A Long, Great Day in Chicago

Saturday, August 29, 2009

This morning at Joel’s apartment, the air mattress

wouldn’t let go of Jenny. Beds don’t like to let her go either. And hey, I get it; she’s lovable. Me, I made it out of the air mattress’s clutches around eight and went for a run along Lake Shore Drive. The sheer amount of runners hustling along Lake Michigan was inspiring. It was enough to keep me pushing through a lingering pain in my left leg for four miles or so. More about that later.

Back at the apartment, Joel and

Jenny were getting ready for a trip to the grocery store (to get the goods for McHuggins, a breakfast specialty patented not by Mickey D’s, but by Joel’s roommate Corey Hug). Ted Kennedy’s funeral was on the TV. Clear skies in Chicago, but our now-former home, Boston, was crying on the black umbrellas. One of Joel’s neighbors and all-around-good guy, Michael, stopped by and told us how he works for a Kennedy and that we should check out Teddy Kennedy’s speech at RFK’s funeral. It’s quite a speech, and we’ll try to link it to the

blog here.

Man among men, Matt Stipe (also a

JCU Crew veteran), came over and we headed off to the store to gather supplies. Then Joel and Jenny made magic happen on the stove and in the oven. The McHuggins were dubbed McChristmans (in honor of Joel's last name) due to the head chef on the job and the addition of sausage, tomato, and avocado to the many-belly-tested combo of English muffin, egg, ham, and cheese. We all agreed; they were beautiful. Suddenly inspired by the two McChristmans in his stomach, young Stipe began to pitch Jenny and I on an idea for our trip. “I could go along with you guys for a few days. I mean, would that be alright? And when is my day to write the blog?” Before we knew it, we had acquired another tall bald guy to share the driving en route to Colorado and Vegas. Stipe bought a one-way plane ticket from Vegas to Chicago, then went off to work.

Our day in Chicago now extended since

we had to wait for Stipe

to get off work, we took Michael up on the invite to go out his boat on Lake Michigan. We got on our flippy-floppies and enjoyed some cold beverages as the wind whipped by and the classic rock blared across the water. Then, on the cusp of getting drunk, we decided to play it cool and went around to some stores in the Lincoln Square area. Big shout out to Laurie’s Used Records, where we had to pull ourselves away from the great selection of vinyl. (Thriller in great condition for 10 bucks!) Later, after Jenny and I had a resume building session at a Starbuck’s, we hit up some Chicago Deep Dish pie at Stefano’s. Verdict: solid. Good, but not great. Then it was back to the apartment to gather our things. We found a house full of runners celebrating third roommate (and marathon master) Ben’s 30th birthday. Runners, runners, everywhere and I could barely run four miles without the apparent tendonitis in my leg flaring up. That had me bummed out. Sure, we were having a hell of a good time, but the fact was, I realized that night that unless I have some sort of miracle recovery, I won’t be running the Akron Marathon on my 30th birthday in late September. So now I’m learning to let that go for now. I’m concentrating on the moment – something I tend to have a hard time with; ask Jenny – and digging that we’ve got Colorado in our sights, a good guy named Stipe in the van now for a few days, and friends in Chicago in the rearview who wrote the damn book on Midwestern hospitality. Thanks, all.

JN