Sunday, January 16

Today was the day that no one looks forward to—going home. We took our time getting things around before checking out this morning, and even managed to squeeze in a quick jaunt up to Jamba Juice for one last hit of the Jambage before checking out at noon. We had a fabulous time at the House of Blues Hotel, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is traveling to Chicago—I know we’d stay there again in a heartbeat. Anyway, the ride home was pretty uneventful aside from taking a slightly altered route back to East Lansing, but we made it back in what must be record timing—three hours! I don’t know how it was done. Perhaps it’s best not to ask questions. Or doubt the insane skill of Miss Spiro’s driving habits. But it was fast. VERY fast. We chilled out here at the apartment for the night, and ended up re-living our Chicago visit a little bit by ordering some Chicago-style pizza from the Pizza House for dinner. It was no Diorgano’s, but it was still PFG. Whew—what a weekend!

Saturday, January 15

Day Two of our Chicago excursion. We slept in a little bit this morning, but the call of the Jamba Juice was too enticing for Stefanie to ignore, so we finally got up and hurried around to make our way up the street so we could get our Jamba fix to start the day off. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Jamba, it’s basically this healthy shake chain that has stores all over the country…except Michigan. Stef is totally addicted too, so it was good that we were able to get her a fix to start the day off right. After our little breakfast snack, we took a cab over to the Field Museum, where we spent most of the morning and early afternoon. They have this exhibit running that showcases some of Jacqueline Kennedy’s most famous pieces of clothing, and looks at their historical, cultural, and artistic significance. I know it sounds boring, but it was actually really interesting, and I think Stefy especially got a kick out of it (having recently portrayed Mrs. Kennedy for Halloween). We killed some more time at the museum’s regular exhibits, but we weren’t exactly feeling scholarly at the time, so we decided to split out of there, and head up to the Cheesecake Factory at the Hancock Plaza for lunch. The place was a complete zoo like it always is, but we were seated pretty quickly since it was just the two of us. Stefy and I both ordered sandwiches with the intent of eating “light” but that’s basically impossible at the Cheesecake Factory, and it was a Herculean effort just to get your mouth around one of the sandwiches. After capping our lunch off with a slice of Oreo Cheesecake, we moseyed up to the Magnificent Mile for some late afternoon shopping. I wasn’t exactly in a shopping mood for myself—and neither was my wallet, quite frankly—but it was fun to tag along with Stefy while she looked at stuff. By the end of the afternoon we were both pretty wiped from the cold and all of the walking we’d done, so we decided to head back to the hotel to rest up a little bit. The rest of the night was pretty low-key, and we pretty much stayed close to home base since we were so tired. We did manage to venture downstairs to the House of Blues Restaurant for dinner around 9, and were just in time to catch some live music while we ate. Anyway, that was basically it for our first, last, and only full day in Chicago this weekend. It might not sound like we did a whole lot, but it was actually a really full day, and we both had an absolute blast.

Friday, January 14

Today was the big day for heading to Chicago, and it was nice to start off by sleeping in until about 10 this morning. Stefy and I started out on the road at around 11, and made a late breakfast stop at Bob Evans on our way out of town. It was about noon by the time we started driving in earnest, and it was a pretty easy ride all the way into the city. We pulled up to the House of Blues Hotel at about 3 p.m. local time, and checked in right away. The hotel is right next to the House of Blues restaurant, which is nestled between the two tall round apartment buildings that are next to the river. We had someone help us up to the room, and we spent the next hour or so kind of unpacking and unwinding from the long drive. Our room was absolutely fabulous though, so we took our time checking out all of the cool stuff in there (check out the pictures once they’re up). We left for dinner at Giordano’s Pizza (thanks to the recommendation from my old man) at around 5, and decided that four blocks was close enough to walk. During the summer it might’ve been manageable, but since it was about 8° outside, we were both pretty frozen by the time we made it to the restaurant. The pizza was well worth the walk though, and a small one was PLENTY for Stefy and I to eat for dinner. Apparently we didn’t stuff ourselves enough at dinner though, because we decided to kill some time at Starbucks afterwards. They have this new drink there that’s basically pure chocolate, and it was just calling our name as we were walking through the bitter cold. Our 4oz “Chantico” was enough to warm us up and fill our chocolate quota for the next six months. Once we finished our little snack, we jumped in a cab and rode across town to the Second City Etc. Theater for the 8 p.m. show I’d purchased tickets for earlier in the week. The theater was pretty small—about 100 seats max—and we lucked out with two really great seats that were slightly elevated above the rest of the crowd, so we had a great view for the show. The set lasted about two hours with a short intermission halfway through, and was absolutely hysterical—just imagine an episode of SNL that’s actually funny…the whole time. Anyway, it was pushing 11 by the time we got out of the show and hopped a cab back to the hotel, and we were both pretty pooped by then since we were still on Michigan time. I could definitely get used to this town.

