would want to see the design facilities."Well, I did say on the phone that I was a design major." I told her. "But you didn't say that you wanted to see the design facilities." She said, to which I replied "I thought that would have been obvious.
As the interview wrapped up, she offered me an application. I told her thanks but no thanks. "Oh are you going to apply online?"She asked. "Um yeah," I said, without much attempt at sincerity.
I went back to the hotel. It turned out that Rob's day was equally useless. He had been almost to Green Bay when the client called to cancel. So, we went out to Leona's for a casual dinner then went in search of coffee. We went to Katerina's but very bad and very loud music was playing. So we went to Wicker Park, but it was that coyote festival (a lot of people displaying very bad art for a weekend) and there was music playing in local grind, too. Earwax, with its lack of ac, felt about 150 degrees, so we found some cyber cafe. We finally got our coffee. There wasn't much going on, so we went to the Mutiny. It had been months since we'd gone, and we were culturally deprived enough in Kalamazoo to give it a shot.
We were greeted by open arms with all six of the people in there. We had some good drinks and actually had some okay conversations, except for the fact that my ex was there. He was sitting alone, and no one else would talk to him so I kept getting cornered. I'll spare you the pointless details of the whole thing aside from the fact that it was quite annoying and I wished that I was a meaner person and could run him off. I also wish that it was more crowded so I could gracefully bow out. But above all, I wish that I did not have this reminder of one of the three things in my life I regret: having made the indiscretion of dating this man, and further letting it go on as long as it did.
But, I can't kick myself too hard, and all regrets are are slaps in the face to make you change your ways, which I've done, but with the day being as much as a loss as it was, the last thing I needed was to see one of the only people I really do not want to see in a very uncrowded bar.
The next day, Rob and I went to breakfast at Hollywood Diner, then went running around on about a zillion errands...buying clothes to sell on ebay, buying comic books for my reading pleasure, buying music at Reckless, then going to the boulevard cafe for a tasty dinner. Then, we headed back to the hotel where we unwound. We had planned to see a show, but we were both pretty exhausted.
The next morning, we went to breakfast at Lincoln's, at Irving Park and Damen. We wandered around in the rain before trekking back to Kalamazoo.
So that's my latest road report. But even if the weekend wasn't as fun as the past few, it still beats the hell out of a bunch of hicks rioting after a football game...
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I did a cool little thing in photoshop for one of my classes. Check it out at the bottom...
