So if you really know me, or at least met me an hour ago, you would be very aware that God's sense of humor is freakin hilarious. The daily happenings of my life are truly ironic and could happen to none other than, yours truly-Lauren Slattery. With that thought in mind, the story continues
A few weeks ago, I had made arrangements to hang out with a friend who recently moved to downtown chicago. We decided to take our afternoons off and enjoy the big city together on Sept 1st. In no time i was on the road taking the scenic road to the bustling, big, and windy city. Aside from the crazy tailgating Ill drivers, i was mildly impressed with my ability to maneuver myself in traffic.
In no time, i was downtown and appreciating the east side's street parking. Steve made us a quick lunch and we then meandered onto the train to start the afternoon's adventure. We decided to skip the Lincoln Park Zoo and just go for something inside and air conditioned with the current 98 degrees and 120984302983% humidity. What could be better than an afternoon spent at the Chicago Art Museum?! hmm, notta.
I remember going to the same art museum as a child and just wondering how any of the stuff could be interesting? A bunch of boring paintings, nakey statues from different countries, and dull artifacts older than Mary and Joseph...well there's a crucial part to touring places like this. You must bring Steve with you. I am not sure if "hilarious" or "ginormously entertaining" are appropriate terms to use in regards to a public museum, but those are the exact words I will use to describe the outing.A few things about me:
1.one of my long standing hobbies is photography
2. I have a severe dislike and phobia of dolls and mannequins.
I was very excited to see the featured photography exhibit until we got to the gallery and every single pix had a creepy doll posed somewhere within it. BOOM-irony. Photographers are always looking to other people's photos so see if they can become inspired with some of the other artists' ideas... that will not be happening with Mr. Meatyard's work. I eventually adapted to the whole thing and was able to tolerate some of it-- but seriously this is border-line horror-ish. Those pipes speak louder than phobias.
We also took a stroll around the multicultural art from the various regions of the world. Honestly, i sometimes felt as though they should have rated some of the exhibits "R."
It def was a wonderful afternoon of good times and refreshing humor. We took a few moments to relax and also educate ourselves with the artwork around us.
<--------complete shinto technique.
Catching ourselves up on a little WWII political art from Russia.
We should probably be the model children for the Chicago Art Museaum.
After about hour three I was slowly becoming more and more lethargic, spacey, and zoned due to prolonged periods without eating. On top of being hungry, i had been using my brain all afternoon to match Steve's witty jokes, so i was pooped. We called it a successful afternoon and headed on back to the city for some chow.
There is no better way to fully embrace a downtown adventure than an eating a chicago style pizza. Gino's East was the place to get it. I decided we should go tropic and get the hawaiian style deep dish. Nothing tasted more heavenly at that point. There was enough cheese on just one slice to constipate an elephant, but ohh man- talk about amazing. Its funny because I am opposite of most people... when the typical human eats, they become tired after meals. I become more lively, so whomever i may be with at the time gets my blessing of chatter thrown at them.
We continued the journey down Superior St. and Steve showed up around his place of work, Northwestern University. We went to walk towards the elevators, but the security guard stopped us. They are pretty hardcore strict on who's in and who's out at the downtown location. I had to give them my driver's license and they took my pix. I thought they were going to fingerprint me and ask for the SSN, but instead they have me a cool visitor pass with my full name and pix on it. holy crack down...
Anyways, Steve showed me around the labs where he is working on many of his research projects. He does a lot of biomedical research in regards to cancer and cardiovascular health. Pretty amazing stuff. It was such a cool feeling walking around the lab because they have a lot of world famous scientists that made their discoveries in the same building. The guy who invented the LifeVest (an external defibrillator a person wears) did his work in the same building i stood. I actually recently discharged a patient who went home with a LifeVest. A small part of me began to understand the whole connection with scientists and how the spectrum of healthcare works together to create and establish discoveries and different options for people. Neat :)
So after an enlightening tour, I decided that it would be time to hit the road because it was 9:30pm and i had to work at 7am the next morning. I thanked Steve for a pleasant afternoon and was on my merry way.
on my ride home, i concluded a list of things i pondered, and this will help to end my post for today.
1. Wisconsin drivers are polite, and i appreciate that
2. Milwaukee is easily 25 degrees cooler than chicago, so dress accordingly
3. The only reason ESPN is cool is because it has the packers and brewers mentioned on it
4.I am very excited to go to Shed's for my birthday next month
5. I haven't killed Walter yet, so i started reading books for first time dog owners.
That my friends, is the last inkling i can spurt from my mind. Now, go out and rock the day.
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