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John Scalzi's Weekend Assignment #79: Chicago!:The last time I went to Chicago, I posted an entry on it here...
I love THE LAKE...I love the Chicago River, and the way that it winds through the city...I love the Planetarium, and the dolphin show at the Shedd Aquarium...
I love learning the history of Chicago, and that there's so much of it...I love being in a city that was nearly burned to the ground but never gave up, and instead rebuilt itself a thousand times better...I love the architecture and the skyline and especially the Hancock Observatory...
I love that I can see where the Haymarket affair happened...I love that I can stand at the old Water Tower...
I REALLY love the Chicago Cubs.
And the zoo there is amazing, and FREE...
My favorite thing about Chicago is the fact that, while I've visited other big cities, it's only in Chicago that I feel like I'm at home. More than anywhere else, it truly is America's City...
That's why the 'America Windows' couldn't possibly have been anywhere else!
I can't ever seem to start writing until I'm exhausted and incoherent from lack of sleep. It's very interesting.
The most beautiful thing we saw on our trip:
How to choose? I think that by far the most beautiful thing in Chicago is the LAKE. Impossibly blue and, to the eyes, as big as the ocean, it's hard to look away from it. And sometimes there's fog in the distance and you can't tell where the water ends and the sky begins. The trip is worth it for the view alone.
The other beautiful thing is the "American Windows" by Chagall at The Art Institute of Chicago. Stained glass, more blue, and light, and hints of reds, pinks, greens, yellows. It's just wonderful. How did I go to Chicago twice before now and miss this?
The best moments of our trip:
For me? The tour guide dropped us off at the RainForest Cafe and uncharacteristically gave us more time than we needed. My daughter and I seized the moment, ditched the restaurant as quickly as we could, and ventured out on our own. It was only an hour to ourselves, unscripted, but it was the most fun we had all week. It was like playing hooky, and I got to go to Walgreens.
My daughter says the best moment was getting back to the hotel every night so she could lay down and watch TV.
It's the simple things...
The prize for the strangest thing we saw:
Goes to the big ugly black spider we saw hanging from the top of the building, outside the window on the 103rd floor of the Sears Tower. How did it get all the way up there? Everyone else was excited about it...while I was just happy that it was outside, not inside.
2nd place goes to the 6th grade girls' rendition of "Amelia, Amelia, Amelia".
The new favorite tourist thing that we've never done before but definitely want to do again:
That would be Medieval Times. I've always held out on going there because I thought it would be cheesy. And it is! But great fun, as well! Where else can you get a great meal and front row seating to jousting and some great Buffy-worthy fighting?
The one thing I need to work on:
Where did my money go? Gift shops should be outlawed for people like me who have no sense of self-control when it comes to buying pencils and postcards. I think I have about 200 dollars worth of pencils and postcards still left to unpack.
My daughter is much smarter than me, she spent all her money on stuffed animals. At least she has something to hold!
We got back from Chicago late last night, and I'm still exhausted. How long does it take to get over a trip like this?
We had dinner in Indianapolis on the way home. The experience there made both my daughter and I feel a lot better about the trip. The two of us sat down at a table alone since her six classmates were sitting with each other, and, as usual, they hadn't left any room for her. We had just been there a couple of seconds, though, before the girls noticed where she was and shoved a bunch of seats together and called her to sit with them.
I was so thankful to see it, and trying hard to get over my resentment of the fact that they could have done that the whole trip, instead of the last day. I had really taken everything a lot worse than my daughter had. She is the eternal optimist and always ready to forgive and forget.
So, my daughter deserted me, and I was stuck eating dinner by myself, but that was okay because she was happy.
Then I hear someone say, "Are you eating alone? Come sit with us!". I look over and it's one of the other mothers from my bus, at a table with her son and his friend.
I had seen and heard this woman, Allison, talking on the bus for the last four days, and she was by far the most intimidating person of all on this trip. Older, beautiful, self-confident, and loud - totally opposite from me.
With trepidation, I sat down with her, and we talked through supper. And to my surprise, she was absolutely approachable and nice. Not only that, but she had a lot of the same concerns that I did about the trip and how the other kids were treating her child. And also the same concerns about not really knowing the other people on the trip, and the same relief that the trip was almost over!
