A tourist in my own city

So, I'm biding my time waiting for the day I get to hop on the plane for London, and then Dublin, and then Warsaw. It's coming up in less than a month, but in the meantime, I'm itching to travel! One of those pesky little things that goes along with being unemployed, is not having a lot of money to throw around, so basically I have to fool myself into the idea of being on vacation here in my own city. I did go on a fun little road trip last weekend to Toledo with my partners in crime, Kay and Miron, but even this did not fill my urge to explore.

Luckily for me, Chicago is packed with places I still have not been. My ex-roommate Laura, who currently resides in Boston, came to town a couple weekends ago and we roamed around Chinatown, Oldtown, Wicker Park, and so on. We hit some old goodies, but happily for me we discovered some new treasures. I learned that the Harold Washington Library in downtown Chicago was named for the first African American Mayor of Chicago. Also that Wacker Drive was named after Charles Wacker who pushed Daniel Burnham's and Edward Bennett's City Plan for Chicago. It takes a tourist coming to town for me to learn some basic facts about the city - thank you Laura.

Before my fellow unemployed friend, Jyotika, got the hell out of dodge to go live in India last week, she showed me her favorite place in Chicago - Graceland Cemetery. It was beautiful and the final resting place of many Chicago architectural geniuses (Daniel Burnham, Mies van der Rohe, Louis Sullivan, to name a few).

Finally to take advantage of the weather that is finally getting warm, I read outside today at Millennium Park and it was wonderful. But alas, I may not be able to call myself a tourist anymore. I finally had to give in and get an Illinois Driver's License as my Nebraska one is expiring. A single tear fell, but I'm embracing my Illinois status as I am calling it home for now. Still trying to figure out what comes next. Stay tuned.