Thursday, January 13

I could definitely get used to sleeping in like this on Thursdays. My first class on these days isn’t until 10:20, so it’s nice to be able to catch up on a little shuteye once during the week. Things started off just like Tuesday with Film History this morning. We watched some more silent films from the early part of the 20th century this morning, and today’s program was a little more interesting than Tuesday’s, just because the material was more advanced, and a little easier to digest, than the stuff we watched during our last class. I think the shorter two-hour sessions on Thursdays are going to be much easier to handle, because the class time absolutely seemed to fly by. My dad picked me up from Bessy after I got out of class, and he and I went up to Grand River for a nice lunch at the Parlour. I hadn’t seen him since the Holiday Party last weekend, so it was nice to catch up on the week’s events, and fill him in on my trip to Chicago with Stefanie for the weekend. While our lunch was really nice, the bummer part was heading back to my car and running errands this afternoon, because today was possibly the most disgusting weather day of my first three years at Michigan State. I think I was just perpetually wet all day, and the thick fog made it practically impossible to see where I was going the whole time. Since I still had about two hours to kill before my afternoon Film Theory class, I drove into Holt for a stop at my bank there to cash out some savings bonds for the trip, and drop some stuff off at my safety deposit box. While I was on the South end of town, I also took some time to swing into Target and pick up a new umbrella, so I could at least spare myself the misery of having wet hair for the rest of the day. After I drove back to E.L., parked my car, and made my way back to Bessy, I had just enough time left before class started to finish my assigned reading for today. As I said on Tuesday, I still think this Film Theory class with be the most challenging of the four courses I’m taking this semester, but after today’s session I’m feeling better about things. We took notes on some of the stuff from our reading and discussed the Chaplin film from Tuesday, and our prof seemed to settle down a lot more, which made me feel better about things. Anyway, she set us free about 40 min early, so I was officially done for the week at 4:30. I came back to the pad and spent a fair chunk of the evening doing laundry at the apartment (which proved to be a big, expensive mistake, but at least it’s done), and watching more episodes of the Sopranos. It was still pretty productive though, since I was able to iron a bunch of shirts for next week, and do all of my packing for Chicago while I was watching the DVDs. Stefy IMed my shortly after 10 because she was done hanging out with her girlfriends for the night, so I popped over to the dorm to help her pack up some things for the trip, and watch some TV while I was over there. We were both really excited for the trip by the end of the night, but I think the packing and our longs days had pooped us out pretty well, because we were both pretty dead by the end of the night. I guess that drive to Chi-town will be a good chance to unwind a little bit before our busy weekend in the Windy City!

Wednesday, January 12

Wednesday seems so long ago now (it’s the follow Monday already). So, I guess I’ll just gloss over the details from today. I made it to my 8 a.m. Sociology again this morning, and it wasn’t altogether terrible. We watched footage from the ’03 riots which was pretty funny, but that was about it. I went into work for a good chunk of the afternoon, but everyone was out of the office again for our board meeting in Detroit, so I had to keep myself occupied. My afternoon class was English Lit and we started discussing “Beowulf”, which I’m actually enjoying so far. The only problem is that about 90% of the kids in my class seem to be complete idiots (and honestly, this isn’t just about me thinking I’m smarter than anyone else—they just kept asking the same moronic questions over and over), and the professor is all too willing to waste time on some of this stuff. Anyway, my evening was pretty easygoing, and it’s definitely nice to just be able to meet up with Stefy at Berkey after our classes get out at 5. We hung out at the apartment for a little while, and both did some reading for our Thursday classes. And I guess that’s about all I can remember from Wednesday.

