It's My Kind of Town

Yesterday my sweet husband whisked me away from my housewifely responsibilities and took me to Chicago for an early birthday trip. Hurrah! We had a wonderful time. For as close as it is (an hour away), we rarely make it up there, so this was a fantastic treat. We hopped on the train and went to the Art Institute (For free! Evidently Illinois faculty get free admission, and the man doling out the tickets had a nice moment and gave me a free one, too.), something that we hadn't done in a couple years. All the old favorites were there in their same places, except this one, which is on loan somewhere in Iowa for a little while. I like going to the Art Institute because it feels like home in so many ways. Everything is familiar and safe, but I also see something new, something I can fall in love with and call "mine," every time I go.

Afterward we walked a few blocks (FREEZING. Only word I have to describe Chi-town in late January) to Oysy, where we enjoyed some fantastic sushi, something you cannot find in Kankakee. Here are some pictures I took of Steve and his sushi, because the presentation was so aesthetically pleasing:

Sorry the lighting and coloring are so bad. I felt like a weird foodie taking pictures of our meal, so I didn't take extreme care to make sure they were going to turn out well. And believe it or not, those are the only two pictures I took the whole trip. Steve checked his backpack with the camera in it at the museum, thinking it was illegal to take pictures of art, and it was too stinkin' COLD to photograph outside.

Really, it was so cold that my forehead was dangerously numb after just a couple blocks of walking. When we finished up the sushi, we got some coffee and a cookie at a local cafe and called it a night, since there is really very little you can do downtown if you're not willing to hoof it a lot in frigid temperatures. So we caught the 6:32 PM Metra home, knitted (on my part) and read (on Steve's) all the way home, and felt like grown-ups the whole time. When we called my parents, who had watched the kids, to let them know we were coming home, they cheerfully informed us that all three children had been on their best behavior and that little Charlotte had even happily taken a bottle. All in all, a great day.

And for the record, the man sitting a couple seats away from me on the train ride home, who wore a business suit and was innocently watching a movie on his portable DVD player, was also discreetly pouring cans of Budweiser into a plastic 7-11 cup. We cast sidelong glances at him the whole ride home, and he had four empty cans by the time he got off! He seemed very stable and in command of his faculties, so we're hoping he caught a bus home.

Hopefully!