Chicago: Day 1

I'm going to Chicago for a Ruby and Rails conference.  Thrown into the best city in America with a bunch of other introverts.  What could possibly go wrong?

I am not very optimistic these days, so I'm hoping to get some sort of jolt of ... well, something.   And I want to leave a small carbon footprint doing it.  So I'm taking the train, which Cornell likes because they're very environmentally conscious.  Plus cheap.  Just because their Ivy League doesn't mean they have mad money.

Besides, riding on a plane is depressingly trivial, and everything is done for you.  A train requires more finesse, and while that's easily acquirable, it requires a folk wisdom that isn't around much these days.  Lady Gaga is not Woody Guthrie - she ain't gonna tell you how to ride the rails.

But I will!

How to Sleep on Amtrak

If you're gonna do train travel, the odds are pretty good you'll be travelling at night.  You could reserve a sleeping car for $300, but to me that's bordering on insanity.  I did a sleeping car once, in France, and it was not very comfortable ... and I don't expect the Americans to improve on it very much.  

For God's sake, sleep in your seat!  This used to be a little easier when Amtrak provided free pillows and blankets.  But no more - maybe someone got some bedbugs or something, I dunno.  You can buy a travel kit from the conductor, but then that's one more expensive thing to take home.  Here's the right way:

1. Get yo'self a nice very thin blanket.  That'll fold up and be OK to carry in your carry-on (I do a spacious backpack).
2. Get a travel pillow.  A regular pillow can also work, but they're more bulky.  Don't expect too much from your travel pillow.  You might be one of those people who can slip it around your neck and sleep sitting up.  That's not me, and it's probably not you.  But you will make do anyway.
3. On the train, when you get your seat make sure the "recliner" footrest actually works (not the one on the chair in front, but the one that's attached to the seat).  On this particular trip, mine wasn't working and I regretted it.  Oh ... and aisle or window seat doesn't matter, although window seat has the advantage of a nice cold surface to lay on.  I like the aisle because I can dangle my feet out there for people to trip over.
4. To go to sleep, put your pillow on the arm rest (if you have an aisle seat) or the wall (if you have the window seat).  Put the recliner seat up.  Put the foot rest down.  Put the chair back.
5. Throw the blanket over you and sleep on your side with your feet on the foot rest and your body sprawled out over the recliner leg rest.  DO NOT under any circumstances face your neighbor.  There's nothing worse than waking up to a face full of .... uhh, your neighbor's bad breath.  Or vice versa.  
6. No spooning.  Need I even mention that?  
7. Don't worry about sleeping for more than an hour or two at a time.  The more you worry, the less sleep you'll get.  Just expect that you'll wake up and turn every once in awhile, and you'll be OK.

Simple as pie.  And if you're in central New York like I am, you can basically sleep through an entire trip to Chicago.  It's like teleporting.

The Land of Big Buildings

The train was an hour late, but the skyline from it is quite a sight.  I like the Chicago skyline anyway, but this is a different vantage point from the stop-and-go traffic of I-94.  It's a little less intimidating.  I decided to walk from Union station to the hotel, which is only 2 and a half miles.  I had totally forgot that Chicago miles are actually longer than the standard mile by ... well, however many feet it takes you to get totally tired.

Starving, I got lunch at the hotel.  That pretty much reminded me that "there isn't a bad meal in Chicago".  (Although later I'd hear of some conference goers getting bad beef brisket.  Yikes).  I had a grilled vegetable panini and some fries - fantastic fare.  And lots of water. 

And then, since it was my free day and a day before my birthday, I went out to Dusty Grooves record store in the near North end.  It was like going to Mecca!   They're a record store in the best sense - not big like Tower Records used to be - but everything they have, you will want.  I got a lot of music that I can't get on the Internet.   Chicago blues. Tropicalia.  African Psychedelic Rock.  You know, the usual stuff.  I went to the counter with a teetering stack of CD's, and they checked me out calmly as if this sort of thing happened every day.  Which I'm sure it does.  

I made it downtown with a Santa-sized backpack of CD's, then went to go see the Aqua building.  It's probably my favorite building in the world next to Fallingwater.  It was not quite finished the last time I looked at it in October, 2014.  Now all the glass was in, and it stands majestically like an ocean tilted upwards.  The grey parts are balconies jut out in various shapes and widths (I'm sure you pay more for the "juttier" ones).  The blue are windows, which are reflections of Lake Michigan or the river.  Absolutely gorgeous.  And designed by a woman architect (no surprise there.)

I then met up with my niece, Ramona Joan for dinner.  I've seen her twice in the past year, the other being at my parent's 50th anniversary bash in the Smokey Mountains.  She's a hoot!  Having finished her bachelor's at Oberlin, she took a volunteerish position with an Episcopal Refugee center in Chicago.  It's a year-long gig, sorta my like stint with Vista back in the 1990's.   You gotta hand it to her sacrifice though.  It's tough being a poor in a town like Utica, like I was.  But it must be terrible being in a town like Chicago that requires lots of money, and tempts you all the time with opulent stuff.  

Anyway, we ended up at the vegetarian place Kathryn's Cooked.  (As opposed to Kathryn's Raw, which is another restaurant Kathryn runs).  Ramona had the grilled vegetable sandwich and coleslaw ... and she amazed herself by eating every bit of the coleslaw.  I had some cream of corn soup which is a little underwhelming, but then a taco salad which made up for it twice over.  Unlike other places, they didn't attempt to make the meat look like meat.  It was just tasty seitan/soy stuff in a spicy sauce that was the total bomb!  Pop that on a bed of nice greens.  And finish with coconut pie that wasn't overly sweet, just like warm (not melted) ice cream in a pie with just a hint of coconut flavor.  Awesome!  Every bit as good as the Moosewood, and that takes a lot for an Ithacan to admit.

We talked about women's studies and movies and books.  All sorts of stuff.  Like all English majors, she's a Renaissance Woman and can discuss any subject.  Since I will be waist deep in computer scientists the next 4 days (who will be loathe to discuss anything that doesn't have an iPhone App), I was glad to spend some time with her.

I finished the day at the Knickerbocker Martini Bar.  Pour me a sidecar, my friend, it's gonna be a long week.