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Home again, home again
Oof. Home now from the impromptu quick fun shopping weekend in Chicago with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
iuliamentis, plus five shirts, a pair of black pants, an Old Navy charge account (long overdue, really...), a copy of Savage Love by Dan Savage, and some IKEA furniture (A Poang, and a Flarke). Weekend highlights:
- Favorite incomprehensible billboard: a little girl with her arms around the neck of an alpaca, with the legend "My Future is Warm and Secure With Alpacas." We're not sure if she was being raised by the alpacas, or what.
- Not exactly a highlight, in the sense of being fun: more a highlight in the sense of that \clip ESPN had of the MSU player breaking his leg in the end zone. Saw a deer be converted into roadkill, about five carlengths ahead of us. Realized on the way home that I don't think I've ever seen anything die before.
- Brightened a trucker's day considerably, though I'm not sure why. We were stuck in traffic coming into Chicago, and I was lounging in the passenger seat, and this guy driving a double-trailer Yellow truck was just... really delighted to see me, every time we passed each other. And wanted my phone number. Oddly enough, when we were caught in traffic leaving Chicago, we spotted him again, once again driving in. Too far away for him to see me, though.
- Speaking of odd driving coincidences... Going into Chicago, we were stuck behind an oldish couple driving a grey sedan with a Kentucky license plate - and not just any Kentucky license plate, but one subtitled 'It's That Friendly', with a smiling cartoon sun between the two sets of numbers, which got kind of creepy looking after a while. Got stuck behind them again last night sometime after dark, in the rain.
- Eating dinner at a Burger King after our first attempt at shopping was foiled by my going into a low blood sugar daze, a guy walked in out of the rain wearing a white robe tied off with purple cord, a large wooden rosary around his neck, and a 4' tall cross over his shoulder. The effect was slightly diminished by his jeans, messenger bag (though it did appear to portray someone being burned alive) and Nikes - does Jesus endorse sweatshop labor, then?
- Speaking of guys carrying crosses... we spotted another one on Saturday. His cross was bigger, but he'd put far less effort into costuming. We were less impressed.
- Finally, on my sixth visit to Chicago, visited Navy Pier. On Tall Ships Festival weekend. So my main impression: crowded. Also, we missed seeing the HMS Bounty - we thought ships were only at the Pier, and the Bounty was down on the river. Ooops.
- Finally, on my sixth visit to Chicago, visited Adler Planetarium. A former instructor of mine, Jose Salgado, works there now that he's finished his Ph.D., and also produces art which is sold in the gift shop. Unfortunately it was $20 a print, we're still broke, and Jose is presumably doing ok working for Adler, so we didn't buy any.
- Skyline from the steps of Adler Planetarium: wow. Just. Wow.
- Saw no less than four wedding parties who'd apparently come to the same conclusion.
- Successfully navigated the Chicago Transit system (buses! so you don't have to walk or take cabs everywhere! it's amazing!) including getting the third ride out of our transfers literally two minutes before they expired, thus saving us hailing a cab to get away from the guy who, I think, askediuliamentis for a cigarette by holding out his lighter to her, and flicking it on while smiling helpfully. When she said no, he moved outside the bus shelter and, after a short but enthusiastic conversation with the sidewalk, picked a half-smoked cigarette out of the crack. By the time the bus came, he was singing and lighting bits of paper on fire.
- Stepped off a bus in front of our hostel, on Congress Parkway, which runs down toward the lake, just as a fireworks show started over the lake. Walked down a couple blocks to Michigan, where the vista opens up, and watched from the steps of whatever building is on the corner of Congress & Michigan. Great view - didn't miss a thing, and we could hear the blasts echoing off the buildings. Also, halfway through, a woman with a boy of maybe three years old came by, and he plunked down next to me. We chatted about the fireworks while she tried to use her cellphone. He liked the pink ones.iuliamentis and I liked the sparkly ones.
- How about the IKEA store, huh? It looks about the size of an airplane hanger when you pull up to it and it's so. huge. And friendly.
- Turns outiuliamentis's boyfriend, who we were in intermittent cell phone contact with, has the same taste in lamps as many Sims. And that's all I'm saying about it.
- If you're going to carry anything on cardboard boxes on the roof of your car (because, you know, you're crazy and want to be able to see out the back window of your car on a 350 mile drive...) be not half-assed about the tarp and tie-downs. On the third try, we got it right, and we're fairly certain nothing important flew out through that tear in the box...
- We got home at 11:29, which I thought was pretty cool in the sense that, 90 miles previously, when Iulia asked me when I thought we'd get home, I said, 11:30. Not-cool in the sense that we'd been driving since shortly after four. My back feels like I've been beaten.
- IKEA furniture is so easy to set up that we happily and successfully assembled the Poangs and their associated footstools in about twenty minutes right around midnight. We felt really clever, and eager to buy more IKEA stuff: thus brand loyalty is born...
And, um, that's about it, aside from me not going to work today because I think if I have to sit one more continuous hour, my back will seize up forever. Maybe I'll just go back to sleep.
