Plan Deviation at the Windy City
It feels good to be back. Tsu-man always said he felt like it was home for me. He was right.
The first thing I did was to take a trip down memory lane. I turned off of Bessie Coleman Drive and onto Mannheim Road, the bane of my pre-freeway driving existence. Brought about by my last minute realization that I would need change for the tollways I would need to take in order to get downtown, I veered off my Mapquest plotted course and took the Eisenhower in. I am not complaining now though, it allowed me the opportunity to stop at my old alma mater. I decided against taking Congress Pkwy as my grand re-entrance into the Windy City. It feels a lot older than I remember. I saw more cracks on it’s sidewalks, more grime on it’s buildings. But it was 80+ degrees hot and I was determined to enjoy my first afternoon back.
First order of business, see Millenium Park. I had a picnic by the auditorium and then made my way up the Golden Mile. I found a couple old haunts and a lot of new discoveries. I even accidentally discovered the parent company’s building! With just enough time to soak my feet and freshen up, Jude came by and picked me up from the ‘It’s All Valet At The Hyatt, Miss’ hotel. We had fab sushi at Meiji on the West Loop area. (It was good but not as good as Tojo’s) We had some warm edamame and a few rolls - Dynamite with avocado and CC roll, Spicy tuna with avocado and salmon and tuna draped on top and Toro and Ahi tuna with daikon radish wrapped in cucumber in a rice wine and sugar dressing.
What better way to finish off the evening than chat away while everyone else was singing along to Cabaret? It was Show Tunes night at Boys’ Town and Liza was back in her prime. Yeah, yeah, there were a few Miss Saigon lines that I was tempted to mouth…But my fabulous companions had no problems acting it out for me. 
Today, I was reminded of how crazy the drivers are here in Chicago. I hope to not bring it back to the "Ham but boy, the road rage is back in full force. Flipping, honking, cussing, the works. WTF were they thinking when they gave me a PT Cruiser for a rental? Another sucky, slow, hard to maneuver car. Oh d’uh. For a moment I forgot that it is a domestic.
Ex-tomboy Karen came by and picked me up tonight for a little din-din and a lot of dishing. A nightcap at the John Hancock signature lounge (the fog made my camera dead weight) was another perfect end.
Now, I’m off to the land of sheep counting. I haven’t quite gotten used to the time zone change.
