I know that this is not goodbye

Well I am not quite sure any of this really happened, but to be sure I'm going to throw it all up here and maybe check back with it tomorrow and see if it is at all familiar. Basically I just got back from U2. Sickness blowing into town, further behind that you in schoolwork and on the single day off of both work and school between now and November 4th, the perfect time for a physical and emotionally life-rattling event right?

So I am driving down to the Palace of Auburn Hills and Tommy calls me at like 1:00 and he says "Alright man, I just pulled into the parking lot, they won't let us wait in line until 2:00" Yea by the way we are U2 fanaticals. More to come. And I says "alright, perfect I'm pulling in literally a minute behind you, I'll pull in there too" Or so I thought. I pull behind two other cars heading in, and I'm still on the phone with Tommy trying to figure out where he is going and the first car goes past the stop sign and guard and the next car goes right through also. So quick 'What would you do?' would you follow them right through? Well if you marked 'yes' you'd have received the same fascist "Hey what kind of sign was that right there!!? No turn around!" yell from someone with just the tightest grip on what little power he holds in his work. After the obligatory "thanks, Wyatt Earp" Tommy met me outside and we ditched my car at a restaurant and made our way in just at 2:00, catching the near front area of the gen. admission line.

So we are up at the front and 4 frozen hours (the sun came out for 5-10 minutes and the line literally cheered) away from entry. Tommy and I chattered our teeth together about relationships for awhile (yeah that's right, guys do emote!) and football (...but still stereotypically talk about sports also) and enjoyed the sandwiches and snack bars packed in my jacket turned picnic basket. And what do you know, the clock struck 6:00 and suddenly we are mad dashing inside and gasping at the sight of the stage, a main stage surrounded by a giant ellipse (with fans winning spots actually inside of that ellipse path) and running down and the excitement of gripping onto the rail just in front of the outside of the very path that the band would be dashing around in only 3 hours!!

Or I should break it down as 10,800 seconds as (Ugh) I'm now thinking about the opening band, Institute. I only had one fact and one opinion about them going in: the fact that they were Gavin Rossdale's new band, and the opinion that if I listened to the radio I'd be pummeled by their songs to the point of surrender. What was funny was that their set was the perfect example of a crowd in complete indifference until they play "their song" ('Machinehead' cover, though do you call it a cover if the lead singer plays it, though with a different band?) and then people get loud, followed by that indifference again. Mrs. Stefani cleared out at something like 8:30 and then we waited....

Then the lights are gone. Then you see shadows picking up instruments. Then squeals and sharp notes in the air. And then just as you realize that it is 'City of Blinding Lights' and before I could start to think about how it is going to be just like the music video that was shot live, Bono is standing about 5 feet away from us on the path. I only put a period because you'd need about 3 lines worth of '!' to get it right. Just the purest example of a moment where emotion completely carries you through the adventure. Hugs and pats and yelling and reaching for the bandmates.

We reached out to Bono and I shook his hand. I shook the hand of the person who had written so many of the words that my heart couldn't find to moments with those people whom I hold at just as high and even higher esteem. Those few secret songs with auto-bio lyrics that I only play when I am in pure thought and connection with that place or person. I really felt glad to have that chance to do that, it really felt like a 'thank you' for lending his soul so that I may help to discover mine early in life and to this day.

Tommy got ahold of his hand then too, though in more of a 'there is room in my car, let's bring him with us' style, I didn't think he would let go period. He actually did, then slapped his hand again later for a second time and was lucky enough to shout/talk Adam to literally hand him, not throw to, but to literally put into his hand his pick for the bass guitar. Looking right into his eyes. Into all of their eyes. During 'With or Without You' Bono pulled a lady up upon the path and held her during 'With or Without You'. I can only recall these scattered moments like this, it is all just a blur of adrenaline and thrill. I wish I could share images with you (more than you know, I HAD my camera with me but alas did not have batteries) but it would only be a fraction. When you see The Edge 6' away from you on acoustic guitar playing 'Stuck in a Moment...' during an encore, and Bono 6' away on the other side singing......

They didn't play this song here, but it is as symbolic as anything U2 has helped me to see in my life. The title of this passage is the lyric I wrote in Tommy's senior yearbook just a few weeks after missing the last U2 show with him and a few days before we both entered 'the real world'. It is a lyric from a song from an album that came out as a senior in high school was just discovering new wonders in love and beauty and hope while holding true to one of many friends whom was there then & now. Listening to the album in my car afterwards at the restaurant and eating polish sausage sold in the rain (a real listen being something I'd been much afraid to do for it somehow "not holding up") those memories flooded back just as warm and just as rich with possibility. That same silly kid that sometimes gets lost and anchored by fear, shining through.

