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We recently took a road trip to Chicago for our son's Orientation Day at film school. It was a hoot in many ways. We went up in two vehicles because our Son's Girlfriend (SG) and family joined us. We had two GPSs between us, and managed to lose ourselves twice. Yes, I was behind the wheel during one of the lost episodes, and if I wanted to, I could easily blame it on the downpour (zero visibility) or road construction (satellites can’t keep up), but I'll just admit I misunderstood the directions and went in search of an exit that didn't exist. Genius, am I.

But we finally found ourselves again, and went to SG's college first. She’ll be living in a quaint little town 30 miles west of Chicago. Cute shops and restaurants with live music on a main road with old-fashioned street lamps. It's the kind of place that makes you want to walk. And it's easily accessible to the Metra rail so she and Son can visitate with each other on the weekends. While there, we enjoyed Chicago deep dish pizza with cold beer, and it was delicious.

We then drove on to Chicago and settled into the Hyatt, which is smack-dab in the heart of the city. (Hubby snagged our reservation on Priceline.com for half price! He’s our “Priceline Negotiator,” slicing the air like William Shatner.) Nice room. They charged $15 per day for WiFi and $22 per night for underground parking. So we be-bopped around the city in a cab for only $10 a pop, including tip. My first taxi ride ever! I now know what it feels like to dart in front of speeding traffic and come within an inch of city busses. Here's the view from our room.

The next day we went to Son's college, which is actually scattered about in several skyscrapers around downtown. The dance department on one block, the music department on another, etc. So we went to the film department, which is housed in a beautiful 8-floor building, built in 1891, that claims to be “the oldest skyscraper in the world.” It’s a block from Lake Michigan. Son can literally look out the classroom windows and see miles of water as well as countless sailboats dotting the horizon. Jealous, am I.

We spent the entire day there, going in and out of conferences while Son was off registering for classes, his dorm and college ID. They fed us boxed lunches: deli sandwiches with chips, cokes and homemade chocolate chip cookies the size of a CD. The librarian came up to me while I was eating mine, with a feigned look of disgust, and growled, “I stayed up most of the night baking those cookies, and I hope you enjoy every bite you’re taking.” Matching her tone of disgust, I replied, “I am definitely enjoying every bite, and if you don’t watch it, I’ll go get another one.” She cracked up then. And of course the next words out of her mouth were, “Where are you from?” (Did I mention I have a slight Southern accent?)

We then watched some short films by graduate students who had gone on to win bigtime contests and/or find jobs in Hollywood. We listened to the vice-president talk about the history of the school, and the security officer talk about the proper response to beggars. “Ignore them,” she said. “Because if you give once, they’ll remember you. And since you’ll be coming here everyday, they will drive you nuts everyday. Give to charities instead.”

The day was very long, and we were sooooo tired by the end. But we walked a block over to see the water up close from the edge of a pristine park. We then hopped a cab back to our room, chilled for a while, hopped another cab and met SG and family at the Navy Pier. Here and here are shots of the pier from my cell phone. For dinner, we went to Bubba Gump’s (an homage to the movie Forrest Gump) where we ate the famous “Bucket of Boat Trash.” It contains an assortment of tasty fried fish, fries and slaw. But before the waiter would serve our drinks, we had to answer a trivia question: What was Forrest Gump’s favorite drink? No one had the foggiest. Hubby whipped out his Treo, which has Internet access, and googled it. But before he could find out, SG remembered. “Dr. Pepper!”

Correct. We slurped our beverages.

We then strolled through the Crystal Gardens (an indoor, one-acre botanical garden that turns breathing into a spiritual experience) on our way to Cirque Shanghai where Chinese acrobats performed gravity-defying feats. "Holy cow," said I. "What balance! What flexibility! They must’ve come out of the womb doing yoga!" Afterward, we watched fireworks over Lake Michigan and walked around Navy Pier until we were ready to drop. That’s when it occurred to us that we had brought our swim suits, but never had time to swim.

We'll make the trip again next month when Son officially settles into his dorm. And I will embark upon a new chapter of my life: the Empty Nest syndrome. I don't look forward to not seeing him on a daily basis, but I know he's going to have a ball and learn lots of cool stuff and meet lots of memorable people. And then he's going to take all that hard-earned knowledge and make some killer movies and buy us a glass beachhouse where I can live out the rest of my days with my toes in the sand. Dreamer, am I.

HORN-TOOTIN' TIME
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And now, without further ado... let's turn the page.

Elizabeth Guy
Editor
 

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This issue 
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ALMOST FAMOUS
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Various Artists