Chicago VIII: Night, Day, Night

John (blithwulf) and I were going to meet Colin (kubshadow) on Thursday night, well, actually Friday morning. We had some time to kill, after having dinner with Shawn, and where I had confused our Chilli's waitress by ordering a burger that hasn't been on the menu since 1994. Always fun to see if they've been trained to recognize those items or not.

John took me out to Downtown Oak Park, a small, old style shopping area, much like Houston's Rice Village or Dallas' Snyder Plaza. No real fancy shops, bookstores, a couple of restaurants a hobby/gaming shop, etc. Most of the stores were closed at this time at night, thought we did stop into Borders for a few minutes before closing. Mainly we just took the time to walk around a discuss things. We enjoyed to cool temperatures and the nice character of the area. There's a pedestrian mall and an EL stop that has been ornamented to give it a little of that Frank Lloyd Wright style.

We met Colin at the Jedi Garden Diner. I know, Geekiest. Name. Ever. It was already after midnight, and since we were there for just coffee, and a slice of cake, the waitress wasn't very attentive at all. We went with empty cups for long periods. I think John and Colin had been customers of hers before, as she was "sassy" in that sort-of "Flo" from Alice way, is Flo was short and Hispanic. Could we have more coffee? "No." Apparently this was normal.

Now Colin is a very nice young man. Yes, I guess I'm saying this like I'm speaking like I'm 15 years older than him...and that's because I am. I'm not saying that he's immature. He isn't. Hell, I'd have to say that I'm more immature than he is . I guess that I'm still amazed at the ability for people of this younger generation find it much easier to come out. I'll shut up now, I'm just going o get myself into trouble here. Just be known that there were definitely some culture differences between him and me due to our ages. John met in the middle.

John and I were still quoting lines from Said and Meant as we had done all week. We had become pretty good at mimicking the Greek Chorus from The Darryl. We had managed to confuse Colin and were having to explain some of the show to him so he'd be in on the joke. After a little bit of time, Colin ran off to the restroom. I told John that I thought he was cute.

Somewhere around 3 am we finally left, but not after John and Colin made up a game of Magic: the LJ Gathering. It was strange how it worked.

The next day we woke up and got ready to go sightseeing with Carl (nytemarewulf) who had come into town. We were met in Oak Park by Colin who lives nearby. We went around Oak Park looking at the homes, some designed by Wright, others in some similar style. All pretty interesting. Since we didn't have a lot of cash, we decided not to go and pay for the Wright home and studio tour or the Hemming-way exhibit. Heck, even the Wright-designed Unitarian church charged for admission.

After this, I was still pretty wiped out from lack of sleep, and none of us knew what to do so we all headed back to John's house and just talked, while Colin and John went outside to fence for a while. I was about to nod off, so I went to go take a nap. I woke up later and was surprised to find Colin there. Hmm. We talked for a little bit, explaining our various backstories, getting to know each other. I found out later that once when I had gone to the restroom the previous night, he had told John that he found me cute, as well. Well, Gosh.

Dinner was next, back at the Melrose, and then Carl had to go pick Roger up from work. Colin, John and I moved on to Navy Pier. It was getting late and they'd be closing soon. We got to the large ferris wheel just in time for the last ride of the night. Neither John or Colin wanted to go on the ferris wheel, so I was ready to go it alone, but Colin tells me to wait and buys a ticket. The wheel has this horrible soundtrack telling you about Chicago and history and junk. Personally I was looking at the great view of the city and wishing it would shut up. Colin had a nervous look from the other side of the car. I should have asked him to join me on the other side of the car, but I was a little shy to do so. Still, we reached the apex of the circle and I leaned over and gave him a kiss. Chicago...what have you done?

John had gotten a call while we were on the wheel. I'm not sure what was said but john looked like he got either bad news, or something was troubling him. We continued down the long, long pier, reaching the end several minutes later. Strangely, we all became very pensive, very introspective. I thought about my trip ending soon and I didn't want it to. I also thought about the things I had done and enjoyed about this city, the oddness of my relationships with people, that I had just kissed a 20 year old guy, and that I missed Chris. I even called Chris from the pier worried about calling at 1:00am in the morning. I talked to John about things, as he asked how I was feeling, I turned it around and wondered about his thoughts as well. It was the second time we had connected this way, sort of helping each other out with our funks. We both ended up staring out at Lake Michigan for a while. Hard to describe such moments.

Colin joined up just before the patrol car came along to clear us off of the pier. We walked the long distance back to Colin's car. Apparently Chicago has two stations playing house music on Friday evenings. Colin's car had one speaker, the one in the back that was now right next to John's head, and the music was so loud John couldn't hear anything. I had to help Colin navigate through the maze of Chicago streets to get back to John's house I had picked up the route and could navigate pretty well.

The sunroof was open, the cool breeze was coming in, the music was providing a moving background to the drive down a beautiful Lake Shore Drive. Things were good.

Coming up next, the last day in Chicago, with a surprise meeting.