Chicago

I've been to Chicago before.

I think I was 15 or 16 the first time I saw the city, and I my supervisors organized a city scavenger hunt so I didn't really pay attention to the actual city.

The second time I visited Chicago I was visiting a friend who lived in the suburbs. Needless to say that my impression of Chicago was shoulder shrugs.

Until now.

I have never seen such a clean and pretty city before. The air was crisp, clean and blue; the streets weren't littered with trash or homeless people; the buildings sparkled under the October sky as if they were just cleaned -- that or the building were built yesterday. Both my mother and I were in amazement at how pretty the city was, especially compared to other big cities: New York looks dark and gray, and the streets are dirty and infested with rats; Los Angeles is overrun with bums who piss publicly right on the sidewalks, not to mention the smog; and parts of San Fransisco are also infested with bums who do drugs in the open and shit on the streets (in the ugly ugly parts).

I went to Chicago with my family for a wedding. I was one of the bridesmaids so we only got to spend one full day in the city, but we got a lot accomplished.

We walked around and managed to do the following things:

Eat breakfast at a place called Cosi
Wander though Millenium Park to see The Bean
Walk though the shopping district and buy me some Steve Madden boots (score!)
Find the Chicago Tribune building (potential future employer -- holla!)
Charge our phones at a Verizon Wireless store
Check out the view at top the John Hancock tower and take the best family-photo-minus-one ever (will scan it soon)
Go to Portobello's for a Chicago hot dog and beer
Check out Soldier Field
Eat at Goat Borger, a sports bar  filled with Chicago hockey fans (we were near the hockey rink)

The next few days were filled with wedding stuff. I met up with a friend from UCI near Northwestern on Sunday, and my older bro and I ventured through university town to go find Intelligentsia.

The trip was fantastic, filled with such Polish debauchery I wish I can remember it all to tell.

Let me put it this way: My dad blacked out the first night we were there and woke up drunk; my mom woke up with the alcohol shakes for the first time ever; my baby bro missed his flight Sunday morning; older bro jumped off a wall and woke up with a swollen ankle; and I drank so much wine that I didn't even need to put lipstick on anymore.

My mom, my older bro and I flew back to LAX together for the first time in years. The last time I flew with my big brother was in 1998 when we flew to Ohio together, and the last time I was on a flight with my mom was in 1989 when we spent six months in Poland. I was 4 years old.

The Bean

Up in Hancock's tower.

A museum I didn't get to visit.

At Soldier Field facing the city.

Best fucking photo evar

Naturally, we kept the party going on the flight home, ordering as many drinks as we could in the 3 hours we had up in the air.

We like to party.

Jack and Coke was the special on this particular flight. Sold!

I wouldn't mind living in Chicago for a while. I don't think I could live there for too long though because of this: There are no mountains. I seriously couldn't get over it. It was so weird to look out at any direction and see the tops of trees and sky.

The closest snow resort is in Wisconsin, and apparently the mountains in Wisconsin are like glorified California hills.

No thanks.