I'll Give You 50 Cents to Use Your Phone

Museum of Contemporary Art

Chicago, Illinois

July 7, 2006

7:45 p.m.

"Excuse me. I'll give you 50 cents if I can use your cell phone to call my husband." ----Tarot card reader on Michigan Ave. to a number of pedestrians before someone finally agreed to her request.


I continue to be amazed at the incredible contradictions around us every day. How I can walk down Michigan Avenue in Chicago, one of the priciest streets in the world, and see every variety of downtrodden people creatively asking for spare change and just a little gas money to "get them back to Dallas." How people driving huge SUVs and commuting to their jobs 30 miles each way complain about rising gas prices. Little things like that drive me crazy.

We're in Chicago for the next two nights as Jen attends a weekend seminar at Northwestern University. We're staying just a few blocks from NU near the Streeterville neighborhood. Our son is at his aunt's while I will be watching our daughter as Jen attends class. Nice to be in the city with no agenda, no time constraints, no plans, nothing to do but take care of a little munchkin. Goes quite against my control-freak, must-have-a-plan-for-everything nature.

Drove in to Chicago today for the first time in probably five years. We've become such fans of Metra and the El that driving into Chicago rarely makes sense. However, with the Normandy-invasion level of gear that you need for a 48-hour stay with a five-week old, driving was really the only option.

Incredible level of congestion going into the city at about 4 p.m. on a Friday. I don't envy those who commute in heavy traffic every day. Did a country-road, 60-minute each way, commute for about six months during the first year of my first real job and that was about all I could take. Can't imagine doing it in every day in heavy traffic.

Planning to meet my sister and her husband on Saturday at some point just to hang out and maybe have dinner. Should be fun.