To see some friends.
Near the end of September I went to Chicago to take a look around and visit with some friends from Tulsa that had moved there.
It had been about 14 years since I had visited Chicago. The first time that I went, I drove up and I fell in love with the place but I was only there for two days. It was an interesting trip but the details will remain sealed.
This trip was a nonstop from TUL to ORD.
I love a window seat. Being up in the clouds will always be mesmerizing to me, it's a treat.
I landed around 8ish and made my way via subway to Logan Square.
I know that you know this but Chicago is literally windy. I brought a cold front with me too. I stood on this corner with my luggage waiting for my friends. When they were in sight, Lydia gave me a dramatic movie run up and we hugged and waltzed back to their casa.
They live in a beautiful apartment and I was happy to make it my home for a few days.
The next morning I took a brisk walk to a coffee shop to fuel up before my remote workday. The sidewalks are wide, beautiful, and plentiful.
The sidewalks in Tulsa however might land you in the hospital. They seem to start and stop at random and are seriously lacking in accessibility. The kind of sidewalks that remind you how lucky you are to be able to see and walk.
Later that eve we went to a Thai place nearby before our planned night of jazz.
I had Khao Soi because it's my new fave and we had some strange fried banana appetizer. It was all very tasty.
The jazz club was BYOB and for us that meant Mezcal and some ice cups from the bodega.
What happened next was completely unforgivable. I love jazz, we have a great jazz scene in Tulsa. Whatever we witnessed in Chicago…was just wrong. Even writing this now I'm feeling a little PTSD from it. It was like the horn player intentionally tried to make the worse sounds he could possibly come up with, and with such passion. A jazz performance that screamed, “I need a therapist”. While it was the absolute worst jazz I've ever and hopefully will ever hear in my life it provided a hilarious text exchange for Lydia and I.
We sipped our Mezcals and left at the break.
On Saturday we wandered around a few different areas of town and stopped by the lake for a gander.
For dinner we were able to find a Turkish spot because what can I say? I went to Turkey once and became obsessed, sue me.
Lamuchan and mezzes. Nothing compared to Türkiye but delicious in it's own way.
We ended up at a Wand concert that night, I'm not usually into rock but it was a really great show.
The next day we took a long walk to the Humboldt park area where allegedly there was a Puerto Rican festival going on but when we arrived we found no such festival.
On the way I snapped this of the clouds.
Humboldt is a beautiful park and we stared off into the swan boats as ducks continued to stop by to check if we had food.
We had snacks and did some light day drinking, we were even hot on the daddy trail.
We ended the night by discovering a cute neighborhood bar called Quality Time. I had a few of my favorite cocktails (mezcal negroni) and called it a night.
Sunday was a day of mostly rest but I also got to see my other transplant friend, Kaylan. We both used to work at Philbrook and always had a hilarious time together. She's a hot dog afficianado so I felt like we had to meet for weiners.
She's the cutest 😭
All in all Chicago was fun. I left out a few details about men but that's for the best 😅.
I had a great time and I thought maybe Chicago would leave me wanting more, but it didn't. I didn't feel a pull to move there or fall back in love. I know my real place is in the sun and that I'm not meant for winter or winter ish weather.
A great reminder on the sidewalk to keep in mind:
The sunset from O'Hare as a final goodbye.