Saturday, March 11

The day of the Michael Buble concert down at Rosevelt University. If I had time that day, I was going to try to get to the concert hall early in the afternoon to see if I could peek into the windows or maybe sneak in and hear Michael Buble rehearse for the show.
Only dreaming though. I didn't even have time that day. We were in the area though, but we only saw one limo...it could have been him!

Saturday I made sure I got at least 8 hours of sleep at night, so I slept in until nearly 11..a good 10 hours :) The sun was shining through the windows of the apartment (a rare occurance) and it was amazingly warm outside, so I HAD to go for a run by the lake!! I ran up and down the lakeshore for a few miles and then had to get ready to meet the girls who had left for the parade already. I met them down at the parade under a TV crane thing and we watched the Chicago St. Patrick's Day parade for over an hour before we got sick of watching the same looking floats, same sounding marching bands, and dancing celtic women. We tried as hard as we could to get some candy or beads from the parade people walking by, but we weren't cute enough.
We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping and window shopping. Some of our favorite stores include: H&M, Forever 21, NY and C, Sears and Payless :) We lost a couple of the girls quite early so Kate, Pam and I met up and went back to the apartment together around supper time. We were all quite hungry. I picked up a frozen pizza for supper (also ended up dropping it face down on the floor) and then we hung around the apartment all night. I also managed to fit in a 3 hour nap after supper. Wow. I'm finding that I can always go for naps now.

"How has your sense of the city changed over time?" At first, I approached Chicago with wide eyes, like I'd never get used to the busyness of the people. I never though I'd get used to seeing that homeless person shaking coins in a cup. I never though I'd get used to the smells from underground, the honking of horns, not looking people in the eyes as you walk down the street. I still haven't gotten used to everything, but I find myself challenging the "game face" thing. As I walk to the Red line from work, I try to see how many people will look me in the face as I walk past them. And on the train, it's awkward to see someone looking at you and you look right back at them. They look away right away, usually. Sometimes they may smile.
I sat next to a young african american child and her mother on the train a few days ago. It was interesting to hear how they interacted. The child was not shy. She spoke to me and referred to me as a "him" when talking to her mom about me. It was funny because clearly I'm not a man..but I do have short hair. Maybe it's different from what the girl knew of the women in her life...women with longer, braided? dark hair. It must be tough to take care of such an inquisitive child sometimes. It takes a lot of patience, and I could tell that mother's patience was running dry.