January 2nd, 2017 – Day 1
About a week ago I got a message from my friend, Brylee. It read something along the lines of “Hey, I want to be impulsive and I have a little money right now. Want to take a trip to somewhere? It can be anywhere.” I’m paraphrasing of course, but that’s how it came across in my mind. I’m always up for a little spontaneity, so I figured why not? Then again, a week to plan isn’t exactly the spontaneity I’m used to. My usual reader would already know this as I tend to make in the moment decisions that trail me off into adventures then often last several days… Or weeks.
We found a decent place in Chicago, but for untold reasons, we ended up cancelling said place. Soon after we can across a place on Airbnb, conveniently, also in Chicago! We booked with about 5 days before check in, and then we quit talking for 3 days. New Year’s Eve and all we went our separate ways and with the chaos of the holiday, we didn’t do much planning. Which is my usual, so it was all good from my side! I ended up headed to Minnesota about an hour after I made the decision to go and it was an interesting New Year’s event. I have family up there so I figured I would visit as my “plans” got cancelled. Some of my cousins ended up bringing over their friends, so I did meet some new people which were the entire purpose of going to my original party in the first place! Though I did not end the night with a date, which was new for me. But I’m okay with that. I’m still glad I went.
When I returned back to Iowa, or more so on my way returning I called Brylee and we both confirmed we were both still leaving at which point was not the morning. I arrived back at my mother’s house with 14 to spare before it was time to leave… At this point, I considered starting to pack, but I ended up being so tired I went to bed at 9 pm instead. Woke up at 6:30 am to leave at 9 am. Plenty of time to pack!
We head out on the open road! Which is an odd phrase because it is filled with all kinds of stuff. If you break down every component that goes into making a road, I bet it’s a lot! I’ll have to research that later. After a few hours, we ended up stopping at a Subway. Which apparently had really fancy toilets? I didn’t use one, but Brylee went on and on about it! OH! I forgot to mention. A long while ago I had Brylee down to shoot a video with me and on her way home she got hit by some meth-heads and the crash really messed up her foot. She had surgery on it recently, and so she has a boot on with crutches or a wheely cart. We go into the Subway, very slowly may I add and order. The guy making our food was named Shawn and he was hilarious. Constantly cracking Jokes, conversing in wit and laughter. Had a grand ‘ol time at Subway we did! If you’re ever looking for a good Subway, I recommend the one is Iowa City, IA!
We eventually arrived in Chicago and passed 11 Starbucks in 7 miles. Then we hit the hardest part of any Chicago Journey; Parking! We ended up throwing our hazards on to unload. Which was Brylee with the hazards and me unloading. Rather hard to do up two flights and a broken foot I suppose. After we unloaded and I met the Lovely Sonia (Our host) we found parking a little less than half a mile away. This wasn’t so bad at first. But I ended up having to run back to the car because we forgot dinner in the backseat and then running back again because she forgot her purse. I guess that’s my excuse as I was sitting in a car for most of my day!
We did get settled in and found a huge, plush Totoro! Which I personally haven’t seen what he’s from, but I do know who he is! We then conversed with Sonia and Scott about doughnuts, pizza, doughnuts, pies, doughnuts, attractions, doughnuts and a little bit about doughnuts too. We’re visiting a doughnut place tomorrow morning! I know, crazy, we’re planning our morning!
January 3rd, 2017 – Day 2
BAM! It’s morning! Lucky for all of you, you don’t have to sit and read about my sleep. That would be boring, so we’ll skip over that for you! Blink! Done.
We went to the Doughnut Vault; which as amazing! You go into a small blue tent and then into this very small room with nothing but a brick wall and a counter. The nice lady behind the counters explains what they have left in stock and you buy. No sitting, no fancy lights or shows. Just huge, amazing doughnuts! It was nearly as big as my hand and so thick! I got Vanilla Glazed and MMM! You have to try it! Will likely get another on our way out of town!
Then we drove around a while, taking in the sights until we came near something known as Big Star! Remembering that Scott had recommended this place, we decided to try it out. For the meals, we noticed it was very cheap. Until they came out with our food. It was more of an appetiser bar, but it was beyond delicious! I got a walking taco, which was the exact size you’d expect. It was $3 and worth every penny! I ended up also getting chips and salsa because you can’t go out for Mexican food without it! Though the portions were small, it was very filling. I wanted to order another walking taco for the road, but I really wasn’t hungry at all. I was only wanting it because it was so good. Highly recommend!
