Yesterday was my 44th birthday. First time I’ve felt like ‘dang that seems old to me’ when looking at my age. Not sure why it sticks out to me.
Over the weekend I took a trip to Chicago with my friend John who I use to work for and an older guy, Art, who currently works for John. John is one of the partners of Epic Systems Engineering, from my engineering days. Really cool guy, we share some common interests.
On the way up I discovered to my surprise that John keeps his 60 foot boat anchored in Lake Michigan and well that was going to be our sleeping accommodations. How fun! We arrived, dropped our luggage off at the boat and John gave us our first work assignment. He purchased rope and what looks like short highway orange cones. The idea was to tie 4 of these together in a line with a weight at the end and then hang the assembly off the boat to reduce the rocking in the boat. Lot of wind catches his boat and acts like a sail. Being engineers we measured everything out, read the instructions and went to work. First we put the rope knots in the wrong place, then messed up our measurements. Had to restart the assembly 3 times before we got it right. Then had a hell of a time trying to tie a boat knot for the weight. John asked how many engineers does it take to complete this thing? I answered, clearly the answer is more than 3.
We decided to get in some clean clothes and took a cab into town. Found a nice Irish pub in Olde Town and watched the Stanley Cup final. Great game, I was rooting for the Red Wings who somehow lost at home. Can anything else go wrong for Detroit? Most of the people in the bar were still sour after the Red Wings handed the Blackhawks a semi-final defeat so there were plenty of Penguin fans in the bar. I looked around at all of the young people there. Beautiful shining happy faces, full of youth and beauty. As I gawked at the pretty girls, it just hit me I’m twice the age of most of them. Wow. Yes, they are unattainable now. Yep, I had a mini-mid-life crisis right there in the 3rd period. Thought about changing my clothes and haircut to be hipper, start exercising, etc. Ran through the gamut like a cornered rat looking for a way out. So that’s what it’s like.. hmmm. Not a pleasant experience. So the game ended and I left my “issues” at the bar. John is an adventurous person. Let me explain a little. He loves Chicago and wants to discover as much of it as he can on each trip he makes there. So he printed out a map of Chicago with red and blue dots on it indicating points of interest that he’s been to and one’s he hasn’t. The latter being blue. So he pulls the map out of his pocket and marks off the bar we just left and said hey how about this jazz bar called the Green Dolphin guys? We’re all game to follow John where ever. The cabbie drops us off at the Green Dolphin and we step out and have one of those butthole puckering “oh shit” moments. Remember in Animal House when the guys walked in on Otis at the bar he was playing at? Well that was us. So after getting John to stop laughing at the predicament he landed us in and reminding him that maybe he should at least drive through some of the “blue dot” areas before committing to them we got back into a cab and headed back to the boat to sleep off the adventure. I wish I had my camera with me to share with everyone how cool the Chicago skyline looks like from John’s boat.
We woke to rain on Saturday. John pulled out his map and decided on the Siskel Film Institute, told the cabbie to head there. While John was trying to find out the exact address for the cabbie I asked him do we know what time this place opens? He calls them and no, they don’t open for a few hours. Turn around cabbie, lets head to the Broadcast Museum, John searches for the address. I ask, ok do we know if this place is open? Phone call later, no it’s closed for repairs. Massive eye roll at that point. I finally say lets just go to the Field Museum and check out what’s there. I could spend all day in there but we decide to take the L out to Oak Park and check out Frank Lloyd Wright homes he designed at the turn of the century. Art decides to visit his sister in town while John and I continue the adventure. We get on the L and head straight west towards the suburbs. Each stop gets worse and worse in terms of urban decay. One drunk guy gets on the train asking if we could drive him to the homeless shelter in Indiana. I ask John, is this going to be a repeat of the Green Dolphin. At which point he says “no, I’ve been told it gets bad then it clears up”. My confidence getting shaky I stick with him on this. We arrived in a nice suburb and headed off to find the Frank Lloyd Wright visitor center. Purchased some tickets for a walking tour of the area. Tour guide gave us a run down of the many homes he designed during his “prairie design” period. At the time Oak Park was in the prairie where the rich elite lived outside the city slums. Really cool. Once again I wish I had a camera.
We met Art back at the boat and announces we are having dinner with his sister who he confides in me was married to Harry Caray for 20 years. Wow! So we meet her and her boyfriend at well Harry Caray’s steak house downtown. Fancy place with an overpriced menu. She turned out to be full of life, wonderful lady. 80 years young but looked 60. I sat next to her boyfriend, another octogenarian who had a Cardinal world series ring on. I asked him about it and he explained he’s a part owner of the team, along with several other professional teams. Cool. He’s was a star basketball player at Loyola Univ. in Chicago in the early 50s. They retired his number. Really nice old guy. I really enjoy talking to old people, full of stories and experience. Art sister asked him with a wink if he was spending the night and he motions me over and he says to me quietly “she doesn’t get it that at my age it’s like trying to play pool with a rope”. I reminded they have these wonderful little blue pills now. He waves his hand and says that’s all he needs is one more pill to take. Art’s sister, “Dutchy” told us how she met Harry. She was not interested in dating in the beginning. But he wooed her with rose deliveries and once hired three Italian tenors to show up at her work and sing a romantic song from one of her favorite Italian operas. Long story short, she was smitten :) The steak I ordered was incredible, you know the kind that just melts. Its food like that that spoils me later on when I’m forced back into the real world of chain restaurants. Art’s sister picked up the check, which I know was well over $500. We said our thank yous and goodbyes and headed to the bar where we were given carte blanche on any booze. An alcoholic's dream. I was spent after that large dinner and several glasses of fine wine but John and Art were just starting. Ha! Yeah poor Craig who just wants to hit the bunk. Guys, I’m ready to ship off. But I’m not a spoil sport, I hung in there and watched ESPN on repeat loop through each of the day’s baseball games. One of the Cub outfielders that day thought he caught the third out and threw the ball into the stands as the runners tagged up and circled the bases on the second out. Yep this is why people are so loyal to the Cubs, they are lovable screw ups.
Sunday we took a cruise on John’s boat up the Chicago river and then packed up and headed home. On the way back I realized the spontaneity of the trip. The whole trip was a total blank slate Friday morning and ended up having a really cool adventure. Life’s not about hanging on to a youthful look, staying hip or trying to stay in the “game”. It’s about the moment, carpe diem, live each day like it’s your last.