Lemon Water

Today H. and I are driving to Chicago! And

Okay well now it's night time and we've gotten there.

I had to stop writing because I'm the backseat driver everyone wants too have: I say encouraging things, give my advice when requested, don't freak out when we have to drive into the little triangle at the fork on the road and discuss which fork tine to take, agree that all maps and road signs are stupid, and I don't ask "are we there yet?" And I don't beg to drive if h. doesn't think conditions are favorable, and I put the four-ways on when necessary, and also act as an extra pair of eyes for switching lanes (which brings us full-circle to me putting down the tablet).

I wasn't required to sign the rental car agreement, but I can be a grown-up by having a good attitude and helping the better driver. Yes, Heather is the better driver.  The two of us have come to the conclusion that my art art is not precise and neither are my thoughts, and so it should not be a surprise that neither is my driving style. I feel totally safe with myself in a car. Apparently sister is working on it. Seeing things from her eyes, I give her much credit.

We counted the lanes on the way into Chicago: five, then six. And of course I had been of the opinion that we should be on the absolute left because a mile ago the exit 51 sign had been on the left. Exit 51 is on the right. Sister did an excellent job of changing lanes. I had a face-to-face (through windows) encounter with a nice woman who waved us on, and also experienced the phenomenon of people honking in a sea full of cars. Which is pointless since one think could be for any of eight cars around the sound. And it puts everyone who hears it on edge. But extra beeping is part of the glory of a city - signifying its pace and attitude and separating it from other places.

We went up to the top of what used to be the Sears tower this evening. It is now the Willis tower. The tower was originally built because Sears was booming and had four office locations in Chicago. In order to fit it all under one roof, they calculated the floor space that they would need to combine all four offices and came up with the tower we have today.

It's sad how Sears was so bright and beautiful back in the day and now it's hiding in the back corner of the my nearby mall, with a half-full parking lot on the good days.

Once I saw a Sears sign with the "S" out. I took a picture.

From the top of the tower, though, was the night view. (No wait. It was 14 degrees. Small blessings.) At first I thought all of the straight, bright yellow lines were the cars down below.

Nope, Heather said, those are street lights. Brighter than headlights, and a different color. The headlights were a mess of wiggly, blurry little white fireflies moving along the big roafds and the cloverleaves.

If I were to draw a conclusion from that it would be that, from above, even cars are ephemeral.

I mostly just thought about the owl city song "fireflies."

We went to a restaurant to eat Chicago's (so I've heard) famous deep-dish pizza. It took 45 minutes to bake. There were televisions around the perimeter of the restaurant and when the pizza came (really just a solid hunk of baked cheese - worth it only to say I've eaten it) it didn't draw our tired eyes away from SNL (on a Sunday night?) Heather commented, "It's as if we'd never seen TV before." And it was true. We were one of THOSE people whose "together time" is sitting together, apart. But we're together a lot.

Oh, and she bought me a drink. And I liked it. Two milestones.

The best things at the restaurant were the two black toilets in the ladies room. No, I take that back. Our waitress got us water before she asked us if we wanted anything to drink to save herself the sorrow of "I'll just have water, thanks" that she would otherwise have to hear thirty times a day.

We saw the Chicago Bean and a fountain with no water, and a frozen Lake Michigan. And are staying at a hostel with nice people. And we have a blue car.

I'm getting a lot of compliments on my hair. I feel like it opens doors in people's hearts, if I may go so far as to say that. For example, black women notice and then they know I appreciate their hair and the work that went into it. The only shutting doors might be the little old ladies I make eye contact with. I smile at them and they quickly look away.

Oh yes, I saw you!  (But I smiled politely at you, bet you didn't see that coming!)

Our last stop in Michigan was a "Pure Michigan" stop. It was a very...independent gas station with all of your grocery needs inside, and a soda fountain. And wine, and a cafeteria (closed). I prayed the toilet would remain attached to the ground as I balanced upon it and snickered at the machine that was vending "assorted" "adult" merchandise instead of the usual things you would find in a ladies' room.

My dilemma: if I am filling my water bottle at the soda fountain at a place like this or any place, and while intentionally pulling the water lever, I unintentionally push the lemonade lever too, do I pay for the lemon water or let it go?

This was a very large moral problem for me but it felt like picking at scabs to go and explain and pay.

I'm getting the feeling there are bigger moral fish to fry.