Chicago

Friday, April 7:

Got in very late, but AirTran acquitted itself quite well as an airline during the trip. They have XM Radio in-flight! It works at all times, even before you’re allowed to turn on your own devices. They don’t have all the channels available (e.g. live baseball telecasts) but it was a huge plus for me. You should already know I love XM.

Saturday, April 8:

Woke up, got cleaned up, and went to Wrigley Field to catch the Cubs play the Cardinals! It was an easy run on the red line from Marta’s apartment, although the train was delayed a couple of times because of construction. I was surprised to see that Carlos Zambrano and Chris Carpenter were on the mound. With the wind blowing in, it was no surprise to see the game go scoreless for awhile. The first run was scored while I was purchasing my very slick Cubs hat. Michael Barrett tied the game up with a two-run pinch hit homer, and Derrek Lee put the Cubs ahead for good with a blast of his own. For Cubs fans, that will seem like ages ago.

From there, I headed downtown to meet with Megan and Marta, who had been shopping. We went to the Signature Room for a few cocktails and to watch the sun set. Even though the martinis were a little pricey, you can’t beat the view.

After that, we headed back to Marta’s place for a quick rest. We watched part of Legally Blonde, which I had never seen, but both girls liked a lot. I enjoyed it as well. We then went out to dinner and to Schuba’s. Megan and I were both exhausted by the time Jason Collet came on, but having had to cut concerts short on account of visitors ourselves, we wanted Marta to enjoy herself. I slept through a lot of the show on a booth outside, myself.

Sunday, April 9:

We slept in on Sunday and watched the rest of Legally Blonde. We showered and Allie, my first girlfriend, came and picked us up for lunch on Devon in the Ind-Pak part of Chicago. That was a delicious meal, even without any meat. Megan and I both had dosai, which, if what we were served is any guide, about three feet long, paper-thin, rice-based wraps. Our filling was a wonderful potato, garlic, and onion mixture. Yum.

After that, we walked around that area since it was such a beautiful day. We went back to Allie’s place to meet up with her fiancee Andy. He’s a very sweet person, and he and Allie are so happy together. Both Megan and I liked him a lot.

We all went out to play catch with the football and frisbee. I was surprised at how well I hucked the disc around for being so rusty, and I even completed a few passes with the football. (My specialty is carrying the mail, as it were.)

Unfortunately, on what would have been the very last throw of the session ended up breaking Megan’s finger. I didn’t throw it– I think Allie did. Megan didn’t really make a big deal of it. She didn’t even go to the doctor until we got back to Virginia. So if the rest of everything else sounds callous, just know that Megan fought me about going to the doctor.

As it turns out, her finger is badly broken. The first specialist she saw said that she’d never be able to bend it again. The physical therapist that she saw two days later had her bending her finger for the first time since it happened. So hooray for physical therapists.

We had planned on going to a show that evening, but would have ended up having to rush. As a result, we decided to take it a little easier and go eat some Mexican and see a show. The Mexican place had the best appetizer I’ve ever had– a Queso con Chorizo that you have to eat with a knife, fork, and tortilla.

Megan slept through most of V For Vendetta. I thought that they did a good job with the source material in general, although I still prefer the comic books. I can see why Alan Moore reacted so badly to this film treatment.

Monday, Apr. 11:

We impressed Andy by playing our GameBoys in bed in the morning. Allie made us some breakfast, which was great. After that we ran down to Lincoln Square for some shopping. The girls hit the apothecary, a clothes store, and some general stores. I got to hit the book store and the record store. We had thought that maybe we’d hit the Lincoln Park Zoo, but we stuck with the shopping.

We got a recommendation for Geja’s for the evening meal. Megan stopped me from getting on the wrong bus, and it was a good thing, because Geja’s was one of the most memorable meals I’ve ever had. We met Marta down there. The ambience and the food were both unbelievable. It’s a fondue place, and no description could really do justice to how good the food was. We had a couple of bottles of wine and some heavenly chocolate fondue. We went to sleep very happy.

Tuesday, Apr. 12:

We basically got up and got to the airport. We had planned on taking our bags to Midway, then coming back to see the Art museum. By the time we got to Midway, however, we were starving. Doing the math, we realized that we didn’t really have enough time to get back and have enough time to check it out. So we hung out and waited for the flight home.

Even though Megan broke her finger, we had a great vacation!