"Ladies! ...My God! ...You're beautiful!"
Those were the words a drunk man spoke to me and some friends Friday night. We spent the day downtown; it was a great way to begin our Spring Break. We left school a couple hours early so we could take an early afternoon train, and then we took the 9:40 train home. We talked to some art students in Grant Park, saw a crazy guy walking down the street in what looked like silk red pajamas, got hit on by a drunk man, almost yelled at by a homeless man, and met some kids from Wheaton in Union Station. It was a great day.
First we went to the Museum of Contemporary Photography. Some of the concepts were so inspiring, this one man, Jim Goldberg, photographed people and then had them write their own short commentaries on the picture. One was of two men together and one of them wrote, "Manny loves me, but I'm too strong to love him." Then Manny wrote, "This picture makes me want to cry." The picture had totally captured that. It was amazing.
Then we walked across the street to Grant Park where there were lots of art students sketching; it made me want to go to Columbia College. Walking through the park was fun, it was such a nice day. Slightly breezy, and the crispness in the air felt like fall. A rabid squirrel tried to kill us.
We walked up Michigan Avenue and didn't buy anything! Not even in Borders! I executed more self control than I knew I had and didn't buy the many graphic design books I flipped through. That ended when we went in H&M. Heidi and Andrea bought stuff, and I almost bought a shirt but then I noticed a deoderant stain on it, which grossed me out so I put it back and it was the last in its size so I didn't get anything.
Surprisingly, we didn't come across too many beggars or people trying to hand us fliars. We did see a guy playing guitar, singing, and playing harmonica; that was cool.
I hate walking up the sidewalk and getting behind slow people, or people who stop right in the middle of the sidewalk.
Anyway, after H&M we went to Ed Debevics. It was my first time there, and it was a lot of fun. Some ladies sitting near us were giggling and acting like little girls, and their waitress was making fun of them so much, it was hilarious. The food was so good and we ate way too much, which made for an interesting walk back to the train station.
That's when we saw the crazy guy in the red silk. He was stumbling down the street, talking to himself, and he had a scary crazy look in his eye. We hurried up so we wouldn't be walking near him. Then we passed the drunk man who tried to hit on us, but we just cracked up and kept walking. No day in Chicago is complete without getting hit on by a drunk and/or crazy man.
Finally we got back to Union Station and sat in the big waiting area. That's where we met the nice kids from Wheaton, and also where I almost got yelled at by the homeless man. It wasn't busy, which made for boring people watching, so Heidi and I played with her bouncy ball while Andrea read the New Yorker. At one point Heidi threw the ball really hard and it went way over my head, and I just turned around and stared as I saw it flying towards people waiting on benches. Miraculously, it bounced over each person without hitting anyone, so I ran after it and when I finally caught it it had landed at a homeless man's feet and he looked up at me and said in a dead serious voice, "If that ball had hit me I would've seriously had to hurt you." I didn't doubt it. So I said sorry. Then another homeless man woke up from his bench across from us and said, "How did you three change so quickly?" We had no clue what he was talking about, and then he said something about us wearing other clothes and changing them. ...Uh huh.
Then we got on our train, where a guy was checking out Heidi and some other guys were talking to a girl they didn't know about really personal stuff.
Thus ends a long and eventful day downtown. I love it there.
Oh, this is weird. Yesterday I found out that my sister was dowtown with some friends Friday night, and she was right where we were on Michigan Avenue when we were. We must have just missed each other. They ate dinner at this one cafe that I wanted to stop at, and they saw the guy in the red silk suit too! That would've been so funny if we ran into each other.
Thus ends a long entry. Any thoughts on the new template? I made it yesterday, I'm noticing that I use these kinds of colors a lot.