I drank all that I could, much more than I should // to find someone there

I'm getting sick. I just know I am. There is just no stopping it. I throw my body through enough walls eventually I'll stay down for the count. The late nights staring at screens and the "plenty of time to eat when I'm dead" attitude and the drinking ... yes even this new drinking is leaving me 'feeling pulled apart by horses'.

I drank so much for James 'Clarkston Jack' Schultz's birthday party. They just kept coming. I think I accidentally broke a glass there at the bar on purpose. I think we all gave him kisses though I don't recall totally. I'm pretty sure I threw up and went to sleep.

Then Isaacs wakes us all up and we go down to Cedar Point, 'America's Roller Coast', an amusement park on the coast of Lake Erie. That's punny. It was his girlfriend, Clarkston and myself. It was the most ridiculous hangover I've ever had, though I'm not a drinker... well yes I am. It was really funny, they were having this thing called 'Halloweekends', where... well I'll leave you to correctly assume the obvious. It was cold as the dickens, especially wearing only my tip top grey slacks/red longsleeve outfit (see: Chicago ensemble) and light Brazil jacket. I wish I'd have brought my camera, especially at night where they had all the fog machines out and blowing over the waters and lights shimmering off of it, it was chilling (though at least I did have my camera phone to take this picture of a cone, which I have decided will be the logo for a band that I start as soon as I figure out how to play a single instrument). I love those pictures you look at when you get off the coaster, they are worth many a giggle. And Clarkston and I raced Isaacs and his girlfriend Ashley side by side on the front cars on my favourite roller coaster the Gemini, hurling shouts at one another in the frozen night.

Isaacs was so adamant, almost subtly demanding, that we go through these Haunted Trails where people in costume ran around banging pots and pans around like madcaps. I didn't understand at all why he wanted to wait almost 2 hours for something like this, until when we were going through it I noticed how his girlfriend almost schoolgirl-ishly clung to him and playfully shrieked in fright throughout.... it was so wonderful. I wish...

Wow this sickness stuff is coming on quick. I've always been of the sorts that you could combat sickness simply with the mind. Like totally will yourself against getting sick (among other things) but then again do you ever go through those phases where you almost kinda want to be sick? Or maybe just feel like you are due almost, like 'my turn'? Sort of like with my shoulder, since I tore my rotator cuff way back I sometimes decide that a slight shoulder ache is some sort of arthritic condition from that old injury, which then it suddenly makes it hurt worse. Speaking of shoulder aches.....


(cough cough)

This is the realest thing // As ancient choirs sing

Alright so apparently I am a drinker now. I'm not sure how I suddenly decided that my old fears of drunken drivers and rolling automobiles had finally breathed their last but Friday was apparently the pseudo-wake. Or maybe 'fake wake' since it rhymes and also deflates the impression that I'm striving to be #2 from the post down there a ways. Anyway so I drank. And then I drank and drank. I drank a whole lot and yet somehow I found "that place": that certain state in between feeling nothing and from feeling completely sick and then usually seeing your dinner plate in reverse (hon. mention to "praying to the porcelain god"). It was delightful, and since long ago proving to myself that I am not an angry drunk but rather a silly (and on occasion depressed), everything was worth a giggle.

No climbing in trees or nude pool diving or anything else comparable to the hazy Spring Break escapade (though the parking pass for Metro Apirport and S.B. '06 has officially been stowed away in it's upright and locked position...also ironic spring break reference: this song glided through my headphones as our plane glided from the runway towards Florida) it is just nice to find "that place" with your friends at your side, like some sort of chemically induced nirvana, where silliness and laughs conquer drama. I think some of that anger from original philosophy "I don't need alcohol to have a good time!" has washed away, revealing a place where alcohol is not needed but is welcome as a healthy alternative. And now I can use my 'T-Rex' shot glass. Ha.

Ever have one of those moments that is funny but for all the wrong reasons? We got the guys and dolls together and went out to this Haunted House in Pontiac in what used to be a K-Mart Sat. night. And first I should say how this night was the first official night where it is very noticeably cold outside. Sort of that first time where you consciously have to think from then on "I have to bring my jacket/coat every day now" (I wouldn't expect a certain west coast reader to relate ha) Even my particularly fetching 'Brazil' jacket was leaving me with a shiver.

