Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Chicago

OK, I should have posted on this earlier. I went to Chicago over the Memorial Day weekend. Well, Portage, IN, then Chicago, then back to Portage, to be exact. It was an interesting trip. Hotter than hell, for sure. In Portage, I hung out with my high school friend, Rachel, her husband, Eric, and their son, Malachi. Malachi was born in November and this was the first time I met him. He's a very cute baby. I will admit that I was a bit weirded out by the whole baby thing. It just seems like we are still kids ourselves.

Saturday, I went to visit my grad school friend, Miriam in Chicago. She lives on the South Side of Chicago, RIGHT BY THE LAKE. It was so pretty, we took a walk along the trail and park near Lake Shore Drive. It was so neat to have the nature area of the park surrounded by the city. We ate dinner downtown at Brazzoz, a Brazilian Steakhouse. Very good. It's like a meat buffet. You go up to get your salad and then the waiters bring around 16 different cuts of meat and you can take it or decline. They keep coming until you tell them to stop by turning a card over by your place setting.

Anyway, Sunday, we worked out at the YMCA and participated in a step aerobics class. I thought I was going to die, but I managed to barely make it through the class. After our workout, we headed downtown for a little Michigan Avenue shopping. Since it was so hot, we were moving slow. It was fun to go to H&M, Ghirardelli, Gap, Banana Republic, Marshall Fields, Niketown, etc. etc. Stores are so much bigger there! After a long day of shopping we headed out for some Chicago style pizza at Giordano's. Very yummy. I was back to Portage Sunday night.

Monday was spent just hanging out, doing Malachi's morning routine. Eric went to work at 2pm, then Rachel left at 5:30pm for work. That left me alone with Malachi for 6 hours on my own. I did volunteer for this. He cried for the first hour (normally a happy baby) and didn't take the bottle. Luckily after that first hour he only cried when I left the room to go to the bathroom or something(I wasn't neglecting him, it was just an extension of the living room). He ate his dinner, and went to bed just a little past the scheduled time. Whew. I can't imagine having kids. Good luck to those of you who do. My thoughts could change further down the road, but definitely not the thing for me. Tuesday morning I headed back to the Nati. I know this is long, but I just wanted to post the story.

2 comments:

Heidi said...

Man, I love Chicago. I've only been there once but it has so much character! And I think that I like that its big city but its still midwest. Its less intimidating than NYC (which I love, too). And I agree, I remember when my brother was born when I was 15, how much work that was for me-and I wasn't even his parent (I'm not now, either, by the way). And now, I can barely handle my cat, but there are people in my grad school program who have kids, as well. I can't imagine.

joybird said...

I really liked Chicago too. I didn't have much time there. All through grad school Miriam kept talking it up about great it is to live there. I hope to return. I liked the Midwest feel as well. People seemed friendly.

I can''t handle my cat either! She is so needy for attention. A baby is a lifetime of constant neediness.