[Continued from "Chicago: June 18, 2010."]

I’m used to Isis waking me up very early, about 6am, so I tend to wake up at that time no matter what.  Before I had a chance to go back to sleep, the Viking and I were cuddling.  And then it was hot because I was silly enough to have packed flannel pj’s.  I took off my pj’s not as in invitation for sex, but so I could go back to sleep more comfortably.  The Viking, however, had a different idea.  Once he got going, things felt really good and I couldn’t think of any reason to stop him.

We went back to sleep for a while.  We purposely didn’t put down the window shades for fear we’d sleep too late, so when the Viking woke me up, again feeling amorous, I knew by the light coming in the window it was close to time for us to get out of bed anyway.  But not before the Viking and I endeavored to give me a very nice orgasm.

We finally got up still pretty early and took the train to Lincoln Park.  We went to the Bourgeois Pig for breakfast.  I had very delicious French toast and an iced coffee.  I’m not a big coffee drinker.  Back when I worked at an office, I’d get a fancy, sweet, milk-laden coffee drink around 10:30am, just to stay awake.  Very, very rarely I’d have more than one coffee in a day.  Since I’ve not worked in an office in a while, I’ve not had much coffee at all.

After breakfast we walked around the neighborhood a bit, through a park where there were dogs and families, and then to a farmers market.  The neighborhood was cute, perhaps a little too cute; I need some grit in a neighborhood.  The farmers market was in the parking lot of a school, and had a reasonable variety of vendors.  Staying in a hotel and eating out for every meal, I was missing fresh produce.  We bought some tomatoes, some peaches, and some strawberries.  The peaches were especially tasty.

Then the Viking and I walked around, checking out the neighborhood.  It was a hot and humid day, as would be expected in mid-June in the Midwest.  I had sunscreened, but I still insisted we walk on the shady side of the street when we could.  We did a lot of walking.  It was all flat, so it was easy.  We walked up into Lakeview, mostly because I wanted to see some blatant homosexual behavior in Boystown.

I’ve lived in San Francisco for ten years.  I like that same-sex couples are comfortable to publicly display affection, and I can’t live in any city in which that isn’t the case.  We didn’t see any grab-ass, but we did see manly salons and a poster for a transsexual beauty pageant.  Good enough.

I also couldn’t live in a city that didn’t have cool graffiti.  On our walk on Saturday I saw this nice tidbit.  It wasn’t until recently that I noticed cool graffiti at all.  That is thanks to my friend Ramona, with whom I’d be walking around in San Francisco only to have her stop and take pictures of scribblings I’d previously not noticed.  There is some cool graffiti out there, and Chicago is no exception.

We walked around the neighborhood looking for places where the Viking could replace his recently departed belt.  One shop was too hip for his purposes; there were brightly colored and studded belts, no dress belts.  Finally, we settled on Marshall’s.  When we walked in, I realized I’d not been to a Marshall’s in probably over ten years, and at the most five times in my life.

The Viking got a good belt at Marshall’s and then we walked back outside into the heat.  I’ve done Southeast Asia in the summer, and I’ve done non-coastal California in the summer; I can do the heat.  But I really did want a drink, a nice, cold drink.

We saw a place that claimed to serve terrific margaritas, but I wasn’t really into having alcohol yet.  Mark your calendars, people.  So we went to a Starbucks where I ordered a “Caramel Frappuccino Blended Coffee,” which is apparently what they’re called now.  I remember when they were just Frappuccinos, but the cashier called out not only “Frappuccino” but also “Blended Coffee” as if that was really important.

We walked to the train and returned to the hotel where we showered and changed for dinner.  We had planned an early dinner so we had time to go to the architectural tour on the Chicago River at dusk.  It was once we were in our room that I began feeling weird.  I was shaky.  My stomach made some very audible gurgles.  Hmm.

I realized that two coffees in one day was way too many for me.  I was spazzing out due to too much caffeine.  The Viking suggested we leave for dinner early so we had time to walk around, which might help alleviate my feelings of restlessness.  We took a cab to West Loop where we walked around and saw the French Market at the Metra Station.  I love a city that encourages public transportation.

We walked in the direction of our dinner destination, past the Batcolumn.  There are few monuments in the world that aren’t phallic, and a giant bat sticking straight up is certainly phallic.

It was still very early for dinner, but we could see a street fair in the distance.  It was the usual street fair with loud music by mediocre local bands, local food vendors, and vendors of silly things like severely over-bedazzled novelty tank tops.  We got some chips and guacamole, which was pretty tasty.  (That’s saying a lot, as I’ve won a guacamole  contest.)

While we ate our chips and guacamole we saw a wild bunny.  It was a little, hoppy, rabbit apparently scared by all the activity.  A dog chased it as far as it could considering the constraint of its leash.

We also saw that we were near the Oprah Store.  I didn’t even know there was an Oprah Store.  I have no interest in ever going to the Oprah Store.  And I’m certainly not going to watch a live taping of the Oprah Show.  I don’t like Oprah and I don’t give a shit about sports.  I certainly hope Chicago has other things to offer.

We went to a fine sushi dinner, which I wasn’t able to fully appreciate because the coffee was doing a number on me.  I was shaking and my stomach was flopping about.  Not pleasant.

We were scheduled to go to the architectural river tour, but with how I felt there was no way I would be ok on a boat.  So after a trip to the drug store, we ended up spending the evening in our hotel room.  The Viking was very nice and took very good care of me, including getting me a Subway sandwich around midnight.

Don’t worry, we had fun the next day.  [To be continued.]

I swear.  True story.

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