Hey friends. I like Chicago so far. Though it is of course bigger in many ways than any city I have ever lived in. More people, more diversity, more climate, more area, more everything. It’s enchanting to a girl like me who has lived in cities before, but only smaller and more provincial ones, like San Francisco.

It hasn’t been TOO hot, and it has been windy. Yesterday we did one touristy thing: paid ten dollars to ride an elevator 94 stories to the top of the Hancock Tower. Had a grand view of the city, and if it hadn’t been so hazy, we could have seen all the way to Michigan.

We also went to the zoo (free), went to a bar, had Thai food, drove past Wrigley Field, and walked around downtown a bunch. Not in that order. Today I had lunch with my pal Claire, which was swell. After that I walked down Michigan Ave to Oak and visited Barney’s for the first time. Kind of an odd and overly posh experience, but I did get a sample of Kiehl’s moisturizer and bought a little bottle of hair “serum” for my frizz. I also saw a price tag on a cardigan that said “$950” and was like, wtf.

So we’re having a great time. About to leave for the aquarium and Millenium Park. It’s muggy enough that I already pitted out again, oh well. Tonight we’re having dinner with Leonard, tomorrow we’re pretty open except for checking out of the hotel and transferring our belongings to our pal’s apartment on the north side. Then we’re having drinks with Claire and Anita after they get off work. Annie used to live in SF too, but moved to Chicago and doesn’t plan to leave.

Speaking of leaving, I can’t think too much about what is going on in New Orleans right now. I thought about it a lot since we got here, but the disaster and swift deterioration into chaos just doesn’t seem real. You would imagine that a sophisticated society like ours would have quickly sent the army or national guard immediately to the scene to bring order and help, but uh, sorry, they are half a world away fighting an unwinnable war over the oil that is now going to skyrocket in cost thanks to the disaster. Ironic! Maybe. It will be interesting to see how Bush fucks this up too and grins and flag-waves his way through it.

Other than that, very happy to be on vacation. And a note to those sending mail to my personal email address, I am unable to access it through the web for some reason, so please send mail to my hotmail address, which has the same ID as this LJ. Cool.