I went to Chicago rather recently, as you may have gathered from my most recent work. It was great. I went with my girlfriend (which I just struggled mightily to spell... it's been a while), and two friends, Patrick and Chrissy. The trip started slowly and sleepily at approximately 5:30 in the AM in Amherst, MA. By the time we made it to the Mass Pike, it was already getting to be light out. The rest of the morning was most mood-tastic, for a thick fog had settled on western MA. We listened to some Appleseed Cast and shoegazed real hard. As we drove, the fog went from deep, blue and dark to glowing golden with the sun's light and back again; it was, if I may be so bold, a transcendental experience. Thus, the shoegazing continued most heavily. We stopped in Herkimer, NY at a Denny's for breakfast and none of us ever had a bowel movement again. We wouldn't realize the catastrophic consequences this breakfast would have on our digestive systems at the time, so we enjoyed the beautiful Eerie Canal and eventually lolled back to the car. Somewhere in NY I got a speeding ticket. Fuck.

After stopping in Niagara Falls, we were all mighty sick of New York. We finally made it out and Pennsylvania was refreshingly short after what was the longest state in the drive. We weaseled our way into Ohio (the only state without RFID tech for its tolls) and drove uneventfully across it as the sun set. Cleveland and Toledo were dark, but somewhere near the latter we observed a meteor fall to the ground in a flurry of sparks and fire. The only good thing about Indiana is their 70mph speed limit. As we neared the Illinois border, the strip clubs were out in full force, billboards begging us to delight in bounteous bewbage. We did not partake. As we approached our destination (a wonderful little Super 8 in a suburb of Chicago), our GPS implored us in its computerized Australian twang to "stay left on route two-hundred and ninety-four". Despite the GPS and our wearied state, we finally made it and collapsed most triumphantly into our yellowed comforters for some slumber before the successive day.

We started our first day in Chicago on Navy Pier, a magical place where the air smells like fried onions, Bob Newhart is frozen in carbonite, and you can drink in public (of this, we did partake). We then walked a short distance to the very first Uno's of which Cha-Cha so obligingly informed us the location. I did not like the crust, but the atmosphere was sweet and it was some pretty legit deep dish, unlike your average Uno's. The Willis (Sears) Tower was our next stop, it was mighty tall and mighty heavy on the merchandising. Remember this, folks, there are 3 gift shops and the last one is the only one worth going to. After that, we walked all over the place, saw a fountain, bought some booze, drove back to the hotel and utilized our Chicago-themed shot glasses.

The second day, we walked around Oak Park and looked at Frank Lloyd Wright buildings. It cost more than we were willing to shell out to get into any of them, however, so we admired the town and then got back in the car. We then drove to Wrigley Field; there was a game going on (White Sox & Cubs), so we took pictures from the car. We finally decided to get the hell out of there, so we started driving and made it all the way to Fredonia, NY where we passed out with the fiery passion of four individuals who had spent the majority of the last three days in a car. The next day we made the short drive to Rochester to visit some of my friends and we stayed the night. Finally, the next morning at 8AM, we set off with every desire to finally get back home. We made it. Thank Christ we made it.

Obviously I took a bunch of pictures, some of them are already up. There are a lot, classes just started and I am getting to them slowly. Trust me, though, the pictures will come.