We strolled through Chinatown, down through Little Italy and across all the shops. Like a mini round-the-world trip in an afternoon! Chicago is one of the few places that you can go to visit around the world. Because everything is so well done. I haven’t personally been to Italy or China, how it was a very immersive experience. The race unto its own culture, as if fell through a wormhole and teleported without my knowledge. You don’t need a sign to know you’re in Chinatown… You Just know!
iO – Improv Olympics is apparently a great place for Improv Comedy. I’ve had it recommended to me by 3 different people now! There is a show on tonight called “The Pool”. Not sure what it’s actually about or what’s going to happen, but then again, neither do the actors! The beauty of Improv. However, it’s nearly 6 hours until show time, so we must find something else to do first. What could we do? FOOD!
As if we haven’t had enough to eat already, we decided to go eat again. A local shop known as The First Slice. We had researched this one before, but it only showed the price for a full pie and we surely didn’t need all that! Upon arrival, we found it was $4 a slice and we each got one. Chocolate Peanut Butter and Traditional Apple. Good combo I may add. Before I left I asked the girl behind the counter’s name, as I usually do. I’m bad with names, we all know this. But I had to specially write this one down the moment I left to remember. Her name is Sahava – though I doubt that’s how it’s spelt. That’s Just how it sounds. Sa-Hav-A which is actually a really cool name! Hopefully, by the end of this Journey, I can return to her.
If you have a twin, a cool name, mysterious eyes, or something different than the normal population, we should be friends. At the New Year’s Eve party, some of the people I met were a set of twins. Meagan and Madeline were their names. Yes, they’re attractive, yes, they were interesting, yes, they were fun, but the fact that they were twins rates really highly with me. I know twins aren’t that uncommon, but it’s so interesting to me! It’s different and I am always so fascinated with the different in the world. I don’t mean different as in the odd one out, I mean as a unique, amazing difference. Something about all this Just really pulls me in.
Hey, remember when we were going to that comedy show? Psych! We feel asleep… But to be fair we left on New Year’s Day and drove 6 hours to get here. Plus we drove all around today and eating loads of food! So sugar rush, sugar crash. We woke up around 8 pm and being so that the show is at 8:30, we would have had to leave right away and neither of us wanted to do so as we were still tired. I ended up getting out bed to make some college noodles and chicken. It was really good, but hard to match taste to all the places prior.
Just after making dinner I found a shelf with a few movies cases on it. One of which was none other than John Wick! My cousin Braden and I play a game known as PayDay 2. Good game if you haven’t heard of it. A few months back they added a new character pack, can you guess who? That’s ri— wait, did you guess correctly? If not, I’ll Just tell you. It’s John Wick and ever since this update I’ve been meaning to see this movie but never had the time. I walked back out to the kitchen and asked if I could watch it and they were more than happy to allow me. A few minutes later Scott came to my doorway and said “Hey, we’re not using the TV out here, the Xbox is set up if you want to use it as a DVD player” Of course! So we set it up on their large flat screen TV and started watching. Scott got hooked pretty easy and soon after Sonia Joined us too. We all watched the movie and it was really good! For a movie of so little words, they really say a lot! Very well done. The plot is okay, but not the best. However the way the present everything and how the music connections with the scenes. Very well made, I was truly impressed.
January 4th, 2017 – Day 3
Books! SO MANY BOOKS! Yesterday I noticed some movies, great. But upon closer inspection, I found several books too! Tolstoy, Shakespeare, T.S. Elliot! Every book I’ve ever Loved was on these shelves! I read a few pages of each until it was time to hit the town. Sadly I leave tomorrow, so I won’t have time to read any of them through. But I took a photo of the shelf so I know what books to pick up later!
*Abruptly changes topics*
Have you ever unexpectedly hit your leg? It seems to hurt a lot more than when you know it’s going to happen. As we were driving down the road I felt a sharp crash on my leg, a moment passed, and then the pain set in. Not brutalising horrific pain, but such unexpected pain that is hurt a lot more than it should have. Turns out the glovebox decided “Hey, he’s having a healthy, relaxing morning… Let’s destroy that!” I swear it Just fell open. Hadn’t touched the thing since yesterday and all of the sudden it opened right on my shin. Right, where there is hardly any muscle, so it’s Just straight down to the bone! Ouch!
