Tag Archives: Chicago

the chicago trip – october 19 and 20, 2003

I slept for 2 hours before getting up to get ready to leave for Baltimore. Adr took me to the airport, which was pretty much uneventful. I beeped through the metal detectors as always. I was flying Southwest, and they are…different. They said they are even more different in Buffalo than any other city. They said whoever had the oldest penny in their wallet could preboard. And what do you know, I had the oldest penny – 1944. haha So I got to preboard with the people in wheel chairs and with little kids. I rock!

Leighanne met me at my gate in BWI and we went over to our gate for the Chicago leg of the trip. Since she’s a gimp with the walking cast still, we got to preboard for that one too . We rock!

Upon arriving at Midway we caught a cab to my aunt’s apartment on the lake shore. The doorman gave us a note to meet her at the Barnes and Noble down the street at 4…our plane arrived at noon. My aunt was driving down from Wisconsin whenever she could get rid of her bed and breakfast guests. After calling her for an ETA we walked to a few shops down the street, stopped at a bakery for some food, and back to the apartment. The shops…are insane. Insanely expensive. And I know, it’s Chicago, it’s a huge city, I know I know I know, but STILL…who needs to spend 3000$ on a pair of shoes from Prada, which are boring as hell and can be bought at target. Went into other smaller boutiques, that aren’t super designer, expecting lower prices – nope. 200$ for a pair of pants I own, that I paid 60$ for at express (which killed me). Insane. So back at the apartment we decided to put Operation Clock into effect – the whole reason we went to Chicago – instead of waiting around for my aunt to show up. So we cabbed it out to Architectural Artifacts. It’s an architectural salvage place like Buffalo’s Horsefeathers, and also the home of our long lost Central Terminal concourse clock….

and now i have to password post this, cuz it’s still semi secret. email me for the log in info.

So we finished our photographing, and looked around the rest of the store, because we were waiting for my aunt to show up there. I came across my newest interior design theme I want to do… carnival artifacts…old freak show canvas paintings, etc. He had a whole crap load of these big carnival posters, SO GREAT omg. Leighanne is going to paint them all for me when we get our studio. There was so much great stuff in the store.

We eventually were tired of waiting, called my aunt back to tell her we were going to leave.

So we took the cab over to Uncle Fun’s one of the best stores on earth. A little store filled with all kinds of crap…toys mostly, but just…insane. I got my freud action figure there. Called my aunt again, who had gone to Architectural Artifacts anyway, and she came down and picked us up at Uncle Fun’s. From there we drove around to find dinner, and ended up at a biker bar called the Twisted Spoke. Drove around after that, I guess trying to figure out what to do, but basically hoping we didn’t die in a firey automobile accident. Ug.. my aunt driving…Anyway. Ended up at Margie’s Candies for really great ice cream.

Then we went to the drag show. The Baton has one of the best drag shows in the city (I guess) so we decided to check it out. Having only slept 2 hours, I insisted on the 8:30 show instead of the 10:30 show. It was great. I wanted to take photos, but no cameras allowed. boo. But yeah. It’s sad when men are prettier than me. But fake boobs and hair will do that to…people.

I think after that we headed back to the apartment, walked to the drug store, then back to the apartment for bed.

The next day we were going to check out this other Architectural place, actually Chicago’s #1 artifact place (tho the other one I thought was way better), a poster store my aunt wanted to go to, Wrigley Field, and the Bohemian cemetery. We did all that except the poster store, and we did some more walking around on Michigan Ave to some stores. My aunt didn’t seem to realize that gimps don’t want to have to walk around that much. Leighanne ended up asking to take a cab back to the apartment and car after the shopping. So we went out to Wrigleyville and had lunch, went to the Billy Goat, and another sports store so Leighanne could buy Cubs crap for her brother. Forced my aunt to take us to the cemetery (she’s so not into that – she actually left us there and went to the mall). Hit the architectural place, and headed out to Midway again for the flight home. Stopped at a starbucks for a while, because we had tons of time, but then went to the airport where we sat there for 4 hours waiting for our flight – we were still early…plus i never changed the time on my watch, so I was thinking it was one time, and it was an hour earlier, which made it depressing towards the end when I was really tired of sitting there hahaha. Preboarded again, yay. The flight was pretty sparse anyway.

Arrived at BWI and had to catch the shuttle to satelite parking, where Leighanne parked in section U2 completely not on purpose. We get dropped off in that section and she stops to take a photo of the sign. We go to the car, and we have no keys. She’s like, where are my keys. She had them on the bus, they’re friggen huge, how do you lose them? A bit of panic ensued, because who knew how long it would take to walk all the way across the state to the other side of the parking lot, to tell someone they were left on the bus, and have that bus drive all the hell out there again so we could get the keys. THANKFULLY she had put them down on the pavement in the other aisle when she took the picture. Drove to her house, met her brother and dog, and headed to bed.

Woke up early to go to the airport on Leighanne’s way to work. Sat at the airport waiting for my flight, trying not to fall asleep. Right before boarding, this guy sitting next to me started talking to me. He was in his 40s probably, home visiting his father in East Aurora, where he grew up. We were talking about whatever, I mentioned I work at the casino, blahblahblah whatever. Fly home, get off the plane. While walking through the airport he caught up with me and made a comment about the oh so friendly and welcoming Buffalo weather. So we’re leaving the security enforced area, and he askes me if he can buy me lunch sometime so he can learn the gambling secrets. I’m like OH THERE’S MY RIDE cuz thankfully adr was walking up. WHAT IS WITH OLD MEN ASKING ME OUT?! Seriously!!!!! I keep getting more comments that I look 30 years old… is that it? Do these old men think I’m 30, and therefore in their age range, or them in my age range?! I DON’T GET IT BUT MAKE IT STOP. Unless, of course, it’s trent reznor or someone.

Forced myself to go to photo class so I could develop my 2 black and white rolls that were finished, while my color rolls got done at rite aid. Called into work because I’m beyond tired, and have way too much to do.

I think I’m forgetting tons of little things I wanted to mention. Too tired, oh well. I’m sorta irritated about the Monday events…when intially planning for this, I told my aunt we wanted to check out the Manteno State Hospital. Looking at the map it was like, 60 miles away, but she said with Chicago traffic, it was a 3 hour one way drive, and we’d never be able to make it out there and back to catch our flight. Well we so totally could have, we were friggen up at 8am Monday…3 hours there, a few hours to urbex the place, and 3 hours to Midway…would have been no problem. So I’m annoyed. What my aunt thinks is fun, and what I think is fun are two completely different things, but it’s like…I don’t want to tag along with you while you go to your favourite Chicago spots…you can come here any time you want. I’m here once a year, if that, and I want to do certain things. Even if you don’t like them, I’d think you could be semi accomodating to them…As I would be to guests coming into Buffalo. But whatever.

It was a good trip. And seriously……holy shit. hahah. Unfriggenbelievable.

Leighanne commented that my chicago purchases post was reminiscent of a mastercard commercial, which i thought too, when i wrote it. so i decided to go all out with that theme:
flight to Chicago – $180
cab ride to the architectural warehouse – $20
coming home with a $40,000 clock for free – priceless

 

Chicago Pictures