Last 2 Days in Chicago

After Stein and I exchanged gifts and had breakfast (and a mid-morning nap!) On Christmas morning, we set out to Mickey's to celebrate Christmas with the family. As I said before, my brother Bryan and his family were there, and so was my dad. Rick and Monik are in China, so they were missed.

Mickey decided to have appetizers along with ham for the meal. Everyone brought something and the food was delicious. We had beef with roasted red peppers and garlic on toasts, pizza bread, baked goat cheese with marinara, artichoke dip, and other assorted things. When we were done with the appetizers, we realized that we forgot to put out the ham and homemade corn bread. That became the running joke of the day, when Mickey or Mike would try to offer ham or cornbread at every opportunity. It's always so fun for me to be with my family and catch up. Inevitably, old stories are told and there's a lot of laughter.

We also had a grab-bag gift exchange. Normally there is one item that is coveted and stolen throughout the game, but this year everyone was satisfied (or settled) for what they got. I got a really nice wine opener, and Stein got a Tandoori chicken clay pot. We attempted to use the clay pot tonight for dinner, until we noticed that the sticker on it said it needed to be soaked in water for 12 hours prior to using.

Stein drove home that night and I stayed with Mickey. We needed to get an early start to go into the city for shopping. We met my dad for a pre-shopping breakfast at Toast in Lincoln Park. They have a stuffed french toast that is incredible. They stuff it with either cream cheese and strawberries or chocolate. We had both and it was to die for.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not really a shopper. I think I've written about my theory on shopping: if I need something, I go buy it, but I rarely go shopping just to shop. It's just not my thing. But, the day after Christmas, it's different. Mickey and I like to go to see what's on sale. Mostly we look for gift-type items that we can give the following Christmas. Or we look for decorations. This year the pickings were a little slim in terms of the things we like to buy. But we managed to buy some really nice gifts at half-price. I always like opening the bags a year later. It's a surprise all over again.

We got done shopping at about 1:30 and decided to have lunch. I was convinced that there was an earlier train than the one I was scheduled to take at 6:00, but unfortunately there wasn't. When Mickey dropped me off at the train station, it was 2:30. I obviously had a lot of time to kill before catching the train.

I decided to walk down to State Street to go to Macy's and the other stores there. I'm glad I did. For a long time, we had the tradition of going to Marshall Field's (now Macy's) and sitting under the tree for lunch in the Walnut Room. We haven't done that in a long time, and I miss seeing the tree and being at Macy's. The place just puts me in the Christmas mood.

If you've never been to Macy's on State, you should go. The building is humongous. I think there are 10 floors. And there are escalators and elevators going up and down carrying people with bulging bags. It's pretty amazing. Every time I am there, I think of my grandma. She went downtown a lot, and talked about going to "Field's" where she bought something she was looking for, or stopped by the "cafeteria" to have lunch with her friends. As I rode the old escalators up and down throughout the store, I couldn't help but think that my grandma was on the same escalators. I suddenly felt the urge to buy a hat. My grandma always wore the most stylish hats, and they looked great on her. I'm not really a hat person, so the thought quickly vanished.

As I walked back to the train station, I thought about how comfortable I am in the city. I know the city. I instantly go into city mode when I'm downtown. There's a certain way to walk, a certain way to avoid the eye contact of a pan handler, a certain way to stare in awe of the tall buildings without looking like a tourist. I pride myself in remembering all of these nuances. To me it's like riding a bike. It was a great walk.

When I got back to Union Station, my good mood began to diminish. The boarding area was packed with people. I was immediately back to my traveling days when I worked for Einsteins. My game face was on and I felt very annoyed. I listened as one guy told his life story to the woman next to him including the exact place in Minneapolis where he lives. I saw people pushing and shoving to move about a foot ahead in line. And I had more than one person bump into my leg with their suitcase or their leg or their foot. I just wanted to be home and all I kept thinking about was that I had a 4 1/2 hour train ride ahead of me. Looking back, that wasn't so bad. If you remember from my earlier post, the train was an hour late.

I had the pleasure while riding on the train of listening to 2 women talk about all the trains that they have taken in their lives and all the routes that they have gone on. Judging from their conversation, I don't think either of these women have ever traveled to another city via car, bus or plane. They were Amtrak experts, and each tried to one-up the other with her knowledge. As if that weren't annoying enough, I also had the guy in front of me who got off at every stop to have a cigarette and came back reeking of smoke. He also had about 4 beers on the trip and moaned in his sleep when he fell asleep. I have never looked at my watch so many times in a 5 hour span.

I got into Ann Arbor at 12:30 am and Stein was waiting for me. I was so grateful at that point that he refused to let me take a cab home. I was exhausted from a long day of shopping and traveling. I slept like a baby that night.