Hello from Chicago

I have a little bit of time to kill before my friend gets back from school, so I thought I'd tell you a little about what's been going on. I arrived in Chicago yesterday around lunch time. The drive was quick and painless... a relatively straight shot over route 30 to 80/90. I played Pandora radio the whole time which is maybe the best cell phone application ever! I use the tape player to plug my phone into my car, and then I have nonstop, uninterrupted internet radio for the entire drive. Of course that's dependent on 3G network service, so I may not have as much luck in other areas.

Anyway, I drove into Chicago, and I just got really happy. It's fun to be back. I haven't spent time here in ages (though I have many times before). My friend Sara lives in the Logan Square area and goes to school downtown. I had time before we met up for lunch and I was going to go park in her neighborhood ahead of time, but nature called... desperately (darn that cup of coffee). I decided to just park downtown and meet her a few minutes early. She goes to the school associated with Chicago's Art Institute. Nice place. She's always been talented at working with clothes, and it's fun to see what she's working on currently.

We went to eat at a Thai place near Depaul University called Mai Thai (I think that's right). My favorite thing at any Thai place often has a variety of names, but it consists of stir-fried bean thread noodles, some type of meat, and a vegi mix. I ordered their version, and I was not disappointed. It always just tastes so good... no matter where I order it. I honestly don't think I've ever had a bad version at any restaurant. Perhaps it's one of those things difficult to screw up. Who knows, but YUM.

After lunch, Sara had to go back to school so I wandered around a bit. I was just going to head straight back to my car, but I saw a Filene's Basement and a Nordstrom Rack. I've always been a sale shopper, and I like to rummage from time to time, but right now I have a problem. I can't decide what looks good on me, and what's cool. It's so strange. I've always had a sense of what I liked whether it was cool or not. Right now, no idea. I don't always like to be terribly trendy. I've been avoiding plaid simply because it's something I wouldn't have purchased a year ago, and I don't think it will be terribly flattering on me. It really is everywhere you look though.

In anycase, I didn't find much... one cute dress (size XL!!! Yikes!), a bathing suit (I needed a one piece... it's not as flattering as I'd like, but I don't think much will be right now), and a sweater in a blue color that I love. At Nordstrom Rack, I tried on a pair of Gucci sunglasses (I love them- a worthy splurge as they really are high quality and last forever... I've never had a pair lose a screw). There was a guy next to me trying to talk to me. I was polite but standoffish after I made sure he wasn't an employee. He asked how they fit, and I turn and he told me they look bad. I said "Ok, thanks", and I walked away quickly. I felt a little bad for walking off like that, but I was annoyed too. Really, let me make my own decision... it's not like I asked you. It just seemed kinda rude, but I suppose he did save me 75 dollars. Yeah, they were a really good deal for Gucci sunglasses. Oh well.

Later, I drove up to Sara's apartment where I was going to spend the night. I parked my car on the street, and went up. Cute place. She was going to be sleeping at school, but she was letting me crash in her room. I decided to meet my old Peace Corps friend, Emily, for dinner. We went to a place called Cafe Matou. A few things about the restaurant... cute interior and bar area, the food was good but nothing particularly special, waitstaff were nice but also just slightly snobby, a quality that surprised me.

What do I mean by snobby? Two comments in particular with regard to wine. One was when my friend asked if there is champagne in one of their cocktails. The bartender replied that there is sparkling wine in the drink and that he would never mix champagne with anything else. Yes, we all know that it's only labelled champagne if it's from the champagne region of France, but was that really necessary? Emily and I gave eachother that look like "Oh, well then..." The other time occurred when we sat down for dinner, and I asked the waitress if a particular type of wine that I didn't recognize was dry. She replied that all wine from France is dry. I told her I wanted to ask because I noticed the Riesling under the white wine section. She replied that it's a dry Riesling. Now, I don't really like to drink sweet wine unless it's a nice dessert wine or sherry. It's just a bit much for me. I know that German and French Rieslings are different in that one is drier and one is sweeter, though I don't think I've ever had a completely dry Riesling before. That's beside the point. I was just surprised and taken back by her tone. It was friendly, don't get me wrong, but it was also pretentious.

The reason this surprised me so much, was that there wasn't anything else particularly special about this place. The food was good, and I have no complaints about that, but it was forgettable. Sometimes I leave restaurants wanting to return, and knowing that I'm going to have a craving for it later. This wasn't one of those meals.

One last strange thing about the place. It was a Friday night, and when my friend and I arrived, we both noticed that there were plenty of tables open. I told the host that we needed a table for 2, and he gave me a 20 minute wait saying we should sit at the bar. This surprised me, but I was ok with it. I figured they were waiting on reservations. When we were finally seated, we noticed that the tables were still empty. How strange. He did manage to serve me two drinks while I waited. To his credit, he made the first drink wrong, and he took it off my bill without even being asked. I thought it was nice that he took the step to do this. Still, I wonder why the wait? Odd.

In anycase, I don't mean to make it sound bad. It was actually a lovely dinner, atleast company-wise. I haven't seen my friend for about 2 years, and we had a ton to catch up on. The Peace Corps was such a strange time for us, and it was nice to see her looking very healthy and stylish. I'm hoping I'll get back to that point sometime soon! Little by little I guess. Anyhow, cheers from Chicago... more later.


Emily and I in the car after dinner. She was driving and I realized that we've never ridden in a car together where one of us was driving before. Funny. :-)