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Reg. Date: Dec 2001
Location: Ithaca, NY
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(Originally posted on: 04-07-04 01:37:26 AM)
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I arrived in Chicago tonight after driving for nearly three hours through Indiana, which, Jeff, you should be ashamed of. The woman at the Radison in Toledo from which I departed gave me a full refund for the night I would not use.
I arrived in Chicago at about nine p.m., and besides a Vegas-style tollboth and a stream of headlights across what is referred to as a "skyway," (funny, the only "skyway" we have in Tampa is a suspension bridge spanning Tampa Bay, a wonderful excuse for a metropolis) the first thing I saw were beautiful skyscrapers. I got lost briefly, during when I got an amazing view of these massive constructs, fully-lighted, towering over cornfields and the interstates that peer through them.
I rode U.S. 41 up the shore of what I'm told is Lake Michigan, streetlights every few feet and headlights on either side. And I could look up and see those skyscrapers, huge buildings. I mean, we have skyscrapers in Tampa, but they're nothing compared to this, really.
But even more, the skyscrapers in Tampa, like the bank building and that other bank building, they're bunched together in downtown. But in Chicago, there's all these miniature skyscrapers, office and residential buildings 5-10 stories high crowding every "block." And at night, the lights are on in some of the rooms, and you can see the people inside. And these lights are scattered like a checkerboard, just like in the pictures of cities.
And it's so crowded here. In some neighbourhoods, black people just seem to walk in front of moving cars. The interstates are crowded, the curbs are filled with chains of vehicles, and the transportation situation here is so precarious. Think if every other person in Beijing had a car. I found Chris' place by his address and foolishly thought that, as in Florida, when you drive to an address, you're actually driving to a parking space as well. In Florida at least every location has a sizeable lot with white and blue lines to leave your vehicle in. Not so here at least. There are curbs and you're supposed to sort of reverse into them.
It's just so strange here. You sort of get a feel for what the hell that book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is talking about. There is a little dirt, a little grass, and a few trees beside the sidewalks. No palm trees lining median strips or king sagos set in islands in rolling yardscapes. No orange trees even. Maybe some corn, out in the country, but that's about it.
My God, the skyscrapers and the buildings, it's such a surreal atmosphere. It's like SimCity 3000 and then SimTower. And to think there's snow in the winter and to think nobody I've spoken with, sans fellow Florida expatriates, have even known what a lovebug is. To see skyscrapers and thin-laned highways and so much pavement in one night. Such an odd damn place, Chicago.
"When considering the serious step of marriage, it's good form to seek the approval of the message-board moderator." - The Onion
[Regarding Martha Stewart] "I'll be able to sleep easier knowing that another motivated, powerful woman is off the streets." - ibidem
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