What to do with you when you come visit

I have struggled since I moved to the windy city on what the hell to do with friends when them came from out of town to come see me. Everyone always just wants to let me decide. "Oh, whatever you normally do is fine" "I want to see what you see every day" "You know this city better than I do"...these are the things I constantly hear from people.

Truthfully? What I normally do is sit around, probably in my pj's and chain smoke while I read and drink too much coffee. Or I watch really, really bad tv through my computer on Hulu. Then, if it's a day that ends in "Y" I go to the bar down the street from my house. And see the same 4 people I see every night. What I normally see is the inside of my book while I ride the train for 45 minutes to and 45 minutes home from work. Sometimes I see weird people preaching at me. Sometimes I see annoying teenagers (though mostly I just hear them). And finally, you knew me before I moved here. Was I especially adventurous then? What makes you think that I've drastically changed, and jumped into a much higher tax bracket, and therefore obviously know all the best clubs, restaurants, awesomest spots ever?

I'm the girl that once I find a sandwich on a menu I order only that for the rest of my life. Seriously, I've never had any other sub at Jimmy John's other than the #6 (which on a side note was also the veggie sub at Big Mikes, now possibly Milios back home and was also the only sub I ever ate there). I hone in on a pattern and rarely do I deviate. Is this great for my social life? No, of course not. Am I trying to change? Yes, but it apparently takes me more time than 4 years. Whatever, I'm working on it.

So when people come to town I often wrestle with what to do with them for the 24-72 hours they are living on my couch and I'm forever soliciting advice from friends who live here (which by the way if you've got any sure fire winners, please, please feel free to leave them in the comments!)

My one standard has been the Signature Room on the 95th. This is usually reserved for folks that come from towns where the highest building they've seen is between the 3-5 story range, unless it's a university building, then maybe 8-10. It's a crazy kind of fun night out with the ridiculous expensive drinks everyone expects to pay for in a metropolitan city and a view to die for. And weirdly, while I have it on standby and while I always know it's there - I haven't actually been in probably 2 years.

So obviously it is time for me to expand my default list. And I think I have just the thing to do it.

This past weekend I went on a brewery tour of Metropolitan Brewery and it was awesome. Located at around 5100 N. Ravenswood, it's a bit misleading as the door is actually on Winona, this little brew tour is a great find for a Saturday afternoon. I've never done a brewery tour so I have nothing to compare it to, but the 3 beers we got to taste were great, Doug and Tracy were personable, engaging, funny and really interesting. The whole thing took about an hour and it cost only $5 a person. It's a great way to support a local enterprise and all in all, it was just really, really fun.

Seriously, I'm doing this with everyone that comes to town. Also directly next door to Metropolitan is Koval Distillery that offers tours for $10. I hope to stop by there before the summer is out and I'll give you a review of how that one goes too.

If only the city were so creative...

It is a beautiful day in Chicago right now. The sun is out and it is actually producing warmth for the first time in weeks. My iGoogle homepage tells me it is 68 degrees out. All in all, simply wonderful.

I decided to celebrate this wonderfullness by spending the second half of my lunch hour down at Millennium Park. On the North end of the park is a fountain, apparently in the Wrigley Square and Millennium Monument area (that's a mouthful of a title!) and that is where I found myself an empty bench and proceeded to finish my book in the much missed sunshine.

I ended up finishing the comic before my lunch was done so I spent the remainder of my time gazing idly around the park. I wasn't doing a hard-core people study, which I often love to do to occupy my time and brain, more just lazily cruising over the surroundings with my eyes. It was halfway through this cruise that I saw a family in front of me that grabbed my attention.

What I can only guess was a father figure was running around the empty fountain chasing two 5 year old looking girls who were giggling hysterically. The fountain turned off for the season became the perfect ring for the kids to run and run but never really get out of sight of the parental units. Like a human version of a hamster wheel. The low lying wall also provided excellent "wall-walking" for these kids and the varying heights helped with the dramatic feeling of the chase taking place. There was also the added bonus of being able to hide just outside/inside the ring (depending on where dad was) and jump up to surprise the other party. All in all these kids were having a great time.

As I watched them giggle in the way only a 5 year old who hasn't seen the world yet still can, I thought how great it was that this family had found a way to take one of the many expensive city adornments and put it to great use during an off season. I thought how much could we save as a city if we started paying attention to creating things that could be functional year round, if instead of filling my alley with constantly changing flower planters (shucks Daley, thems flowers sure is pretty out there in my smoking alley, thanks!) maybe put that money into our public transit system so we don't have to hike fares again. I can't speak for everyone but I personally could do without the 4 planters directly out back my building when I smoke if it meant a faster, cheaper, cleaner ride to work each day.

Moral of the story? Can I fix Chicago's monetary and political woes? Of course not. But I can say if you are reading this today and you live in Chicago, go outside! And if you live in Chicago and have small children now you have a new place to let them run rampant and smile if you ever find yourself downtown on a warm fall day.

And the top 5 are...

According to Crain's online information the top five largest employers in Chicago are
1) U.S. Government - 78,000 local employees
2) Chicago Public Schools - 43,910 local employees
3) City of Chicago - 35,570 local employees
4) Wal-Mart - 23,453 local employees
5) Cook County - 22,142 local employees.

So Wal-Mart, who the city tried to keep out so desperately, employs more people than the county? Awesome.

Another great fact:
Nationally the U.S. Government employs 1,800,000 people. Wal-Mart? Their national number is 2,100,000. Makes you wonder who is really running this country some days.