23.6.03
Chicago
Catherine and I arrived in Chicago after a little drive from California. As we drove through a nice rainstorm due East to the home of friends Daniel and Tom right on North Lake Shore Drive - on the lake, we timed our arrival to pick up Robbie Thorpe at O'Hare. We walked some of the Miracle Mile that Wednesday evening to a Noodle Emporium and threaded our way back to 910 through townhouses and Very Tall Buildings. Catherine and Rob headed for home around 10:00 AM on Thursday and that was that. Sad. Sad. Sad. But ultimately good and right and a gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do.
So now it is Sunday, and I have for several days been lounging around and pretending to live the life of a Big City Sophisticate: shopping for expensive groceries at Bockwinkles, a store in the basement of a Michigan Avenue skyscraper, attending an art show, being lucky enough to be invited by Andrea Tucker, of the Philidephia Tuckers to sail the lake on her boat, the sweet Euphoria. Daniel and Tom have a truly elegant apartment on the 21st floor of 910 Lake Shore Drive - a Mies van der Rohe building. When you think of "glass and steel" and the streamlined beauty of Chicago highrises, what you get is 910 North Lake Shore Drive.
So - sailing alongside the skyline, a haircut from a simpering stylist ("Oh! you have the most beautiful curls!" - yes, yes, here's the big curly tip), a little dinner party on the tennants' deck of 910. Oh, you can roll your eyes when I say that we watched the sky melt from blue to orange to night blue and we watched the boats on the lake release their twinkling lights onto the water and into the sky. We watched beautiful fireworks over Navy Pier - the City of Chicago produces a fireworks display every Wednesday and Saturday. Such generosity from the Windy City! CHA!
Not only are Daniel and Tom wonderful friends and generous hosts with a beautiful home (is it tacky to drool over the really cool kitchen and that nifty soap dish attached to the towel rack over the bathtub? Just remember: compliments = good, gushing = bad), but they have surrounded themselves with some excellent friends of their own. Miss Andrea Tucker, of the Philidelphia Tuckers and pretty Miss Michelle Herrell, who seems to be the one who always brings the cool, obscure cheeses to parties. Dr. Gray Volgelmann - dear god what beautifully white teeth that man has! I really couldn't take my eyes off of their unholy glow. I wonder if he noticed that I was staring at them the way someone might stare only at a pair of breasts, despite the interesting things the woman might be saying. What I really wanted to do was stick out my tongue to a point and just touch one single pearl. I hope he doesn't find out....Mr. Phil Berger a freelance journalist of a droll wit and Very Beautiful Eyelashes - didn't want to lick those, though. I hope he doesn't find that out...the people, the delicious food and, let's face it, the refreshing alcohol, made for absolutely nothing other a fun evening out on the deck.
So it is Chicago Sunday morning-ish and we three are at our respective laptops. Coffee. A good stereo and good accustics and someone with excellent taste for music. Nina Simone and boats on the blue lake under a blue sky...and the Sunday New York Times...Does it get much better than this. Oh how moderne.
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What's this all about?
After traveling there in 2001 and 2002, Miss Thea is off to Ireland once and for all.
Read the blog archives
Right now in Ireland
See Dublin's O'Connell Bridge live via Web cam
Check out which sort of rain is falling
Miss Thea's Irish bookmarks
Irish Times Jobs
Move to Ireland
Daft.ie -- as in, "You want a flat on St. Stephen's Green for 100 Euros a year? You must be daft!"
Tango Ireland
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