When I was in the Salt Lake Airport Sunday morning, waiting to board, they called out my flight and said it was overbooked and were looking for people to give up their seats. I called Meg and went to the counter to find out more. “You’ll get to Chicago about midnight after a layover in Denver and then one in Cinicinati”, you’ll get $200 plus a free on-way flight anywhere in the US. ‘Sweet” was my response! But Megan was less interested in picking me up at midnight than I had hoped, so I boarded the plane and let someone else have my $200.
One of the first inner-city lessons I learned from Megan was to ‘stay off the grass’. Now to me, the lush, green grass overgrowing (or at least getting mowed) everywhere didn’t really warrant the harsh (and constant) reminders to walk on the sidewalk. Had a seen a dirt patch that looked as if seedlings were sprouting that would’ve been different, but supposedly you won’t walk on the grass in the city – it is just for looks :-) I also liked the nice 'face lift' part of the buildings where they would 're-brick/re-model what the front of the structure looked like, and then have a completely different look on the side!
And there's a western song that talks about a 'red-neck woman' who 'leaves her Christmas lights up all year long' - this is evidence it ain't just for rednecks!
Pat of the reason Megan was reserved about the midnight pickup was because we had to go to her camp in Michigan and be there by 8 am the next morning. We decided to drive down that afternoon (after she took me to a original Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza restaurant!).
It’s about a 2 ½ hour drive so that took up the rest of our ‘first day’.
Monday morning and afternoon encompassed her attending her business meeting and me sleeping and watching some Parelli Videos. One of the highlights of the Michigan Trip was the drive back to Chicago. I had packed a few sugar snap pea pods which provided immense entertainment. It’s hard to explain and one of those ‘you just have to be there’ moments I’m sure so I won’t bother going into much detail on the instance…but I will inform everyone that there is a new saying on the block. You’ve possibly heard of ‘two peas in a pod’ which (I think) refers to a two things that are very similar to each other. After some pea exploration and evaluation, along with references to the famous geneticist Gregory Mendel, we decided that it can also be said ‘6 peas in 2 pods’. (yes, I suppose you had to be there) :-)
When we got back in town we decided to rent a movie from Redbox. Here I learned a couple more ‘inner city’ rules. I told her I’d pay for it when we pulled in so she told me to get my credit card out of my wallet while I was still in the car. This idea sorta made me laugh as everyone at the Redbox has to have a credit card, and if they want to rob you, they will. But I obliged and got it out. When we returned to the car Megan noticed my wallet was sitting in plain view on my seat. “Do you want my car to get broken into or what?” was her initial response. “Well if you hadn’t have told me to get my credit card out it would’ve been in my pocket! I didn’t think about the wallet after I got the card out – which I guess could’ve ended badly for both of us.
That night we played canasta - which is a rather involved card game that our grandma taught us growing up. Here's a shot of a standard hand...the winner is the first person to 5,000 points. Megan won. Let's leave it at that.
Tuesday morning we went for a walk in the park with one of Megan’s friends.
Yet again, there were many things I obviously didn’t know. Like if you wanted to take a picture of the park, make sure that there were no actual people in your shot. Supposedly, taking pictures of people is considered rude and disrespectful (although it’s a freedom/right given to us in any public environment). So I took pictures of dogs and flowers instead. This dog made me laugh as he was obviously in a ‘yard’ but it was complete concrete. You’d think with all the grass we couldn’t walk on they’d be able to get something a bit more comfy going for the poor pup.
Then we headed off to the Museum of Science and Industry. We learned all about some very cool things, like the farm! Timed our ability to hook up a diary cow to a milking machine, learned about how much manure gets produced by 1 cow, learned about where pork comes from, saw baby chicks hatching (again no grass – just a heated metal/glass see through cage).
We also learned about nuclear engineering, old fashion tools, the US 505 Submarine, and ‘YOU’ (which was an exhibit all about the human body!) There was also a very cool display about inventions of the future. One of which talked about ‘printable food’. You bought ‘flavored paper’ from the store, then ‘ordered’ online from the restaurant, and printed off something that ‘tasted’ like that (cookie, pasta, soup, etc). They are also working on 3-D ‘fake food’. Interesting…Also ‘hugging clothes’ that had heat/pressure spots where most bodies come into contact during a hug. It can be text activated so I could signal it to give you a hug!!! (I am sure there are some guidelines on use and such, but cool idea none the less). Lots of laughing and exploration at the museum. We both came away with a shirt that read ‘Pluto – revolve in peace’ …which my sister made sense of before me – took a minute.
I bought some ‘astronaut food’ in the form of a dehydrated ice cream sandwich. It was an ‘experience’ that reminded me why I didn’t want to go into space any time soon!
We rented another DVD that night called ‘Everybody’s Fine’ in which, of course, no body was fine. Good news is I was able to not only get my credit card out before exiting the car, but I also took my wallet with me! And when we got back to her apartment, I walked on the sidewalk! I can be learned! :-)
Wednesday we went down town and rented a trolley tour for the day that we could ‘hop on and off’ throughout the day to various locations. We went to Millennium Park, Navy Pier (where I learned my sister was afraid of heights and Ferris wheels…but not until we were on the way UP on the Ferris wheel lol), and then to the Water Tower shopping mall.
On the drive on the way home, we randomly decided to stop at the ‘Container Store’ which showcases organizational tools for everything from your kitchen, to office, bedroom, bathroom, and beyond! It’s the perfect place for people are organized…perfectionists…and OCD :-) Meg and I spent about 3 hours going up and down every isle and discussing the cool gadgets (some of which we were discussing because we were trying to figure out exactly what we would be organizing with it! One of them we decided could only be used for one thing…a holding box for the tooth fairy! :-) )
We headed to the airport about 7 am the next morning and I flew home. Sat next to two a people who own Harley Davidsons…the man (in his 40’s) was carrying a stuffed dog. I also used this time to learn how to make money origami into windmills –something I have probably already forgotten :-)
Megan wanted this to be a really funny blog…because we spent a good majority of the time laughing. Most of it was laughing at with Megan –at Megan. :-) But most of the things are either ‘you had to be there’ experiences or just too wordy to put in a blog. “Too Wordy?” you say, “how can this blog possibly get any wordier?”
Trust me…I condensed ;-)
Other Funny things:
The little / old buildings in the middle of sky scrapers
or sky high walk ways that are...questionable at best.
buses with pretend mammoth fur
a beer garden?
crystal gardens...indoors (aka pretend you are in Hawaii)
a building with its own zip code
art? a giant jelly bean shaped mirror thingy...
safe/functional parking (don't worry, you are not allowed to park your own car!)
If you want to see more photos go to my facebook page :-)