We work our way to the front of this 1 hour line and they originally break us off into two 4 person groups and we are standing up at the curtain ready to pass in and I'm actually kind of excited, like "oh wow what is going on in there this is gonna be hilarious!". Well of course our 2 groups merge in like 9 seconds and we go in and it's indeed hilarious, which I'm sure is not the point at all. I mean the first thing we see is comparable to that little ghost things that hangs from a ceiling in an elementary school and vibrates and makes a sound when you touch it. And people are walking around in face paint just randomly, like they're looking for their seats at a football game or something. So the smart ass comments begin to fly. Schultz asks an 8 foot Minotaur for a hug. I told an almost terrifying goblin "you can't touch me, it says so in the disclaimer." to which he trumps me x 17 "I wouldn't want to!". Snap. And the ceiling suddenly comes down when we are in a sort of elevator style of a room and Schultz hits the floor fetal position style. HAHAH!

Here's where it takes the turn. Misty has been selected to choose a chess piece from a "haunted" chessboard. She picks a rook I think, and our 8 person group gets a key. We wander on and guy comes up from behind a fence and asks for our two keys. We tell the monster we only got a one key. He roars to us again for our other key. Higgins: "Listen fucko, we only have the one key!" The guy totally breaks character "Security!" .....WTF!? We literally have to negotiate with him just to continue. So a bit later Misty has to select a "haunted" stick which will dictate which room we are to move on to. We do this. We take our stick and one key into like some sort of makeshift bog. We enter and this guy stabs this girl, something right out of the great 'Naranjas a Mediodía' 10th grade Spanish one-act (see: fake gunshot followed by Davíd Coopersmith holding the hidden red marker to his chest and smearing it down as he slides to the floor) and asks for our two keys so that we might see the magic wizard and we can win a rare prize and so Schultz can hold up his side bet among the fellas by giving it an open mouth kiss. "Alright we only have one key". "Where is the 2nd key??!". I think somebody in our group yelled out 'asshat!' and then the guy (honestly!) gets on a walkie talkie and then says we didn't win and then we walked out. That was it.

We re-grouped and fumed about the $20 that we'd never get back, but then laughed about the weird scene that had just somehow entertained us. And hey I got to listen to Fiona Apple there and back, so really all and all a good day.

There's no doubt // He's the coolest one with the biggest mouth

As far as 'irritating classmate chichés' go, my ranking looks like:

10. The "I'm 20-30 minutes late to class every day" kid

9. The "Hey did you do last week's homework that took like 2 hours to do?...cool, can I see it??" kid
(also applies to partners who mysteriously lose their cell phones for 2 weeks then suddenly find them the day the group presentation is due)

8. The "You know... I could step out for a minute and blow my nose, but I'd much rather suck snot down my throat at 10,00 decibels for the next 120 minutes" kid

7. The "Oh dear, I forgot to switch my cell phone to vibrate again" kid
6. The "Oh dear, since I've forgotten to switch my cell phone to vibrate, I will have to take 2 solid minutes to find it and neutralize the 'Candy Shop' ringtone blaring from my bookbag" kid

5. The "I'll lean over and talk to you during lecture, even though you don't want to talk to me, just so I can get us both scolded" kid

4. The "Oh, you almost forgot to collect our homework!" kid
Who, of course, truly shines the brightest when you just remembered that that blank piece of paper so nicely folded in your book is the due homework. Sort of the anti-"can we get this test grade set on a curve?" kid.

3. The "Hey can I borrow a scantron/piece of paper" kid
Should probably be further down the ranks, but there is just something so irritating about using the word borrow. It's like not only are you going to prey on my good nature and get my last scantron (which will make me 'irritating classmate cliché' #3 come next test, but it comes back as such a backhanded compliment when you say that you are borrowing it.

2. The "I will make sure at least 17 times a day to not only blurt out the answer to a question, but make sure to add some sort of personal reference or opinion each time as to falsely inflate the perception that I am intelligent" kid

and far and away the worst one, surely garnering double spacing for emphasis:

1. The "I need to ask as many asinine questions as possible" kid.

This has to be the worst one. It just has to be. And for at least two reasons. One, because it pushes the teacher to the point where because this person asks so many questions that pertain to absolutely nothing in the text, they get revenge by putting this extra "covered" material on the test. The second reason being that this person can, if they have truly mastered their craft, singlehandedly tack on 10-15 minutes of extra classtime any given day.

