Meanderings: March 30, 2000

Thursday,
March 30, 2000

I do love Chicago so very much.

We had to go downtown today so that I could hit the Air France office in the John Hancock building and get a new ticket -- and Stacy drove! Not only did she drive, she volunteered to drive! Look, this is a woman who has the attitude, "This is MY lane, get the hell out of it" when it comes to driving. The fact that she was willing to drive in congested downtown city traffic (a place where she has only driven on a few occasions, mind you) was impressive as all hell.

So we got downtown and she waited in the Water Tower Place parking lot with the kids while I bopped across the street to the Hancock and Air France. Naturally, I made a detour on the way back to stop off at Marshall Fields and pick up some Frango mints (for non-Chicagoans, these are fabulous mint chocolates made specially for Fields. Along with Eli's cheesecake and Carson's ribs, Frango mints define Chicago's luxury food scene). And right there and then I decided that I had to go back downtown on my own tomorrow.

I know this may sound a little silly, but downtown Chicago is quite simply a magical place for me. I'm a shameless voyeuse, and the spectacular array of office and apartment buildings, especially at night, is like having a million different windows opening on a million different dramas. And more importantly, it's a place where I've been spectacularly happy. Downtown is Patrick and I driving back from THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW after midnight, the soundtrack to PHANTOM OF THE OPERA blaring on my car's radio and all windows cranked down to share the music with everyone on Michigan Avenue. It's wild and woolly rehearsals for MANIACAL NORMALITY, my first semi-professional acting job as well as my first dabbling attempt at playwriting. It's Chicon V, Chicagofest, Taste of Chicago, school field trips, impromptu rides down the river, my year of singing lessons and my summer of bartending classes, one bittersweet romance and one unrequited adoration from afar. Downtown is ! adventure, sex and excitement hiding around any random corner.

I spent two years living on a farm with nothing to look at but sheep, and eighteen months living on a freaking Scandanavian archipelago. You bet I need some time downtown.

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