Well, I’ve been in Chicago now for about 1.5 days and I like it so very much. I already knew I liked Chicago ~ I came here during college for a post term study one summer, and of course, I’ve been here a couple of times now for work, but they were so short I couldn’t do anything but work and sleep.
I like how friendly strangers are here. And it feels so sincere.
I’m living in our corporate apartment and my favorite thing is that everyone talks to me in the elevator. They say hello and then “have a good day” upon exiting. And these people don’t know me, it’s just that we’re sharing an elevator in a place people call home. In the elevator in my condo building, where you’d think I might get to know people, my neighbors behave as if I’ve asked them to borrow a lot of money when I say hello in our elevator. They look at me with fear and I can see the momentary fight over how to respond to me. It’s so unfortunate. I like the Chicago elevator better.
And tonight I went out for a walk in the rain (cause we don’t get much of that in LA) and at the street corner, a man started to tease me about wearing a scarf. I admit, it probably wasn’t that cold, but I’m from LA, so everything feels cold and I told him so. He proceeded to tell me the history of the area for the next three blocks until he turned and went South and I went North. He had no agenda other than to talk to me while we shared the sidewalk.
My other favorite event of the evening occured just before it started to rain.
At the height of traffic I was sitting on my couch quietly, when all of a sudden, loud yelling, horn blowing and music raised up from the street below my balcony. I thought is might be some wild happy hour revelers, but it kept on longer than normal. I stepped outside into the crisp, chilly air and found a sea of bicycles flowing down Jefferson. It was critical mass. I haven’t seen a critical mass bicycle ride since I lived in San Francisco and this one made those attempts look paltry. This was huge and really shut down the traffic. I took these pictures…
I love a city with spirit!
After I returned from my happy walk in the rain (with a big bag of peanut butter m&ms), I watched all the episodes of the new show Pushing Daisies. And it’s my new favorite show. It’s fresh, fun and cleverly stylized. Me likey muchisimo!
You can watch it for free online or on Wednesday nights…
The only thing that I like about traveling for work so much is that I am wracking up frequent flyer miles. And since most of our locations are in areas where Southwest flies, I have been jet setting with them quite a lot.