Yeah my Business Law class not only carries a guy from the #1 position (whom also dabbles in some #10 and #9 as a hobby), but also an elder female from the #2 spot! The guy asks 3 consecutive questions, one in regards to "who has legal obligation if someone breaks into...say... a butcher shop, and gets accidentally locked in the freezer and is severely injured and tries to sue" And then his tag team partner will chime in with an answer to question, followed by delving into "I know this because I went to civil court one time, and Judge Johnson talked to me...yatdadada" It is bad news.

I really think that the older lady teaching it is realizing that she is going to have to rule over this with an iron fist. The other week she was funny, as the lady was launching into some side story far from the point, the teacher began waving her arm around in a circular motion shouting aloud "Get it out... GET IT ALL OUT!" And the other day when #1 Stunner began blurting out some question like if a unicorn tears up your sofa might that be considered a tort when she put up the stop sign hand and told him not to ask any more questions basically. No such thing as a dumb question indeed. Gooooo school!

Two of us wearing raincoats, standing solo // In the Sun

I was standing around at the end of the night at work for a couple of minutes thinking about what it would be like if I got onto the Real World cast. I don't know where or if they plan on doing another one, it seems like there have been like 1 hojillion different locales (I should have just about been on there already by now even as the last kid standing against the wall finally does get picked). I also don't really know how you do apply to such a thing. I imagine you have to be pretty well hooked up someplace or go through some bizarre "being yourself only hawter" talent carnival. Maybe you send in a tape (??)... (idea from a different tangent: it might actually be a fun game between friends about who could make the most ridiculous video of, say, 5 minutes...hmmm...back to the original odd fantasy)

I am wondering what sort of cliches/niches I would be selected to fit? I'm still debating between the "melancholy, sincere yet (made up) deeply sexually frustrated, slacker" or the "small town boy who, being dropped into the mix of the big times, has his values put to the test" More than likely if I got on I'd just sit in my boxers and Halloween costume Detroit Lions helmet all day and play Tecmo Super Bowl. That's an 'if' that I should blow up to bold, italic and huge font. I think you really have to be some hourglass, big breasts warped idea of beauty or a guy that is just a battletank to make that cut.

But hey maybe I'm getting closer than the critics may think. No not with breasts. I have recently reinstated the 10 + 1 bench pressing of a monstrous 99 pounds (say what you will about how many feathers that is but it's 2/3's of my bodyweight, I'm not an ant or anything over here doing like 52x my weight class) and also the foot leveraged, thus somewhat cheating, 50 sit-ups. I even do that thing where the arms go up like the pose you would make if the police/5-0 's/pos/pigs/trufflehunters (trademark, M.L.D)/cops give you the "hands up!" and then crunch the weight inward. I hope and doubt that made sense.

Also I'm starting to eat right. Sort of. I eat Subway a whole lot now anyway, so my wallet is getting a workout at least. And I'm eating diabetic, sugar-free candy now almost exclusively since sugar is basically what I think I sub-consciously used to counteract sluggishness associated with only eating 2 meals a day for like 2 years. I go shopping again just like I used to love (and somehow forgot all about way back) and it's fantastic. Just browsing through the supermarket and "do I want Peaches & Cream oatmeal or Strawberries & Cream??". I really need to confer a bit more with my nutritionist/(talented) armchair psychologist/best lady friend of all time/more things than there have been different Real World locales, the Melissa. I feel that I'm ready to take more steps towards 'progress' and ready to get into some good habits.

At least finally the cat is out of the bag...

Chicago pt. III

Well when we last left our friend Justin, he was walking into dusk along Lake Michigan, pondering the very state of his own existence. (Flips switch from 3rd to 1st person) Really the most unexpected experience of the trip was wandering down towards the grassy hill atop the Adler Observatory and just taking stock of everything, not only of the adventures of the day, but of every thought and emotion that had been spinning around inside unattended to. I could slowly feel it pushing through, like the bottleneck of an hourglass, and dissolving in the sunset.

Things started taking on new meanings. Seeing couples in warm embrace & how it would always leave a half-smile but also slightly more and more gloom and hopelessness as I went. Now it was the most wonderful thing ever, to think of love born, love rekindled, love invigorated.... I couldn't help but to laugh and to swing along the lampposts.

