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.

Surprises

Have you ever had one of those out of left field, totally surprisingly wonderful events happen? I hope so, because I recently had one and let me tell ya-they're great.

It's the kind of event that sneaks up on you that are the best. Don't get me wrong, a happy moment in the middle of a shitty day is great, fantastic in fact, but whenever you remember that great part it will always be linked with the shitty day in some part.

What I'm talking about are the moments that come in the middle of an already good time. Let me break it down for you.

As you know I currently reside in this wonderful metropolis that is the Windy City. But I haven't always lived here. In fact, I'm currently contemplating not living here, but that's a blog for another time. When I moved here I tried to keep in touch with old friends but I pretty much sucked at it. If it weren't for Facebook, I don't think anyone would know what I was up to these past few years. And if it weren't for Facebook, I wouldn't have nearly the amount of "friends" I have today. See FB is famous for dredging up every single person you've ever run into in your life and reconnecting you with them. Sometimes this is good. Sometimes this is creepy. But most of the time, from my experience, it's usually pretty uneventful. Standard FB friends interact like this.

Step One: Old friend/classmate/co-worker finds you and asks to be your friend
Step Two: You accept, mostly to see what the heck they've been up to, and there is possibly a brief "HI! What's up?! What have you been up to?" interaction
Step Three: Conversation dwindles down to almost nothing, maybe a few "liked" updates here and there
Step Four: You forget you are even "friends" with this person

This encompasses most of the typical Facebook interactions. Then, every once in awhile, along comes a breakthrough.

Enter the actual story....

Last week I get a message from one of those random FB friends that I went to high school with. Turns out he's coming to Chicago for the weekend and wants to know if I want to hang out at a local street festival with some of his friends. Since said local festival is in my neighborhood I figure why the heck not, it'd be fun to catch up and an excuse to get out of my routine.

Friday night turns into a bust, which is fine with me because I'm having a pretty good time at my local hang out playing darts and conversing with the regular cast of characters. Not thinking that Saturday will work, I spend the day hanging out and getting ready for fight night*. About 2 hours before I would of begun my trek up to the house of a friend for fights I get a text asking if I want to meet up for the local festival. Judging the time it looks like I can stop by the fest, say hello, and if it's totally weird and/or unfun I can ditch out and make it for fights, so I say sure, text me when you hit the city.

Side Note: Have you ever tried to find someone at a Windy City street festival? Someone you haven't seen in 12 years? It's not fun. Lucky for me I was spotted first and was able to stop the frantic, fruitless search of the crowd of eerily similar looking drunk 30 year-olds.

So we find each other. I meet his friends, all of whose names I promptly forget, and we wander around the street fest. Things are going well, I'm having fun, these people seem nice so I back out of fight plans and stick with the street fest. At some point about half the group decides they want to venture elsewhere, mainly to the fireworks downtown. As this plan holds absolutely no enjoyment for me I step back and let them figure it out. My old school mate and half the group decide to stay so I again decide to stick with the street fest since all in all, this has worked out well for me so far.

Fast forward through boring, tedious, and none of your business details and what ends up happening is I have a really, really great night. Brand new set of people, reconnecting with someone I was totally surprised to be hanging out with, and getting out of my usual routine for 48 hours. It was utterly fantastic. And it completely took me by surprise. And I think that is why 2 days later I'm still a bit smiley about the whole thing.


* Yes I am a fan of UFC fights. We can discuss my disturbing addiction to blood lust later if that's okay.

Escape

So I am sober enough to understand that I am writing this from my phone at 1:30 in the morning, but probably not sober enough to fix spelling errors or care that I'm saying this online for the world to read, so I guess take that as you will.

I have to get out of this windy city. This desire works out well with my vacation plan as I am leaving tomorrow at 10 am for quieter, greener, Wisconsin studded pastures, but still I find myself stuck in the post midnight, hate this city, dear gods I have to get out of here, mind frame.

And since I'm not sure what else I have to say, and writing on my phone makes me feel like i've written way more than actually shows up (and makes me use way more comma's than is ever necessary), I say goodnight world, goodbye Chicago, at least for now.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Stuck in the cement with my head in the clouds

There is something inherently liberating about waking up one day (or slowly over many days) and realizing there is absolutely nothing holding you to where you are. No job. No house. No partner. Nothing. In reality, if the opportunity presented itself, you could pick up, pack up, and go wherever the hell you wanted to at a moments notice.

After this realization hits you the dreams will inevitably follow. Dreams of amazing jobs in new cities with new local dives to discover and befriend. New apartments to cram everything you can into at the top of creaky sets of new stairs. You begin to dream of selling your stuff to finance the escape plan. Every time you walk into your home you now look at everything you own with the eye of "do I really need that?" You start making invisible piles in your head of Sell, Toss, Keep.

The going away party begins to get planned with months to spare. The Evite title, "Hello 30, Goodbye Chicago!" is already written, you just need to choose the font. Then the faces of the friends you've made start to fill your vision. You like a lot of these people and are pretty damn glad you got a chance to meet them. But, and not to sound mean here folks, let's get real. That's what Facebook, Twitter, and blogs are for. And how great will it be when your new apartment becomes a place they can go on vacation? And, once you've convinced yourself that you can absolutely keep in touch with all your wonderful windy city friends (and quieted the voice that nags sarcastically and dripping with guilt in the back of your head saying "yeah, like you did with your Wisconsin friends? The ones you never talk to anymore?") the dream machine of starting something new once again starts up.

So you sit down in front of your computer and say to the world, "World, here I come, bring me opportunity and excitement!" and nothing happens. Because, while many of the books you read may think this stuff is everyday accessories for most folks, you don't yet have a computer that will respond to your voice or your day dreams and magically find exactly what you need.

But you don't give up. You begin to search. Fingers poised above that QWERTY line, ready to find your new Eden. And then it hits you. If you thought finding a single new job in Chicago was hard, where the hell do you begin when the whole world is a possibility? And even better, it then starts to sink in. As liberating and freeing as realizing that you are beholden to none and the world is open to your exploration is, it is also absolutely and completely immobilizing as well. It will stop you dead in your tracks in it's largeness. It will leave you with your feet stuck in the cement while your head drifts amongst the clouds.

Good to know the important things matter

Budget, smudget. I'm safe and secure in the knowledge that my state legislators are looking out for what really matters in good old Illinois!

Click Here for link to actual webpage

If you live in Illinois and would like to possibly contact your Taylor Swift loving idiots in charge you can call your representative at 1-800-719-3020 today and demand they fix this budget nonsense. Check this link out - just click right here - for more information and great talking points.

Thanks Internet!

Wow. Thanks Pandora for filling me in on those oh-so-complicated Kylie Minogue lyrics. You're so helpful.

Ummm....I don't get it

What in the world have I been writing these days to make the Google ad in my sidebar show this?