After a while of recovery, we arrive at the Cozy Corner. Which by the way took way longer than it should have! We passed the same one at least half a dozen times, but when we go to look for it, it’s gone forever! Never did find it. But we navigated to a different one and ate there instead. Worked out though because we paid for parking and as we were walking/wheeling inside we spotted a handicap stop without a meter. Brylee currently has a handicap pass and this way we wouldn’t have to “rush” out of there in an hour. As I was headed back to move the car it all worked out perfectly. A mother and her two kids were going to go into the same diner and were starting at the machine about to purchase a parking ticket… That sounds odd as you are buying this so you don’t get a parking ticket… Anyway, we no longer had a use for ours, so I told her not to buy one and to hold on a moment. I rushed back to the car and got mine for her to use. No use and letting it go to waste. She was very thankful, and we got a closer space for free, so it all worked out better than expected!
Brylee had an online meeting in a few hours so we decided to head to Starbucks. Fast internet, good coffee, a have spent many hours in Starbucks for business before. Lovely location for it. As she had her online meeting I was eavesdropping on some of the other tables. One of which was quite entertaining. It was a group of 4 men in suits. One American, one Russian and 2 Chinese. I figured they were all Just hanging out, but no! It was a pitch meeting for the Russian and the American to sell to the Chinese. What could they be selling? It took me a while to find out, but I did eventually hear it! It’s a prototype for a small mechanism that opens pizza boxes automatically and can hold them open for you to get a slice. Not sure if it was motion, voice or a hand crank, but it surely is an interesting idea. At the end of the meeting, they accepted the deal, shook hands and went their separate ways. They did it, the sold a pizza box opener! I was remarkably impressed… and a little confused.
Do you guys remember Ryan from back in February? If not you can see the prior post with him HERE. In case you missed it before, here’s the TL;DR. I met him on a cruise ship back in January and we hung out in February. He showed me around Chicago and we had really gooGramd pizza. Back in Chicago, so I figured I’d see Ryan! We went back to Lou Malantis, the amazing pizza place that should all try! Chicago Deep Dish at its finest. It at least as good as I’ve had… But what do I know? I live in Florida. After pizza, we went to a place called Intelligentsia! It’s basically a hipster coffee bar with a good selection of tea. I got Snow Sprout and it was delicious! I really like white tea, and this is one of the favourites. They give it to you on a wooden tray and it looks all fancy. I felt so posh in my suit with my tea, discussing Pokémon GO… What do you mean that’s not posh? Oh, hush yourself.
To end the night we headed to iO – Improv Olympics! We ended up seeing two shows which kept us out until a little past midnight. The first show was pretty good, but it only had two actors, so it’s hard to keep the storyline going. But the second show has three teams perform one after another. They were so up with current references and hooks their thoughts together really well. They would ask the crowd at the beginning of the show for a topic. Then perform a half hour on that topic! Middle School was the second one and Airport Romance was the third. I would tell you the first one, but quite frankly, I’ve forgotten. Some siracha-mayo fries and an hour and a half later, we bid our goodbyes and head off home. Well, home as in Sonia and Scott’s place. Home tends to move around a lot for me. Tomorrow it will change again! But for now, it’s nearly 2 am and Brylee is highly upset that I’m awake talking to you guys, but you know what? She’ll have to deal because you guys are important to me. Telling you about my day makes me happy and I hope to hear some of your stories too. Tomorrow is our last day here, so I hope it’s a good one. But for now, have a Lovely morning, afternoon, evening, night — time. 🙂
January 5th, 2017 – Day 4
NOOOOOOOOO!!! We tried to return to the Doughnut Vault to get some extras to bring back to Iowa, but they were already sold out at 10:30 am! I know they open at 8:30, but come on! 2 hours and you’re 
already out?! Very. Sad. Day. – We ended up going to a different doughnut place called Firecakes, which was delicious! But it wasn’t the Doughnuts we ranted about to bring home. Though the girl in there was listening to 1, 2 Step by Missy Elliot which was great because I learned a dance choreography to it a while back. I Told her it was a good song, and we danced a bit. She was pretty good too, may have to go back and challenge her to a dance battle later! I Love when people are confident enough to Just go for it like that. I mean think about it. A total stranger walks into your shop and starts dancing, so you Just Join in? That’s awesome! Hardly anyone would do that! I admire that.
We’re back on the open road again, but we’ve got a long while to go. For some reason, Brylee wanted to take a different way home, which is fine. But she picked a route with tons of tolls. But I guess that’s another way we differ. We travel very differently than each other, but I suppose no one travels like me. Honestly, that’s probably for the better. If everyone travelled as I did, I wouldn’t be able to do it anymore…
Anyway, we’ve both made it back to our respective “homes” now and the trip is officially over! Sayonara Chicago! ‘Til we meet again! 🙂