And I wrote and it was just so clear. I lied in the grass and just let it come through instead of trying to schedule it all. Just let it all wash over. It was just the breeze and the water against the shore and the harp music from the outdoor dinner party just melting together into the most peaceful feeling. All these airplanes silently gliding above, lights flashing and the lighthouse off the shore spinning its beam... I really believed then as I do now that this could be a single night to bring the pieces back together. To have a jumping point, to bring everyone good in my life together and to say "this day is the first day of the rest of my life".

So after an unnecessary-but-did-it-do-say-that-I-did-it L-train trip, walking through the city at night took on this glorious meaning. All the chic fashion stores lined up made me smile, and the fountain in the center basically summed it together. Going to the music show almost seemed like a great anti-climax.

But of course I did. My leg muscles were strained to physical exhaustion and I walked through what probably might have looked like the textbook definition of a seemy downtown area, but it totally wasn't (Chicago is way good like that with their police force, you could literally walk anywhere at any time of day/night and feel under a blanket of comfort, I speak from experience) and even if it had been that way, like I could tell at that point. I wasn't there, I was on cloud 9. Basically crawled to the show, and true to the spirit of the day, the pain was washed away once the notes came into my ears and freak dancing and singing aloud and then walking into the police siren lullabies back to my automobile.

I can't think of any more words to bring this all into the right light. So here are some photographs that maybe help. If they said 1000 words they'd not be enough:

(click to enlarge)

Sears tower voyeurism; the train yard


My first dino, the museum


better than my t-rex pic; dinosaurs are cool


My permanent phone background; almost bought
for the kid that I don't even have

Almost as big as a dino; dolphin excitement


Just floating about; chillin with penguins


Adler Observatory; my hilltop perch at daylight















A moment in time/timeless moment

Chicago pt. II

...You wouldn't think I could get lost. I mean not only is the tower something like only 3 miles away, it is actually visible from the starting line. I had a cool picture where I held out my open right hand except bent my ring finger down and substituted the tower in the distance, but alas it did not turn out. A few of my photos didn't actually, definitely could've used a proper photographer all along. Not just to hold the camera, but because about 2 hours into the trip and pretty much all the way throughout, my modest skills were pushed way beyond their limits. I'll patch a few up at the end of it all.

Anyway I am walking towards the tower right now. And before riding into town I'd thought of accounting for one or two cab rides to get me from A to B, but the minute I stepped out of the passenger side of my motel, I was completely wrapped up in the climate/emotional warmth and suddenly I didn't want anything besides a long walk into mystery. Well I make it about 4/5's of the journey there, and I pull out my map to see what street I need to jump across to, when an impeccably dressed gent decided I was lost & hijacked my map. He told me to go down the street that I was going to go down and then asked how much money I had put in my meter. I replied "I'm parked at McDonald's, livin dangerously" to which we was borderline offended to, insisting that I'd be towed for sure if I didn't go to a $7/day parking garage.

This I have now decided was the microcosm for either the whole trip or the possible new direction that this trip might start my life in. Or even both. See this is the part of the story where I usually explain the unnecessary/foolish risk I took before indenting for another paragraph to explain the great backfire of my decision. Only this time the story goes "I turned around, jogged the 2 miles back, and found a spot further down: paying the toll for parking all day (and also for piece of mind)." Hmmm....

I found my way near to the tower, on the outskirts of Greektown, but I never actually stopped up to it. I kept my heart compass pointed into the direction of the Field Museum, pretty much backing into Hull House in the process. I knew I was close when I got to the bridge over the Chicago River and they had these statuette globes with dinosaurs walking around them. I wanted 10 of them.

And then there it was. You could see the building and also a bright lime green banner waving from the side like a beacon, a large dinosaur printed upon it. Eyes fixed on the sight I somehow navigated myself across 2 busy streets without being mowed down. It was like the Emerald Palace at the very end of the yellow brick road. And then, peeking through the trees as if nibbling a veggie snack, was a dinosaur. I set down 10 years of my life in the grass and unconsciously raced up the stairs to find the large skeleton of a Brachiosaurus. It was like 'there it was (!!!)'. I went inside and it was like a playground. T-Rex roaring right at the entrance! And a huge dinosaur that must have seriously been 80 feet long suspended above your head. And then you go into the real exhibit and see all of them set up on display... I don't even know. I spent a good 2 hours in the 3 room display alone. I was suddenly back at Jayno Adams Elementary library and going through the obscure dinosaur section or building skeletons from my Christmas playset or watching 'Jurassic Park' in the theatre for the very first time.

