Day 4: Monday November 8, 2004

The Morning After
I get up around 9am and grab some breakfast from the continental buffet that's on our floor by the elevator. I gather our mementos from last night's concert and throw in a few personal items in the mix and take some shots, which I decide to call "The Morning After." The show set list, my concert ticket, a Matthew Sweet/Velvet Crush T-Shirt, Sarah's one-of-a-kind Matthew Sweet glazed pottery, my VHS tape of raw concert footage, Sarah's iPod and Courtney Love T-Shirt, my pink and black headband and $2.99 Chicago Christmas travel candle that I bought at Walgreens. We eat our breakfast and get ready to leave back over to Michigan Ave. for more shopping. I make a vow to myself not to buy any more clothes.

My Vie En Rose Watch
We make a stop at Nordstrom's which is the best one I've been to yet. We look through the shoe department, and on our way to the escalator stop at the watch department. Sarah points out the Michel watches. I've been thinking of buying a new watch, and once again, am taken the clunky faced watch with the PINK croc watch band. In some ways it reminds of an extremely expensive and gaudy diamond and ruby watch made by Chopard called La Vie En Rose. They do have watches with diamonds and precious stones in them, but they are very expensive and I am looking for something for everyday wear. I ask to see the pink watch and also study some with a smaller face. The original one I focused on still prevails as the one that is calling to me. The salesman tells us it's a Nordstrom's exclusive...I feel like a rock star, I say wearing the watch. OK I'll get it! He brings out the box, a beautiful brown, kind-of tortoise-shell box. And to make matters even better, he says he has a special gift for me! He doesn't like to use this as a selling tool, he says, but since I'm buying the watch, he can give me a free wrist band and offers a black patent or black rubber one. "I love black patent," I say immediately and he puts the rubber one away. He then tells me the black patent is not available to be purchased. Man do I feel so fucking special!

We stop in the cafeteria upstairs for lunch. I have a grilled ham and cheese sandwich and a Honeydew White iced tea. We stop at Marshall Field's once again and I buy a blue and green scarf to go with the new blue suede jacket I'm wearing as it's cold and windy outside. While waiting for Sarah who's gone to check out shoes, I browse through a gift section that contains pens, stationary, and other gift type items. They have on display a suede hobo handbag which at first glance looks good to me. Then I see the sign for it, "For the woman who believes you can never been too thin, too rich, or have too many pockets in your purse." Who would want millions of pockets in your purse - you'll never find anything that way. I stop looking at the purse, realizing none of those descriptions fit me, so the bag obviously is wrong for me. Instead I look at the furs and admire a mink coat, which the salesperson is pleased to tell me is sheared. I can't believe they're allowing us to touch a mink coat. "Well if it was 40% off maybe we could buy it," I tell Sarah. "Oh but it is on sale," he says, and magically it is 40% off, but still over $8,000. Oh well...no one wears real fur in California anyway, and if you did those PETA people would probably slaughter you with the mink on your back. Sarah wants to make a stop at Calypso on Oak Street so we make a beeline for there, where she finally buys 2 jeweled colored cable knit cashmere sweaters. It's all about cashmere for her, and having just bought 5 cashmere sweaters myself, I completely understand.

The Art Institute of Chicago
We catch a cab to the Art Institute of Chicago. It's only 1.5 hours before closing time, and I'm hoping that is enough time for us. Since it is so close to closing time, they waive the usual $12 admission fee, and instead offer to let us make a donation instead. The guy suggests $5, and I willingly agree. What a deal. I love this town!

We head upstairs for the Impressionists and Modern Art. I am immeidately floored when I walk in and see a familiar painting of a Paris street scene, which is larger than life. If I knew more about art, I'd probably really appreciate it, but I'm in awe anyway. My favorite artist there I is Paul Klee, and they have a pretty large collection of his. I absolutely love a painting of his with an abstract girl's face. I was under the impression that they had a huge Hopper collection, but they only have one painting, the famous cafeteria scene, and that is out on loan. Sarah looks for the Modigliani, and I remember the Book of Love song "Modigliani (Lost In Your Eyes)". My eyes are starting to have difficulty foucsing. I'm not sure if it's because of the lack of sleep, old age creeping up on me, bright lighting, dry air, or something else, but I'm getting a bit dizzy. I shoot some videos of the paintings and try to see that entire section of the exhibit, even if I do blow by it pretty quicly, and forget most of what I see. We stop at the gift shop downstairs and I search for a Paul Klee calendar, box of cards, or something I can bring home, but only find a poster which I don't like. Never mind, I can get it elsewhere I figure, remembering I bought some Paul Klee posters before online. But I do pick up a box of Andy Warhol cards with cut-out flowers that you can stick on the cards yourself. Everyone can be an artist. What a great world this is!

It's around 4:30 and the museum is closing. Sarah calls her college friend Tim, who has been living in Chicago for the last 10 years, and runs his own multimedia development company Mighty Bytes. He says he'll pick us up from our hotel around 6:30pm. We head back and get ready for the evening. Around 6:30 he calls and we head downstairs. We pile into Tim's black Honda Civic and head toward Lincoln Park. It's not at all a place I would say you have to visit if you went to Chicago, in fact it's a little seedy, if anything. We go to a coffee shop and get some coffee and walk around. I see a poster for The Witnesses, whom I remember as a local San Francisco band from many years ago. I'm surprised they're still around, and playing in Chicago! I try to remember the song we used to play by them on LIVE 105. Slowly it comes to me, "Black Velvet Crush"! Weird coincidence!

We get back into the car and drive to Tim's office. It is a 2 bedroom apartment on the top floor of what is like a storefront of a busy street in the Evanstown section. We go up the back way and enter the kitchen. I'm stunned at while a nice kitchen he has in what he calls an office, but this place is really like an apartment that is fully furnished where he happens to have a room that serves as an office. It's amazingly nice, and he has a couple of macs and a PC as well. This is the way to do it, I think. He's got it made.

Dinner at Thai Pastry
We walk over to Tim's house and meet his partner Jeff. They offer his Pumpkin Vodka which has been marinating for a while. I take a couple of sips, but it is really strong, and I'm unable to finish it. We walk back to the car, and Tim and Sarah sit in the back, and I sit in the front with Jeff, who drives. We head for Thai Pastry and have a yummy dinner. The fish cakes are huge and they also order a dish with nuts that you wrap in leaves and dip in sauce. I've never had it before and it is delish.

Back into the car. It's nippy. We go for a drive and see Chicago at night. They point out buildings including the Sears Tower, and tell us that the name "The Windy City" came from politicians being windbags, not the weather. I don't know if it's really true, but it's a good story and I'll believe it. I shoot some video, but it doesn't really come out well. It's a beautiful city by day and night. Too bad it's so damn cold. I ask when's a good time to come in the spring or summer. They say July. July seems so late, I say, how about June. Well better not make it early June, Jeff warns. It may still be damn cold then.

We return to the hotel room. Sarah turns on the TV and we start to watch the movie "Thirteen" with Holly Hunter, a very disturbing, but probably accurate account of what it's like to be a young teenager in this day and age. Both of us have seen this movie before, but watch it again. It's about half-way through as we start watching it. By the time it's over it's midnight and we get ready for bed. I put on my iPod headphones and select a playlist to listen to.

Next > Day 5: Chicago to NYC. Northwest sucks again!