That Toddlin' Town...
Greetings.
I have just returned from a whirlwind weekend in Chicago. It was a grand trip, for numerous reasons. One reason it was NOT grand was the weather. It was 75 degrees and sunny in Portland all weekend long. In Chicago? It was 40 degrees and rainy, the way Portland normally is. In fact, there were some small snow flurries while I was there! No matter, though -- there were many other things that made the weekend enjoyable.
The original reason I went to Chicago was to go see the Edward Hopper exhibit at the Art Institute. He's my favorite artist, so I was elated to find that one of the three cities to house the traveling exhibit of his work was the city where I will always have a free place to stay (thanks, Mom and Dad!). We took the train downtown (something I have not done in YEARS) and WALKED from Union Station to the Art Institute. It's probably only like 3/4 of a mile to get there; however, if you knew my mom, you'd know why I bring up this walk. I was quite excited on the approach to the museum, as these began adorning the lightposts:
And then this miraculous vision appeared in the sunlight:
Of course, if you've ever been to the Art Institute, you know all about the lions. Sometimes I wish I was a lion...
In case you're wondering, the exhibit was PHENOMENAL. Seriously. I saw some works of his that I had never seen before. It was great.
That night, after the exhibit, we went out for dinner so that I might indulge in a Chicago classic -- deep dish pizza. This event was noteworthy for 2 reasons: 1) it's really hard to find genuinely good deep dish out West, and 2) I can't eat dairy. However, I resolved to allow myself one gross dairy indulgence per month. And by "gross," I mean both gross as in "huge" and as in "it's really gross how big my stomach gets when I eat dairy." But, man, was it G-O-O-D. I haven't had pizza (of any kind) since last September.
The next day, I could do nothing but sit on the couch until my brother and his wife and my cousin and her husband arrived. We then proceeded to enjoy merriment into the wee hours of the night.
The following day, my parents and I went to see Les Miserables at the Marriot Lincolnshire Theatre. It was FABULOUS! I was skeptical, but it blew me away. The guy playing Jean Valjean played him on Broadway. It was fabulous. After the show, we met my sister and her family for dinner, where my 12-year-old nephew kicked my butt at tic-tac-toe. Seriously -- I wasn't even trying to let him win. He's just got mad tic-tac-toe skillz, yo.
I flew into Portland this morning and actually went into work for a few hours. THAT was a bad idea. I'm home now and really just trying to keep myself awake at this point...
Does anyone know why, exactly, Chicago is referred to as "that toddlin' town" in that song?
posted by 'toria @ 5:28 PM
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