Still in awe, I almost sleepwalked through their fantastic Egyptian and Native American displays before making off to the Shedd Aquarium. Once in the aquarium, I made it top order to find my way to the Penguin room (my favourite non-extinct animal you see). But on the way I stumbled into an amazing aquarium they had for their dolphins, almost like a mini-coliseum. And trying to go downstairs to find the bottom level to see them swimming around I turned a corner and lost my breath. There were the penguins! Dozens of them partying it up, waddling around on their glacier and gliding through the icy water. I sat there for say 20 minutes just watching them, even as more people would walk right up to the tank and cluster about. Since 'March of the Penguins' I think penguins are the new fad for a little while now. Ah well.

I made it upstairs in time for the dolphin show and it made me laugh out loud. It was just so unapologetically silly and to watch the kids marvel at the tricks the trainers and dolphins would do together was my treat. They have so many tanks with just so many different fish and aquatic creatures from different parts of the globe it was amazing. A whole room with nothing but crabs. Jellyfish lit by different shades of red. Manta Rays and turtles and seahorses...Oh my!

I left at close, put on my headphones and Beach Boy'ed my way across the boardwalk towards the Planetarium. The Sun was slowly setting and 'God Only Knows' was leading me to some pretty powerful conclusions about it all. Be back later.

Chicago pt. I

So I just packed up and did it. I put on my favourite outfit (the mythical blood red longsleeve and grey pants), quickly bombed my accounting test, dashed home, made some (ill-fated) plans to visit a friend named Hannah on the way through K-zoo, threw toiletries, camera, headphones, notebook and $150 into my pillowcase and Thursday night 10:15 P.M. EST I was on the road.

It might do good to say that I had originally planned this as only a drive down to see my newly beloved octet 'Architecture in Helsinki', only considering the thought of stretching it into an entire Friday safari until very recently. Then and also in retrospect I think that might have been the wisest thing to have done, as to not give my head enough time to put together a worthy petition to my heart as to the perils of such a spur-of-the-moment journey.

Yahoo! directions had me arriving into Chicago in just a hair over 5 hours, though actually I would technically be 4 due to crossing over into Central Time. This was supposedly going to be the time I had needed to catch up on all the 'unlistened to' music I had basically pilling up in my car. So I listened to The Beatles all the way down. Start to finish. I hadn't even realized until then that, outside of hearing them during homework sessions, as background music for com. work and 8 min cartrips to work, I hadn't really listened to them at all in quite some time. Blowing through the night the best way I can describe it would be to imagine the whole thing as a big spinal cord, and each song being a nerve that went to some different place in my 22 year existence.

So after only kind of getting lost, I made it into the city. And it is huge. But right away this feeling set in, a feeling that carried through the entire stay: comfort. Instead of seeing this huge building and fast cars darting all around, it was like walking into a house and seeing big brothers there to protect you. Driving through the downtown, halfway searching for a parkling structure it was so amazing to see all the buildings and people coming and going at 2:30 AM. I finally checked into my motel at around 3:00. And by motel I mean curling up into my sleeping bag in my backseat parked at McDonald's. I put on my pajamas but it didn't matter anyway, I wasn't sleeping that night. The atmosphere wouldn't let me. Hearing the people yelling across the street and the cars gliding by in the night and the lights glimmering through my windows I wanted to do nothing besides just go and explore.

I rose at 9:00 to aches, cold temperatures and excitement. Try as I might to somehow uncurled myself from my slumber without a scene, giggling could be heard as I tried to find my toothbrush and shirt buried someplace under my motel bed. Breakfast pancakes and sausage in the restaurant was great, but the highlight had to be my first, full-fledged cup of coffee ever. I decided I was going to need all the ammo I could get to make it through without sleep, so I timidly added "one small cup of coffee...ummm.... with one lump of sugar....cream?" I think I got black (?). It tasted just terrible, but I decided this would be a very good thing under my "the worse something is, usually the better impact it will have" theory.

I next bought my map across the road for $5. If I were to post this map on, say, e-bay tomorrow, I would probably list it at a starting bid of $500...it was pretty much invaluable all the way. I had decided then + there to risk leaving my car parked at the Mac the whole day and to head on the downtown route to see the Sears tower, which would lead me on track to seeing the Field Museum (the originally bait that pulled me into making this a full day adventure: their supposedly amazing dino exhibit), Shedd Aquarium and Adler Observatory. Certainly things would come together just as planned right? More to come.