(Anna: I was thinking of you as I was talking to Allison through this dinner, and how right you were. This person wasn't intimidating at all once I talked to her, but very nice and normal. Thank you again!)
As for the last leg of the trip home, Derby Time struck again. I-65 was closed for THUNDER OVER LOUISVILLE, the nation's largest annual fireworks show and the official kickoff of the KY DERBY FESTIVAL. The fireworks show is held over the Ohio River. That's the river we have to cross to get back to Kentucky.
With I-65 closed, we backtrack our way on the Detour to get on I-64, where traffic was at a standstill. So the bus got off the interstate and drove through the back roads to get back on I-64 at mile marker 1, which is the last entrance to the interstate before it crosses the river.
So we get on the Interstate and are soon stuck on the bridge over the Ohio River, which is where we happen to be when the fireworks start.
And that's how we got great seats for the 40-minute fireworks extravaganza, keeping the kids and adults close to the windows, and the conversation on the bus soon limited to "OOOH...AHHH...OOOH...AHHH".
The tour guides insisted that they planned it that way, hour delay and all.
I'll write more on the trip next time, working backwards. I am so happy to be home.
I brought my laptop along just in case I had time. My beautiful girl crashed asleep as soon as we got back to the hotel tonight.
Going on a four-day field trip with a bunch of middle school kids (average age: 13) has been all kinds of fun so far.
That was a joke.
I'm separate from the other parents, and I'm not quite sure why. I have my theories. A lot of it is on purpose, on my part. I tend to hold people at arm's length. I've always been a loner, but lately it's been rather extreme.
Also, this is a small, private, Christian school that my daughter goes to. The other moms are, for the most part, older than me and married, and they have short coiffed hair. I feel massively inferior and different on this trip. I was a mother at 19, I've never been married (though I have been with my boyfriend for eight years now, which is a very long time and I've heard the "when are you getting married" thing about a million times now), I haven't had short hair since eighth grade, and I don't usually wear pastels.
Being separate has never bothered me before. But now, I see my daughter going through the same thing with the other girls that did come on this trip. I'm watching her, and she's separate from them. And it really bothers her.
And it makes me feel terrible, because it has to be my fault.
Chicago is such a great city and I hate to be feeling like this while we're here. I don't know how to fix it, or if it can be fixed. It's times like this, when watching her heart be broken is breaking my heart, that really makes me feel the loneliness of being a single parent. I wish I didn't have to worry over this alone.
Hopefully Friday will be a better day. We'll be visiting some of our favorite places, and I'll try harder to keep her company so maybe she'll forget that she was on the outside. It's always about good memories. What else will you have when it's all over? This will be my mission for her for the rest of this trip.
I'll try my hardest. Good memories.
I'm sitting here instead of being constructive. I'm leaving for Chicago in 36 hours, and I haven't even started our packing.
I know exactly why I'm nervous about this trip. Usually, I'm traveling in my car, and I have control over what I'm doing, or else I'm traveling with some other responsible person.
This time, it's just me. I'm traveling with my daughter, on a bus to Chicago, with some other students from her school, for a field trip. Essentially, it's just me and her. Very few people she knows are going on this trip, and I'll only know some of the people in passing.
(This is how you get scammed into agreeing to a trip like this. Your lovely 11-year old daughter comes home in September soooo excited about this middle school field trip to Chicago. And EVERYONE'S GOING! And she can't possibly be the only one not to go. And you will ruin her life if she's left out of this.
So you agree to go. And you send lots and lots of money in, and bake hundreds of brownies for bake sales. And then she mentions her two best friends aren't going. And you say, "Oh, who is going, then?" And she mentions maybe, oh, five people from her class are actually going. Everyone else had dropped out long ago. Because they knew better.)
It's really simple. I'm terrified that I'm going to forget something essential and I won't have my car to go and buy it from Wal-Mart. And I'm extremely nervous about the fact that I won't know anybody. Who will talk to me? (Interject my daughter: "I'll talk to you, Mommy!".)
I've been to Chicago twice before and it's a really wonderful place. I'm sure once we get there I'll be feeling better about the situation. Wouldn't it be cool if we could just skip over the apprehension we feel sometimes, and get right to the thing?
