Ketchup 5: From Rocco's to the "Michigan Cottage"

DIARY

The next day encompassed our first leisurely morning. I had a lovely conversation with Hallie, which wandered explored traversed all dimensions of theological and religious issues. We talked a lot about the fundamental principles in different faiths, their divergences, and their common denominators.

At about noon, Jess was up, and by one we'd made arrangements to meet Sam and Sky for brunch at Salonica. We walked on down, talking about American Idol (go figure) and they met us at the restaurant. We did half-effective impressions of each other, but the best must have been Jess doing Sam and Sam doing Sky. After eating, Hallie left us, while Sam, Jess, Sky, and I continued on to the MSI to try to go to the Bodies exhibit. Unfortunately, all shows had been sold out until 4:30 PM, and we already had plans to meet up with the Kennedys and Meridith for the evening. Instead, we spent the next hour strolling around the northern half of Jackson Park, eventually going down to the Japanese Garden and Island before wandering back. We also saw an immense plastic horse's head (we're talking about eight feel tall) that had been place alongside a dumpster, and talked about the technology of Jurassic Park; how it's held up and used a level of CGI restraint to uncommon today.

Eventually, we drove around and back to Sacred Grounds Uncle Joe's Fatty McNono's the Second Floor Coffee Show, and this was as deeply onto campus as I'd penetrate on this trip. I got coffee and nerds, and we hung out, and talked about scavhunt.

At 6ish, Meridith showed up, and we said goodbye (for the moment) to Sam and Sky. I went back to their car to get my backpack, and to give Sam back the Ninja and Zombie books he'd lent me. We drove a few blocks to Noodles, Etc. and went in and ate and talked about film and Hyde Park (and how the temperature had abruptly dropped about a million degrees in roughly twenty minutes). But I have to be completely frank here. There was no way for either Michael or Meridith (or, when we met up, Jen) to compete with Thalia for attention. And not in an obnoxious attention-grabbing way. Rather, Thalia just seemed so gosh darn prescient that everytime she said anything, we all started listening.

So after dinner was over, Thalia led us back to Kennedy's (though Michael did the driving) and when we got upstairs they hooked me up with coffee. Jen came home and we finished getting the update on all those People We Know. There does seem to be a collective tendency for people to be collecting in Chicago, eventually if not ultimately. But they come and go in a ragged, irregular way that means that we'll probably never have everyone at the same dance party again. Given that we're all pushing thirty (or soon to be pushing thirty), we should probably just get over this fact.

We also took turns at the Nintendo Wii, which I'd never played before. We created profiles for ourselves, and took games, and while I was pretty good at the baseball option, I needed Kennedy to show me how boxing worked.

Like every other night on the trip, however, this one went by too quickly. I want to say it was about nine or ten when Michael drove us back over to Hallie's where we grabbed all of our stuff, and Rocco and Hallie drove us up to Lisa's apartment (which Sam fairly described as a "Michigan Cottage") in the Ukrainian Village.

Yes, the Hyde Park phase of our trip was over. For the rest of our time in Chicago, we'd stalk the alleys of the North Side, and roam the streets out West...

END OF POST.