I have always thought that, if I were to want to relocate to a large city, I would pick Chicago. I've always felt comfortable there. Maybe it's just because I've been there several times and it's comfortable. Maybe it's the good times I've had while touring and visiting. Whatever it is, I love that town.
Due to some traffic issues, as well as some miscommunication about scheduling, I got to town late and had to skip YarnCon. This, though a bummer, probably saved me about $200 in yarn purchases, so I wasn't all that upset. I got there about 12:30 Illinois time, and found some parking (bad idea to drive, as it turns out, but super convenient). I walked around on Broadway and finally ducked into a little Thai place. I ordered a cup of hot tea and some Pad Thai. Lovely, quiet, good. Then I walked some more, found a different long term parking spot, moved the car, and went to the theater to see Julia Sweeney.
Allow me this aside: As I think I mentioned in a previous post, I'm a big Julia Sweeney fan. When it was announced that her latest show, "Letting Go of God," was coming to the Lakeshore Theater in Chicago a few months ago, I immediately went online and bought a ticket. The theme of the show is Sweeney's gradual change from Catholicism to Atheism. I've heard the story via a couple of different media: a radio show, the internet, and her CD. It is funny and beautiful and touching and smart and...it's just very, very well written. What I like best about it, and what touches me the most, is her respect for others' belief systems and for the Christian/Catholic community that shaped her.
She talks about becoming friends with one of the nuns who taught at her school and wanting to become a nun, loving "The Flying Nun," watching the movies with nuns and envying them. With Julia, it was Hayley Mills; I, however, aspired to be Maria from "The Sound of Music," before she got sent to take care of the VonTrapps. I think it was that Maria could be such a sisterly screw-up and still have a place at the Abbey that I found so very endearing and something to which I could completely relate.) I also loved the hippie, folky masses that cropped up around the time of my first communion. Hearing John Denver music played at mass in East Lansing when I was about 6 was a revelation for me -- pardon the pun.
As I stood in line to get her autograph and tell her how much I adore this piece, I was surprised (and very, very pleased) to hear both men in front of me, who appeared to be there separately, A) buy a CD; B) tell Julia that they were ministers; C) that they have used parts of her story in their own ministries. It made me happy because it was a conversation, it was a dialogue, it was finding common ground in beliefs that so often are seen to be so diametrically opposed that people KILL because of the differences.
Anyway, then I got to the front of the line and had her assistant take my picture, and she actually took three (how nice!) and after me gushing like a total dweeb (and having totally wrecked my hair while sitting and laughing like a fool during the show), here we are:
After that, the clouds had rolled in heavily and dark was coming fast. I decided to head back to the hotel and just chill and read and do a little homework. I did. I stopped at a Borders, and a Target, and crashed at the hotel. I ate egg rolls and drank part of a bottle of champagne that had been rolling around in my trunk for over a month. I read 2 chapters of "The Four Hour Work Week," wrote an essay for my class, surfed the net for a little while, and watched SNL (where the Andy Samberg video had me shooting champagne out my nose, which hurts, btw). The requisite hotel shots (and I just have to say, Marriott's beds are so FRIGGING comfortable...it's the main reason I stay there):
I got up at a reasonable time Sunday and went downstairs to hop on the treadmill. The place was deserted, which I suppose isn't too unusual for a Sunday morning. Then I got my continental breakfast (Cheerios, yogurt, and two cups of coffee...even though I wanted the danish, it seemed silly when I was still in workout clothes...), went upstairs and ate and showered, packed up, and headed back to Chicago.
Note to Self: The next time you want to go see a rockin' Star Wars Exhibit at the Science & Industry Museum, reserve ahead. Evidently, the exhibit is separate from general admission and "sells out." Which it did. So my big plan was put into the toilet. The rest of the museum, though, was incredible as ever:
The U-505 Exhibit -- completely amazing history here: "Capturing the U-505"
(The videos and audio in the exhibit itself are narrated by the "Cold Case Files" guy, who has the perfect voice for it!!)
The agriculture exhibit was interesting, but this display in the part about dairy cattle cracked me up:
I have to cop to the fact that I am 40 years old and I didn't actually know how a toilet worked until I saw this display and listened to the audio:
The Big Tease: The Star Wars exhibit was sold out, so I couldn't go through it. You can bet I'll be going back in November or December to see it before it's gone in January. Here's the not-so-busy-looking entrance to the exhibit:
Lunch, museum/Starbucks-style:
For Brit, a cyclotron from Univ of MI from the 1930's:
Not the best photo, but this has been one of my favorite displays for years:
My favorite parts of the day were: the genetics laboratory where I saw a mini-lecture on DNA and then wandered around to find some hatching baby chicks:
Talking with my cousin on the phone, even though I found out her plane wasn't going to be to Chicago in time for us to get together...
Playing Star Wars trivia with a really friendly, helpful museum employee who chatted me up for about 10 minute and told me the inside scoop on reserving tickets online, told me about the Star Wars exhibit, and then played a couple of rounds of trivia with me, which is what she was there for:
A huge section on how the brain works that I don't remember seeing before:
A beautifully laid-out display about evolution and how species evolved across the planet (which also gave me an idea about some Christmas gifts I want to make...but that's another story):
I stopped for more Starbucks along the Indiana Toll Road on the way home (which is probably why I was still awake at 2:30 in the morning):
I also stopped for gas and this was the first time I'd ever seen E85 listed on a regular gas-price sign -- how cool is that?!:
The sunset behind me was so unbelievably cool, I kept trying to get a shot of it while driving:
And this one finally came close. It was a great road trip.
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