from a hotel room in the Gold Coast

. . . district of chicago.
Christy and I drove up to Chicago this afternoon for the weekend. We checked into our hotel, the Ambassador East-- all kinds of swanky-- and took the el up to my friend Laura's house. From hence we ate some good thai and went to the chicago Irish Fest to see the Tossers play. The Tossers usually put on a decent show until their lead singer drinks himself to incoherency and starts to sound like Shane McGowan of the Pogues. His mandolin playing usually falls off too and then even I can tell that the band isnt playing together. but it was a lot of fun. hanging out with laura always brings a refreshing blast of east coast snark that shakes me out of my midwestern languidness.
i like the lincoln/wicker/irving park areas. a lot of the buildings are older, and if you look down alley ways and between buildings, it seems like you've stepped back in time 70-80 years.
it always kind of amazes me, especially when im ridding in the el, how many people live in chicago. we ride past hundreds of houses and apartments in which thousands of lives are playing out. its kind of amazing to me
as much as i love chicago, i dont know if i could live here. i would have to have a condo in an old brownstone on some shady side street to stay sane i think. not having anything resembling a lawn would probably drive me nuts. Christy said she'd love to live in a high-rise condo. the thought makes my toes curl. i like being closer to the ground.
one thing that i think is kind of funny about chicago is that people look at me weird when i say "excuse me." granted, people did that too in, say, cairo, but i think thats because i was a white, blond guy speaking arabic.