Chicago - Thus Far

So far, the worst part of the trip to Chicago has been New Year's Eve itself. After all my excitement, raised expectations that I was going to enjoy myself, work the room, meet some neat gals, etc., I fell flat on my face, found myself tired and nodding off during one jazz set, demoralized and - not wanting to be a pill or a burden to my traveling buddy - left. Got back to the hotel close to two a.m., relatively sober, full of regret.

Perhaps it was the sticker shock of the $55.00 cab ride which should have only cost $30 or $40 at most, perhaps it was the fact that three of us ate at a loud restaurant and I have a hard time hearing in a noisy crowd-filled place. Perhaps those two incidents prior to the art gallery set me up for a bad time. Perhaps it was not being able to speak to/call my wife and daughter, 800 miles away. My first New Year's away from them. Whatever it was, it didn't work, and I did not have a good time.

But today is a new day, and although it is cold, there may be plenty of things to do in Chicago, on our last full day here. Perhaps go back to Wicker Park and check out what is open, what can be explored. Timing prevented that from happening.

But yesterday was not totally lost. A double cheeseburger and a beer at the Billy Goal Tavern, sitting at a writer's bar...journalist's bar, more accurately. Then meeting up with a friend of my traveling buddy who got us into the art institute. We saw Gauguins, Picassos, Van Goghs, a whole bunch of older stuff from Africa, Indonesia and the Americas. The best part was the narration by the friend who went with us, who does not believe that art galleries should be treated like libraries, or worse yet, cemetaries, whose iconoclastic approach to art was a balm to the stuffy atmosphere that such large institutions cultivate. That followed by a beer and bourbon at this bar on Wabash and service from a very cranky, unfriendly waitress.

The day before was for walking. All the way up from Van Buren and State to Belmont Avenue and the Hungry Brain. A nice lunch at an Irish pub, some beers along the way, drinks at a place called Beat Kitchen. A nice time. I left early that night, too, so I would have energy for New Year's Eve. Funny.

So, that's Chicago in a nutshell. Fair to say my best times actually were just walking the streets, people watching, enjoying the sights and sounds and smells of Chicago...which feels less this time like home.

But then again, no place feels like home anymore.

I have no home.