As much as I don't like to fly, I was in the air again

So where I have I been? Not drunk on the streets of Chicago for 14 days on end*, but rather, in New York, with PO! I had a wonderful trip. I accomplished almost every gerund I set out to do:

- Winnie's karaoke-ing

- Shake Shacking

- Brooklyn Bridge walking-across and sitting under

- Morgan Library-going

- old neighborhood visiting

- Low Steps sitting (this was actually not by design, but it was super fun nonetheless)

- honeymooning (not really but some of you know what I mean)

- most importantly, seeing lots of people I love and miss

If you are among the people I love and miss and did not manage to see, I am probably even sadder than you are about this. Three days, no matter how jam-packed, are not enough to do it all in.

Turns out I really fucking love New York. I don't know why I forgot this, but I remember it now. This is an utter cliche, but I don't think there is anywhere else, at least in the U.S., that can compare (sorry Chicago, I like you and all, but still). I hope I hope I can settle back there, or at least nearby.

Now I am back in Champ-Urb. I complained a lot about having to come back to it, so then it rained really hard on me in retaliation. I then grudgingly celebrated my return by eating a Potbelly sandwich tonight (one of my favorite things about living here. Do they have Potbelly in New York yet?) This is such a busy summer that I can barely believe it is well into July. Lots of work, some class, and running about keeps me busy from dawn til dusk (and then from dusk til dawn I have to fight vampires). I'm off to the glorious Twin Cities this coming weekend, which I am very excited about. I have it on good authority I am going to meet some grandparents. And go on a boat! I love boats. 

I would like to go on a picnic before the summer is over. And see an outdoor movie, which I think they have in Chicago. My dude is moving up there for the last half of July and all of August--incunabula don't just catalog themselves!--so I will be making some visits and trying to bond more securely with the Chi so that I don't always unfavorably compare it to New York. To be fair, I think Chicagoans also unfavorably compare New York to their town. Really, they don't have too much in common, except for being large and both awfully cold and hot at different times. They are just both cities. Stop the comparing insanity!

*From this Aislers Set song called "Chicago New York"  that always gets in my head whenever I fly CHI-NYC. 

Stratford-on-guy

This weekend I took a vacation in Intenseland, as Cora calls New York. It was really wonderful to see everyone, but the city made me cranky, stressed out, and very drunk (and then hungover). We just don't party like that in Champaign-Urbana. I got to see my sister and her boyfriend's new place in Ridgewood (sorry I kept calling it Midwood!), which was a great neighborhood! If I move back to NYC (unlikely) I am gonna live way out in the boroughs--it helps take the edge off.

However, I did love the culture (the CULTCHAH). I saw the Babar show at the Morgan, which was awesome, and my last morning I went to the Guggenheim and saw the Catherine Opie show as well as the new Jenny Holzer installations, which were both pretty fucking reveletory. I was sorely tempted to spend the night at the Guggenheim (only $250 for students!) but had to return to Chambana.

For Halloween, I was a member of the fighting Illini basketball team. So it pretty much looked like this:

You get the idea. A highlight was maybe flying home--while flying into Chicago at night, I sat in 27D, behind the wing, watching the lake turn the sky into blue-green smoke, which is a life-long goal of mine.

Then President Lincoln, I mean Obama, was elected, and my occasionally wavery faith in the American public was restored. Indiana went blue--thanks Dawn!