Good morning. I am rather, ahem, hung over. Yay for free bottled water. At the moment I'm in my nondescript hotel room watching ESPN and trying not to vomit. Am I hungover or still a little drunk? It's a fair question.

Last night James, Sean and I went out. Dan and Ed were maybe going to meet us but they didn't call until way later. I saw the messages after I stumbled back to the hotel room. Ok, let me start at the beginning. I may just cut and paste this into my blog. Yesterday morning I drove to work and picked up the U car for the ride down to Chicago. I noticed the car had an aux jack so I grabbed the connector cord and got on the highway. The ride wasn't bad, but I couldn't find a decent parking deal downtown so I cut back near the hotel, found a street spot a block away, and caught a quick, smelly, aggressively quiet cab back to the convention. First off, the convention space was huge. There were two separate towers and a slew of color-coded floors, but I eventually decoded the system enough to check out the "free shit" exhibitions (lame) and catch a few sessions. I think I've decided that convention sessions are no longer for me. They're boring, rarely useful, and I can't believe the presenters are so audience-unfriendly when they're teachers. Anyway, I did catch one excellent session on new diversity materials that I can use, so the day wasn't a total loss. By mid-afternoon everything was shutting down so I started walking north. Oh, the weather was beautiful, almost sixty and sunny. The ice was completely gone and although some piles of dirty snow remain (and probably will stick around for a few weeks) the air felt springlike. I walked the 4 miles or so from the convention to the Broadway Taco and Burrito House. Five things I saw/heard on my walk:

1. The panhandlers apparently now just YELL at you. What the hell? The homeless guys were bad, but the Greenpeace guy was the most annoying.
2. I saw two different couples arguing with each other. At one point a guy said, "You just don't get it, Christie." I wanted to follow them to see what Christie didn't get.
3. I saw a woman riding a bike in what can best be described as "hot Mary Poppins" gear, including tall, heeled boots.
4. Women seem to populate Lakeview/Lincoln Park. Maybe all the guys were inside.
5. Sometimes I forget tourists come to Chicago, but there were a lot of them downtown. I guess, yesterday, I was one of them.

I ate a late lunch/early dinner at TBH, picked up a Reader at Reckless, and checked into the hotel. My room is small and nondescript, and the hallways bare (I think they're installing new carpet), but I'm not paying, I can't complain. I decided to walk to Uncle Fun to check for these weird "devil duck" rubber ducks T has mentioned, but they didn't have any. I also walked through Powell's but I'm backlogged as far as books are concerned so I didn't buy anything. Back at the hotel I took a shower, read some Eckhart Tolle (sp? Ross recommended it) and walked through Borders until James and Sean picked me up. We found parking down the block, walked to Duke of Perth, and started drinking. A few pitchers later we were drunk. I think I was in the worst shape. The restaurant was crowded but we could hear each other ok. I hope the cute waitress couldn't hear us, though, as we managed to be talking about inopportute things (e.g. Sean's thoughts on a girl with good thighs) right when she passed. We ate dinner, too, then stumbled out into the increasingly colder Chicago night and hit another bar down the street, where we drank more and watched the Bulls and Blackhawks games concurrently. Both lost. By eleven we walked back to the hotel and I crashed. Hard. But I woke at five.

You know, I don't feel too bad now. I needed a night like that, I guess, and I'm was glad to see James and Sean. The last week was such a bitch at work, and there's this sense of endurance, I guess I should say, with all this traveling and the like. If I can just make it to Friday, you know? Work has been so busy.

More later. Sometimes after a day like this I feel a burst of creative energy, as if I’ve released the tension from my system. We’ll see.