The Terrible Catsafterme

I must have been anxious to get to Chicago on Saturday, April 21, because it was only a few hours after heading out that I got my first speeding ticket in over a year. I had left about 10:00 am and was a bit north of Indianapolis having just eaten lunch at Burger King when I noticed that the car behind me had flashing lights in the front window. It hadn’t even resembled a cop car, so I think I was subconsciously speeding up as he rode my tail. I was clocked at 85 in a 65, a speed which will garner a $150 fee. But fortunately, the trip got much better after that.

I arrived at Susan’s place about 5:00 pm Chicago time. She was buried in schoolwork and had warned me in advance that she had to get a batch of case studies completed by Sunday evening. After saying a quick hello, I set out for a nice walk to explore her area on foot. She is located about a mile south of Wrigley Field on the North side of Chicago. It was a nice walk. Listening to Jelly Roll Morton on my iPod, I meandered in and out of some of the shops, mostly enjoying the used and new bookstores.

We reconvened back at Susan’s at 7:00, at which time she closed the books and got ready to head out. We had an 8:30 reservation at Coast sushi bar. I should mention that getting to have sushi was a totally unexpected surprise. The last time I had attempted to have Susan try sushi back in 1996, she hated it and was mad at me for forcing Lisa to eat it! We took a cab there, where Susan found a wallet (see more details here). We arrived early so we stopped in a local pub for a fine red zinfandel.

Coast was an amazing place - much different than any sushi bar I had been in before. First off, it was B.Y.O.B., which we did. We had quite a laugh when we realized that the bottle of wine we brought was a screw-top. And we laughted even more when we found an unexplained cork on the table (which turned out to be from the soy sauce bottle). Secondly, the restaurant had a very nightclub-ish atmosphere - complete with loud music and flashy lighting. The sushi, though, was still outstanding. It gave Susan a whole new perspective on salmon. And for $2.00 extra, we got some cutting-edge wasabi that was cut so thin that it melted in the soy sauce. I had a great time and didn’t even blink when I misunderstood Susan’s advice to leave the waiter 20% and ended up leaving him $20.00. From there, we walked several blocks to a nightclub called the Garage and had a couple of drinks - a White Russian for me - before taking a cab back to her place.

Contemplating the cork

On Sunday morning, it was back to the books for Susan. She got up extra early in hopes of making it to the Green Festival with me that afternoon. Unfortunately, her work took longer than expected. I took another walk around town and happened upon another sushi bar - the Rice Box - that opened at 11:00 am. I had to wait for about a half-hour as they got the rice ready for the day (?), but had another round of some delicious sushi (a spider roll and crunch eel roll). I headed back to Susan’s to meet the girl who had lost the wallet and watch an interesting show on internet scam stings while I waited for Susan to finish.

I also got my second ticket of the week - this time a parking ticket for $50. However, this time my only sin was putting the parking pass that Susan gave me on the wrong side of the windshield. What a scofflaw I am. But here’s the kicker: the unobservant numbnut who couldn’t see the pass on the driver’s side of the window, also could not manage to copy my license plate number correctly. So good luck finding me, Chicago!

Jennifer and her Mom Mary

Eventually, it started to look as if she wouldn’t get done very soon, and hating to hold me up, she suggested that I just go ahead and go. So I drove to the McCormick Place where the Green Festival was being held and met up with Jon and Jennifer (Crum) Katheiser and Jen’s Mom Mary. By this time it was about 3:00 and they were close to being finished at the festival, but kindly went back in with me so I could browse the exhibit. I really enjoyed the folk band that was playing (above left) and I even loved the vegan chocolate ice cream. But the soy fruit milky substance was the pits. We ended up staying there for about an hour. As we headed toward downtown Chicago, I called Christi and Jennifer was able to talk to her for the first time in at least a dozen years (at right).

Jon and a mannequin at the Green Festival

To be continued…

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 28th, 2007 at 6:08 am and is filed under Vacations, On the Town, 2000's - Late. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.