Milestones
I passed a milestone in my life last week when I turned 30. I don't feel any older though, and the idea of being 30 doesn't really bother me. I think if I were really unhappy with my life, maybe things would be different, but overall my life is pretty good these days. Two of my friends also had 30th birthdays recently, and another friend is turning 30 this weekend. So really, 30 is no big deal to me.
Ella and I visited my parents and went to Chicago last week. I don't miss Chicago anymore. There are plenty of things I still love about the city, and it's still a great town, but I am certain at this point that I would not like to move back there. I'd like to visit more often, but there's no way I would move back there. It's too expensive, too cold, and too cumbersome. Part of that is because I've become lazier over the years, to the point that I don't want to fight with traffic on the roads or at the airport. Sure, you get lots of direct flights out of O'Hare and Midway, but it also takes you 2 hours to get to the airport and get through security, and parking is twice as expensive. Oh yeah, and snow shuts down the Chicago airports several times each winter.
I was, however, happy to return to three of my favorite places in the windy city - BLUES on Halstead, the Red Head piano bar, and the Field Museum. The first two places are up there next to Harry Denton's and Top of the Mark, the Flora-Bama and the Slippery Noodle, Spotted Cat and Vaughan's on my list of best-in-class, all time favorite watering holes. There is just something about a great bar that draws you in and makes you feel right at home and shows you a good time. It's a combination of good staff, good atmosphere, and good clientèle that just can't be manufactured. You've either got it or you don't.
The Field Museum has an incredible exhibition on maps, including this outstanding animation of the civil war. This web version is a little blurry, but basically it shows the shifting of territory controlled by the north versus the south throughout the course of the civil war. One second in the animation is equivalent to 1 week in the war. There is also a running tally of casualties (not deaths) during the animation. Also in the exhibit were Captain Cook's chronometer, Lindbergh's flight chart, and hundreds of other unique maps, some of which were thousands of years old.
I've got another week here in Lexington then it's back to San Francisco for a final push to wrap up our project out there. I'm not sure where I'll be headed after that, but it sounds like we've got a number of interesting projects coming up, so I hope I'll have some good choices.
----------------
Now playing: Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way
via FoxyTunes
Ella and I visited my parents and went to Chicago last week. I don't miss Chicago anymore. There are plenty of things I still love about the city, and it's still a great town, but I am certain at this point that I would not like to move back there. I'd like to visit more often, but there's no way I would move back there. It's too expensive, too cold, and too cumbersome. Part of that is because I've become lazier over the years, to the point that I don't want to fight with traffic on the roads or at the airport. Sure, you get lots of direct flights out of O'Hare and Midway, but it also takes you 2 hours to get to the airport and get through security, and parking is twice as expensive. Oh yeah, and snow shuts down the Chicago airports several times each winter.
I was, however, happy to return to three of my favorite places in the windy city - BLUES on Halstead, the Red Head piano bar, and the Field Museum. The first two places are up there next to Harry Denton's and Top of the Mark, the Flora-Bama and the Slippery Noodle, Spotted Cat and Vaughan's on my list of best-in-class, all time favorite watering holes. There is just something about a great bar that draws you in and makes you feel right at home and shows you a good time. It's a combination of good staff, good atmosphere, and good clientèle that just can't be manufactured. You've either got it or you don't.
The Field Museum has an incredible exhibition on maps, including this outstanding animation of the civil war. This web version is a little blurry, but basically it shows the shifting of territory controlled by the north versus the south throughout the course of the civil war. One second in the animation is equivalent to 1 week in the war. There is also a running tally of casualties (not deaths) during the animation. Also in the exhibit were Captain Cook's chronometer, Lindbergh's flight chart, and hundreds of other unique maps, some of which were thousands of years old.
I've got another week here in Lexington then it's back to San Francisco for a final push to wrap up our project out there. I'm not sure where I'll be headed after that, but it sounds like we've got a number of interesting projects coming up, so I hope I'll have some good choices.
----------------
Now playing: Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way
via FoxyTunes
Comments
Post a Comment