Last day in Chicago

As I mentioned previously, day 2 was mostly spent writing and making travel arrangements. I finally got out of the hotel a little after 7:00pm. Not exactly how I wanted to spend my second day of adventure. A friend from high school contacted me a little earlier in the day to invite me to dinner. We decided on Landmark Grill and Lounge and let me tell you, we chose right. The atmosphere was classy and cozy and even late on a Tuesday evening they were quite busy. Instead of ordering entrees, we decided to share a bunch of appetizers (for the most part). For the first course: oven roasted meatballs (w/duck egg, ramps and bordelaise), pepper crusted tuna tataki, beef carpaccio (w/salt cod potato salad, whole grain mustard, grilled bread). Not only was everything beautiful but the meatballs were sizzling on their cast iron platter. Is it just me or does everything taste better when it sizzles? I could go on and on about these meatballs but I’ll just say, they have raised the bar for meatballs everywhere (I regret only having one!).  Second course arrives consisting of: pizza (w/roasted mushrooms and black truffles), ½ slab Moroccan style baby back ribs, smoked tomato mac-n-cheese. Again, not a dud in the bunch, but what really stood out was the mac! I’m not even a mac-n-cheese person, but it seems like everyone I dine with loves this notoriously bland dish. So I end up tasting some here and there and everywhere often unimpressed, but not this time. The smokiness blew my mind, ‘nuff said. We decided to show some restraint and pass on dessert. Our server, Kristen, hinted in a not so subtle way that she would be more than happy to pick out a Groupon (a mani/pedi) as her tip and I was happy to oblige. My dining companions dropped me back at my hotel and I spent the rest of the night catching up on comments, tweets and email.

Day 3 started off a little slow but once I secured a ride to breakfast/lunch it snowballed into a flurry of wheelin’ & dealin’. Items at the top of my list to acquire: backpack, headphones, Bluetooth headset, phone case, camera case, water bottle (w/clip to hang on bag), shorts, underwear, socks, Q-Tips and deodorant. I figured that Target would be my best shot at finding all this stuff in one place, but I still wasn’t sure how I was going to pull off buying this much stuff. When I walked in the door I was approached by a young man, named Paul. He asked if I was the “Groupon guy” and said he was in the neighborhood and saw I was going to be here. He asked what I was looking for and I mentioned the list above. He informed me that he works at a cell phone store on the south side and we could get a bunch of those things there. We agreed to meet later on in the afternoon at his place of employment. While we were making these arrangements a young couple, Bryan & Amy approached us and said they too were there to help. Bryan looked familiar to me and it all came together when he said that he too had applied to live off Groupons. Between them and my breakfast companion, Sarah, each helped with a couple items. Sarah took a Groupon to Friendship Chinese and Amy/Bryan got a cooking class for 2.

Meanwhile, I got a call from NBC asking if I could come into the studio for an interview with Marion Brooks for her Sunday morning show (8am cst),  “The Talk”. Even with the otherinterviews I’ve done on the phone and on location, none felt as celeb-like as going to NBC Tower! The interview was quick so I got a friend to drive me to meet up with Paul. I walked in and everyone there was so excited to hear about my adventure and wanted to know how they could help. They were about as tight knit of a family as I’ve ever seen in the workplace. They were cracking me up (such energy!). They not only traded me a case for my phone, a Bluetooth headset, a laptop bag and headphones (all they had was pink, I wear them proudly) but they helped me set up some of my equipment that I was having trouble with. What a windfall!!!

My time in Chicago was now running short and I had about an hour to get to Union Station to catch my bus. Thanks to traffic updates on my phone’s GPS we made all the right decisions to avoid rush hour traffic in the city. I arrived with just 10 minutes to spare but I was hungry and thirsty and too afraid I’d miss my bus to get anything for the ride. As it turns out, the bus was running 30 min late so I would have had time (oh well, sigh). The ride to Indy was relaxing and I spent most of it opening my new stuff and filling my new laptop bag. I didn’t say goodbye at the time, but now I can’t help but bid farewell to my home. I’m sure I’ll see you again soon, I just don’t know when.

I’ll end with my plan (that’s a loose interpretation of the word plan btw): Indy (blog to come soon), Cincinnati (through the weekend), Columbus (until I can get a ride to…), Cleveland and NYC (aiming for 5/23). Plenty more cities to come…don’t worry if you don’t see yours on the list, it’s still week one! If you are in one of the cities above and want to meet up, please text or call me at (847) 452-9181. In your text please include your name and city! Thank you all so much for everything!!!

54 Comments