Chicagoland.

Took the Greyhound bus from Eau Claire to Chicago. A friend called and asked me how to say inappropriate things in German - I told him I couldn't tell him right then, and he said, "Come on, no one else on the Greyhound will know any German." In fact, two young Amish couples and their babies had gotten on in Tomah, and although I wasn't sure exactly how much crude German slang they would understand, I didn't want to take my chances. I tried to eavesdrop on their Pennsylvania Dutch and see how much I could understand, but the bus was too loud.

I spent most of my time in Chicagoland [that's actually a name for Chicago and its suburbs (including bits of Wisconsin and Indiana), not an amusement park or anything] riding the el and other commuter trains. Public transportation is so wonderful.

I ate awesome Mexican food with Jenny, walked around downtown with Shane, went to a Dave Matthews Band concert at Wrigley Field with a stranger [sold my extra ticket on craigslist], grabbed a greasy-spoon breakfast and drank PBR [not at the same time] with Dave [who works at the Chicago Diner, a vegetarian diner with such illustrious customers as Moby, who Dave seated once], rocked the suburbs with Amy and Kaytee [nine-bar pub crawl...goodness!], and scoured the empty financial district for dinner with KT [once the business day is over, everything seems to just shut down there].

Art never fails to amuse me.

Barber signs never fail to creep me out.