Jan 17 2003
Chicago
No news is good news, right? At least, I have noticed that if there’s bad news, someone’s going to make damned sure you hear about it, and without delay. So my lack of posting hasn’t been because of death or disaster, but because of the previously mentioned and time-consuming stultifying boredom of the conference.
To rewind: it was 66 degrees and sunny when I left San Francisco on Wednesday, and 19 degrees when I arrived in Chicago, which is really barely endurable. On the bright side, the flight was half an hour less than advertised, so yay.
Chicago is really pretty and has great energy, from what little I have seen of it so far. The hotel doors had signs on them saying “Please use other doors [the revolving ones] due to wind”, which kind of tells you all you need to know about that. The Windy City reputation is not undeserved. It snowed last night, and it was so windy that it was flying sideways. Really pretty, though, and from my window, I can see the lake, which appears to be partially frozen along the shoreline.
Meeting Kelly on Wednesday was the high point of the trip. We had such a great time talking that she ended up having to take a very late train home. She had chosen a fabulous Thai restaurant for dinner, Erawan, where we ate in traditional Thai style. The food was excEt, and beautifully presented – it was like eating art. Kelly took a picture of the gorgeous swan carved out of Japanese radish, complete with eyes and beak, which the garnish on on her entrée. You’ll have to see it to believe it. It was a wonderful evening.