melannen | (no subject)

Hi everyone! I am back from holiday trip to Chicago! I have now, six-ish years and multiple visits, after my sister moved there, done more or less (sometimes less) everything on the first 18 entries of Sadie Geraldine Oglepop's Chicago Hit List, all of which are meant to be done in one marathon weekend (as printed in the book "Supergranny: The Character Who Came To Life" (1989, Holderby & Bierce), and read many times by wee!me between 1990 and 1995)

Regulars:
1. ~~Rent Bikes and cruise Lake Shore~~ (borrowed rather than rented, but really glad I did this, I never know a place until I've done it by either bike or foot)
2. Have tea at Mayfair Regent Hotel with Victoria Charmain. (Victoria Charmain is sadly fictional, but in the book she's a successful mystery novelist, black, post-middle-aged, awesome, and, in retrospect, queer as hell, as is this entire book. Wee!Me had a type.) (The Mayfair is condos now.)
3. ~~Watch poisonous frogs at Brookfield Zoo~~
4. Visit "Paris: A Rainy Day" at Art Institute - did not actually see this painting, but did see the Wreathing of the Lions and wander through the no-admission required parts.

Major Optionals:
1. ~~Rest of Art Institute~~ - see above
2. Cubs Game - meh, sportsball, although I would kinda like to see Wrigley Field some day.
3. ~~Field Museum~~ Sue!
4. ~~Aquarium~~ There is a sea turtle that floats butt-up because of an old injury and it's tragic but also adorable?
5. ~~Museum of Science and Industry~~
6. ~~Water Tower Place~~ - have not actually been to the mall, but have been to the pumping station exhibit, which I probably enjoyed more!
7. Bears Game - meh, sportsball
8. Shubert Show - this takes too much advance planning for me I think? Maybe next time.
9. White Sox Game - meh, sportsball
10. ~~Ballet~~ - there were people from the ballet at the Wreathing of the Lions, so I'm calling it.
11. ~~Tribune and Sun Times Newspaper Tour~~ - I don't think this is possible anymore, but I have poked around Tribune Tower, which is about 1/3 of the most powerful sympathetic magic spell in the world, and somebody needs to write that into an urban fantasy sometime.
12. ~~Cheeseburger at Billy Goat Tavern~~ - we went to the smaller, newer one of these; I want to get to the original too, if only because the description in Supergranny's always reminded me of Bignose's Cafeteria on Lower North Aufzoo Street
13. ~~Top of John Hancock and/or Sears Tower~~ - went to the cocktail lounge on the second-from-the-top floor because the locals say that's a better deal. There was a spider! building a web! on the *outside*!
14. ~~"El" train~~ - there are pokestops at every single station!

There are apparently 133 more Major Optionals and I'd love to know what they are but I've never managed to find any other books in the series. Alas. Anyway, wee!me who re-read that book until it's falling apart is feeling very accomplished today!

Also, not on the list but we went ice skating on the ribbon in Daley Park and I fell down and bruised the heck out of my knees. \o/

Still in holiday mode and not feeling like going back to work tomorrow, but that's how it goes.

The Tumblr thing seems to be developing; I was already kind of idly thinking about doing a December Posting Meme thing again (starting with finally finishing a post with advice on how to make discussion posts), so maybe this is a good time to get an "everybody get more active on DW!" movement going in general.

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so maybe this is a good time to get an "everybody get more active on DW!" movement going in general.

Yes! \o/

ETA: And congratulations on your sight-seeing accomplishment!!

Edited 2018-11-26 04:10 (UTC)

Ooh, the December Posting Meme! I'm attempting to do it this year, and I think you should too! I promise I'll contribute a prompt!

I have poked around Tribune Tower, which is about 1/3 of the most powerful sympathetic magic spell in the world, and somebody needs to write that into an urban fantasy sometime

Wait, what? I know nothing about the Tribune Tower aside from what reading its Wikipedia entry just told me, but I am deeply intrigued by this statement.

I am deeply uninterested in all the sportsballs as a general rule, but I do admit that I had fun at the one baseball game I attended with my family as an adult. I was dubious beforehand, and I can't entirely remember now how the enthusiastic crowd + chatting with family during all the (many) points when nothing important was happening + occasional A THING JUST HAPPENED! moments + summer evening ended up equaling something enjoyable, but somehow they did. I wouldn't pay much to go again, but if I got super cheap tickets like last time I'd go with friends or family cheerfully enough. YM, of course, MV.

I am all in favor of December posting memes and also a general DW activity movement!

I'm glad you had a good time! ^_^ And I hope your first day back wasn't too rough.

We should all post lots of stuff!

I will probably do the same variant on it as the last time I did it, which was "finish and post all of your planned-but-never-written things"

Although I should probably work on doing a version that encourages me to post shorter stuff more often. Hmmm.

Tribune Tower was built with small pieces taken from important buildings and landmarks all over the world embedded in its exterior walls. There are 149 of them; they come from everywhere from the Great Wall of China to the Cave of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

I am sure there was icky colonialism involved in getting them, but if you wanted to cast some kind of worldwide area-effect spell using the law of contagion that both drew power from and had power over everywhere important to humans in the entire world, you would want to cast it from Tribune Tower in Chicago.

(It is also line-of-sight to Orthanc aka Trump Tower Chicago. If, say, you wanted to pull power from all the greatness of humanity and focus it and aim it somewhere in particular.)

(We realized this while standing on the roof of one of the Corncobs, aka Marina City, which are even closer to Trump Tower, have roofs that are perfect circles, are kind of shaped like some kind of battery terminals, are right on the river and were almost certainly designed by someone who corresponded with Stromberg, if you needed some kind of power boost while you at it.)

(And you happened to know a wizard who knew that kind of magic and was into architecture. You know. Hypothetically.)

I go see a minor league game once or twice a year! It's a fun and cheap summer outing to hang out with friends and be in a crowd and eat bad food and enjoy the night air. It is my favorite kind of sportsball game to attend because you can spend nearly all your time at the game being distracted without actually missing anything important. And then I come back and see if anyone's written any good Steve and Bucky at a Brooklyn Cyclones game yet. I just can't make myself actually care about the game in general, other than hating the Yankees, obviously.)

Edited 2018-11-28 04:26 (UTC)

It was, you know, work with my current bosses, so it was okay. I miss being on vacation though! Abolish the wage labor system!

There are occasional Good Reasons for sportsball attendance, for example the time my Grandpa took me out of school to go to a Cubs game. But mostly I agree with you about sportsball.

I can enjoy a good minor league baseball game, and watching sports on TV can be weirdly meditative if the commentary isn't too annoying, but yeah, in general, there are much higher things on any to-do list of mine.