Tuesday, January 11

I love film, okay? It wouldn’t be my major if I didn’t. I’ll even go so far to say that I love film classes, but two in one day? With the same professor? It seemed like a daunting task, but it actually proved to be pretty painless. My morning started bright and early at 9:10 with Film History with good ol’ Prof. Jen Fay (who I had for Intro to Film last spring). This class actually seems pretty manageable, but also very interesting. We’ll be learning about how film emerged as a medium at various places around the world, and continues to evolve today. We started by watching some of the first motion pictures ever made by Thomas Edison and the Lumiere Brothers in France, and while they’re not exactly mind-boggling to watch, it was still pretty cool to think about the way people must’ve felt when they were seeing this stuff for the first time. Anyway, I’ll spare you the boring details, but suffice it to say, I think that, as film classes tend to go, this one should be pretty easy. The same can’t be said for my Film Theory class, which started at 3 p.m. in the same exact classroom with Prof. Fay this afternoon. It looks like this class is going to be even more complicated and challenging than my Film Criticism class was in the fall, plus there’s one more paper to write. That said though, I think having already been through the wringer this fall I have a better idea of what to expect out of this class. We got things rolling today by watching “The Circus” by Charlie Chaplin, which I think I can honestly say was one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen. You know you’re watching the work of genius when his comedy is still laugh-out-loud funny 80 years after it was made. Once the movie was over I got out of there as soon as I could, and made my way over to Holmes to meet up with my girl to finally nail down our plans for this weekend. Before we started looking for hotels and whatnot, Stefy managed to make a schedule change for this semester, switching into a poetry class she’d been dying to get enrolled in, so that was a good way to get our planning session off on the right foot. We finally settled for sure on going to Chicago this weekend, and got a pretty decent rate for a great room at the House of Blues Hotel downtown, and even made reservations to see a show at the Second City on Friday night. So, things are definitely shaping up for this to be a pretty spectacular weekend. Sweet Home Chicago!

Monday, January 10

The first day of classes. Blech. No, no, I keed, I keed. It was actually pretty good today, but it definitely sucked having an 8 a.m. I swore that I’d never take another one, but I figured that it would be easier to wake up and skip a class like Sociology than it would be to wake up and decide to skip work on any given Monday or Wednesday. This intro to Soc. class was absolutely packed to the gills, but I have a feeling it will thin out as the semester wears on. Everyone told me what a cool guy Prof. Pyle was, and he certainly seemed to live up to that reputation. The biggest plus about taking a 100 level class like this is how much easier it should be, especially considering that there aren’t any papers to write. He let us out about 40min early, so that gave me a pretty wide-open afternoon to cram in a solid day’s work at the office. I managed to squeeze in about 5 hours worth of work before taking off for my second class of the day, which was English Literature from the Sixth Century to 1660. The prof for this class also got really high marks on allmsu, so I decided to sign up for it even though the material sounds less than stellar. He seemed like a cool enough guy, but that might be part of the problem. This dude is in his early 30’s and has a soul patch. So yeeeeeah. “Shakespeare, man. I mean…yeah, dude. SHAKESPEARE!”—he just seems like one of those kinda guys. Anyway, that class went for the full two hours, and we got out at 4:50, which was a bit of a disappointment (aren’t first days supposed to be blow offs?). The good part is that Stefy also has a class at Berkey that lets out at 4:50, so I was able to meet up with her, and head straight across Grand River to do our book shopping. SBS ended up robbing me worse than I’d expected, taking a whopping $318, which was easily one of my most expensive semesters. Still, I had enough left in my wallet to treat my girl to dinner, so we headed up the street to Woody’s Oasis to eat. Neither of us had been there before, and while it was pretty decent, it sure as hell didn’t measure up to the Pita Café in Birmingham. After dinner we came back to the pad to hash out plans for our little weekend getaway to either Chicago or Traverse City, but didn’t end up really getting anywhere in our decision making process. Okay, early to rise, early to bed. At 10:30.