Mmm. It's good to be home - just in time to move!
iuliamentis, plus five shirts, a pair of black pants, an Old Navy charge account (long overdue, really...), a copy of Savage Love by Dan Savage, and some IKEA furniture (A Poang, and a Flarke). Weekend highlights: - Favorite incomprehensible billboard: a little girl with her arms around the neck of an alpaca, with the legend "My Future is Warm and Secure With Alpacas." We're not sure if she was being raised by the alpacas, or what.
- Not exactly a highlight, in the sense of being fun: more a highlight in the sense of that \clip ESPN had of the MSU player breaking his leg in the end zone. Saw a deer be converted into roadkill, about five carlengths ahead of us. Realized on the way home that I don't think I've ever seen anything die before.
- Brightened a trucker's day considerably, though I'm not sure why. We were stuck in traffic coming into Chicago, and I was lounging in the passenger seat, and this guy driving a double-trailer Yellow truck was just... really delighted to see me, every time we passed each other. And wanted my phone number. Oddly enough, when we were caught in traffic leaving Chicago, we spotted him again, once again driving in. Too far away for him to see me, though.
- Speaking of odd driving coincidences... Going into Chicago, we were stuck behind an oldish couple driving a grey sedan with a Kentucky license plate - and not just any Kentucky license plate, but one subtitled 'It's That Friendly', with a smiling cartoon sun between the two sets of numbers, which got kind of creepy looking after a while. Got stuck behind them again last night sometime after dark, in the rain.
- Eating dinner at a Burger King after our first attempt at shopping was foiled by my going into a low blood sugar daze, a guy walked in out of the rain wearing a white robe tied off with purple cord, a large wooden rosary around his neck, and a 4' tall cross over his shoulder. The effect was slightly diminished by his jeans, messenger bag (though it did appear to portray someone being burned alive) and Nikes - does Jesus endorse sweatshop labor, then?
- Speaking of guys carrying crosses... we spotted another one on Saturday. His cross was bigger, but he'd put far less effort into costuming. We were less impressed.
- Finally, on my sixth visit to Chicago, visited Navy Pier. On Tall Ships Festival weekend. So my main impression: crowded. Also, we missed seeing the HMS Bounty - we thought ships were only at the Pier, and the Bounty was down on the river. Ooops.
- Finally, on my sixth visit to Chicago, visited Adler Planetarium. A former instructor of mine, Jose Salgado, works there now that he's finished his Ph.D., and also produces art which is sold in the gift shop. Unfortunately it was $20 a print, we're still broke, and Jose is presumably doing ok working for Adler, so we didn't buy any.
- Skyline from the steps of Adler Planetarium: wow. Just. Wow.
- Saw no less than four wedding parties who'd apparently come to the same conclusion.
- Successfully navigated the Chicago Transit system (buses! so you don't have to walk or take cabs everywhere! it's amazing!) including getting the third ride out of our transfers literally two minutes before they expired, thus saving us hailing a cab to get away from the guy who, I think, asked
iuliamentis for a cigarette by holding out his lighter to her, and flicking it on while smiling helpfully. When she said no, he moved outside the bus shelter and, after a short but enthusiastic conversation with the sidewalk, picked a half-smoked cigarette out of the crack. By the time the bus came, he was singing and lighting bits of paper on fire.- Stepped off a bus in front of our hostel, on Congress Parkway, which runs down toward the lake, just as a fireworks show started over the lake. Walked down a couple blocks to Michigan, where the vista opens up, and watched from the steps of whatever building is on the corner of Congress & Michigan. Great view - didn't miss a thing, and we could hear the blasts echoing off the buildings. Also, halfway through, a woman with a boy of maybe three years old came by, and he plunked down next to me. We chatted about the fireworks while she tried to use her cellphone. He liked the pink ones.
iuliamentis and I liked the sparkly ones.- How about the IKEA store, huh? It looks about the size of an airplane hanger when you pull up to it and it's so. huge. And friendly.
- Turns out
iuliamentis's boyfriend, who we were in intermittent cell phone contact with, has the same taste in lamps as many Sims. And that's all I'm saying about it.- If you're going to carry anything on cardboard boxes on the roof of your car (because, you know, you're crazy and want to be able to see out the back window of your car on a 350 mile drive...) be not half-assed about the tarp and tie-downs. On the third try, we got it right, and we're fairly certain nothing important flew out through that tear in the box...
- We got home at 11:29, which I thought was pretty cool in the sense that, 90 miles previously, when Iulia asked me when I thought we'd get home, I said, 11:30. Not-cool in the sense that we'd been driving since shortly after four. My back feels like I've been beaten.
- IKEA furniture is so easy to set up that we happily and successfully assembled the Poangs and their associated footstools in about twenty minutes right around midnight. We felt really clever, and eager to buy more IKEA stuff: thus brand loyalty is born...
And, um, that's about it, aside from me not going to work today because I think if I have to sit one more continuous hour, my back will seize up forever. Maybe I'll just go back to sleep.
Mmm. It's good to be home - just in time to move!