What a wonderful past three days! I hardly know where to begin. I usually don't do much even living in a city as full of possibilities as Chicago. Usually, it's because I'm most comfortable with myself, just me, hanging out and enjoying my own company and my own noise or lack thereof. After a week of the 'wee ones', I enjoy the silence and the solitude. Or at least a movie that's not animated or music that's not based on a nursery rhyme.
First, it started Thursday night with Ben and Nikki of the Sweatboys who came to Chicago for a two-day music even with their Chicago mates. They made enough time in their schedule to stop by my place and have a wonderful dinner and catching up time at my English Pub. And to personally deliver the new CD from the band. I even got a promise from Benny Sweat himself that the song we wrote together would be remixed and on a future CD. I'm so honored that the song is still getting enough play at the shows for it to have a place on a CD mix. First song I've ever written with someone that got performed, and apparently, it's still a crowd favorite. The night was filled with laughter and it felt like a part of 'home' had walked through my door. Wasn't sad to see them go, I know I'll see them again.
Then I was supposed to have Friday night and Saturday morning to get my weekend chores done before Sallyforth came to town for an impromptu Chicago mini vacation with me. She showed up Friday while I was at work and had fun trying to get lost in Chicago and drive around. Not the plan I had for her and with our gridlock traffic and crazy drivers she quickly understood why. But she had fun in the end. The plan was to show her around my city and we must have walked about five miles throughout Saturday. First, we tried to go to the Willis Tower sky deck but it was very cloudy Saturday morning so we scraped that plan until later if the sun came out, and walked the over two miles to Navy Pier. Once we were there we walked along the pier and then ate at Jimmy Buffet's Margarita Ville Restaurant, which was perfect since it was almost noon by the time we got there. And of course, the sun came out by then. After that, we rode the Ferris wheel so she could get some great shots of the skyline and did some window shopping. Since the sun had decided to make an appearance and burn off some clouds we decided to head back to Willis tower by bus. Fortunately, we had tickets already, so our wait time in line was about and hour and a half or two hours, not bad for a Saturday afternoon which is a peak time for them. The standing around without walking was the hardest. Reminded me of standing in line for Star Wars tickets back in 1977. But once we were in the elevator, that travels 18 miles an hour and takes 60 ear popping seconds to get you to the 103 floor of the tower, we were as awestruck as everyone else. The views of the city all around us were breathtaking. And walking out onto the ledge, a plexiglass platform that six people can fit into comfortably was harder than you'd think. Suspended those 1353 feet above the city, and looking down at it, was an overwhelming feeling of flying or falling or both. But well worth the wait.
I was so excited to finally be seeing it that my entire personality was present. I chatted up two couples from Wales who I could have listened talk to me for hours and been so happy. They were on a tour of Chicago and Saint Louis and 'somewhere in the south' then back to the British Isles. Then I chatted up a sister from another mister, Plaid Hat Girl with a jaunty plaid hat. Which is going to be our brand for the bar we open up on the sky deck. It really needs one. But the final meeting turned out to be Fate. Two young gay (100% gay, Momma Jill!) kids from Nashville, one male one female, who are getting married and perhaps moving to Chicago. Can anyone say new roommates for me? Taylor-Tylor and Playing With Fire Woman were a delight and we added them to our entourage of adventure. After the tower, we decided to try the John Hancock tower and bar but after another long walk and train ride to get there the wait was 30 more minutes, and we were tired of waiting. So we went to Mity Fine the closest bar and rolled the dice. After more drinks and more incredible conversations we decided that we met for a reason. The party continued on the street as Sallyforth and I decided to join them on their adventure instead of calling it a night. And since they were headed to Navy Pier and I'd never been to Navy Pier at night too see my skyline we went with them. Back to the pier and back to the Ferris wheel and what a beautiful night for pictures.
Unfortunately, the time had come where we had to part ways as Taylor-Tylor and Playing with Fire Woman were headed to Boystown and we were headed to my place for some well-earned resting of our tired toes and feeding our tummies again. After twelve hours of outside air and drinks and long walks we slept like logs and now I must try to walk (NO! scream my feet) to the store for groceries and get the weekly laundry done while hoping to write or watch some shows with First Daughter.
I may need a day off from my days off.
Cheers
No comments:
Post a Comment