I love Chicago. Fuck moving.
I had been thinking (and still am, half-heartedly) of moving away from Chicago to try and get a job in my field, when I realized 2 things:
1. There are no jobs in my field anywhere, so moving is not going to help.
2. I really love this place.
Miyuki, one of my best friends from high school, is in town, and we went down into the city to wander. It was so beautiful today, only about 80. In D.C. (and all over the East Coast, for that matter), it’s pushing 100.
We wandered around Grant Park, we walked all the way from Buckingham Fountain to Navy Pier (a distance I would estimate at about 2 or 3 miles, particularly with the rather backasswards route we took) and back.
I just couldn’t wipe the stupid grin off my face. I have a feeling she’s going to tell me to shut the fuck up about how much I love Chicago soon, since I mentioned it several times. Although she clearly remembers my severe tendency to say things or tell stories repeatedly…
Getting to be a tourist in your own town is always an interesting experience, because you get to learn things that you otherwise wouldn’t know. For example, did you know:
– Grant Park is actually built on the rubble from the Chicago fire of the late 1890’s?
– Chicago roughly translates, in some random Native American Language that I can’t remember, to “Stinking Onion”?
– The Aon building was originally covered in the same type of stone that Michelangelo’s David is carved out of. Problem was, said stone couldn’t withstand Chicago weather, and was replaced, at the same cost as originally building the damn thing, with North Carolina granite.
– Streeterville is named after a crazy Civil War vet who, until 1918, had constant shootouts with police, claiming that he was an independent state, responsible only to the Federal government?
I learned all of these, and many other random, bizarre, and useless facts on a little boat tour we hopped on at Navy Pier. I got to walk along the Lake downtown like I haven’t been able to since I came here as a tourist making college visits.
I was reminded why I love this place, and reminded why I’ll take any job that keeps me here.
Say it with me: Fuck moving!