Chicago’s My Kind of Town

First, thanks to my blogging lovies for kind, smart thoughts about my last post.  Aquairians tend to have this dark brooding side under our gay exterior, and I’m no exception.  We are forward thinkers, though.  All the books say so. 

My whirlwind trip to Chicago was a delight.  I stayed at the Palmer House Hilton.  Now, before you think I’m all fancy, I shared a room with four other English grad women.  What a thrill to walk into the lobby of the Palmer–just click on this picture to get a sense of the over-the-top ornateness.  Which I respond to.

D’s friend Aaron took us out to Italian Village, which was the best Italian I’ve had since my trip to Rome in November.  My paper went just fine; someone actually talked to me about it at the end of the panel.  I heard some good papers as well, but then took off to see some of the sights.  Including the beautiful lake.  Did I ever mention that I miss water?

So here’s what I learned about myself this weekend:  I’m a city girl. 

I never really knew for sure.  I grew up in the suburbs of the Springfield/Hartford area, then lived in Westchester County.  I’m going to be moving to a more rural area than I’ve ever lived in, although my friends from Colorado/Nebraska would scoff at what I’m calling rural.  But here’s the deal.  I stepped off of the subway, looked around, and felt happy, felt comfortable, felt at home.  There was humanity teeming around me, buildings soaring above me, thought and culture and action all around.  And I only realized how much being in a city made me happy when Carson said that he looked up and thought "where’s the sky."  I looked up and thought "I’m home."  I love knowing that about Carson.  I love knowing it about myself.  So where do you feel most comfortable.

All this is not to say that I don’t love nature or that I don’t enjoy being in the woods with the pups or that I don’t love swimming in the Hudson.  It is to say that I know one more thing about myself for sure.

Now, for the knitting part of our program.  The Jaywalker remains unfinished, but I have started the toe decreases.  And lookie, lookie at what Mama-E has gone and done.  It’s PoMo yarn, dyed to match the blog. Isn’t it swank?  Check out her other colors, too.  Mermaids is one of my faves.

If you haven’t already seen Scout’s sample of Allison’s new pattern, go look.  I bought the pattern as soon as I heard about it, and I can’t wait to be done with some of my "required" knitting (ok, I don’t mean that as a bad thing, just stuff with deadlines) so I can make one of my own.

I spent some time today working on two top-secret projects.  I’ll post pictures once their recipients have gotten them.  I’m off for a hot bath (thanks for the bath cubes, Michelle), a no-pudge brownie, and some Sex in the City.