A Bittersweet Chicago Story
A bittersweet Chicago Story
In 2015, I have had a layover in Chicago via bus, via plane, and have driven to Chicago and stayed there for 4th of July weekend. I have had no intentions to go back this year, however I was convinced....
Buying the tickets
A friend named Mike needed to go to Chicago to fly out to get to LA for very cheap tickets. He asked me to go intriguing me the price of $70 round trip. I agreed. He asked me to get us a free stay at HI-Chicago. I requested but could only get myself the free stay. He would of had to pay $30 a night. He refused. I cancelled my reservation, and declined to going to Chicago anymore. He said he would figure this out...
This is a person I have been to (New York, Boston, Miami, New Orleans, Denver, Toronto, LA, etc.) with. I decided to just go along with it. He found a Couch Surfer named Anthony (Chi is his actual real name). I agreed, I bought my $70 round trip tickets with Spirit. After I bought them was given an offer for a $50 rebate signed up, usually I wouldn't think twice about this I figured since it was on Spirit's site I would try it out, so I did. After about 10 minutes I realized this was a mistake I contacted the companies 1800 # where they informed me they can't cancel my membership for at least 4 weeks. This was kind of terrifying because they have all my card information as well as other personal information. I was in a minor panic, so I called up my card company and had them cancel my card and send me a new one a few days before my trip. Fortunately I got it in time.
Day 1: Couch Surfing Intro
It was the morning of our trip, my girlfriend Kim offered us a ride there, meaning we had to wake up at 4:30 am to catch a 6:20 am plane. We did, and made it through security in time for a quick breakfast at Potbelly. We boarded our plane and arrived in Chicago 7 am Central Time. We caught the train to Anthony's neighborhood. We arrived out front of his house and Mike claims he isn't answering his phone. This was unfortunate due to the heavy bags we were carrying around. With no where to go we decided to walk around the town for a few hours.
We stopped in a shopping mall, and waited for the shops to open. We walked around the stores, and then decided to check out the sites of Chicago we visited River-walk, Millennium Park, and The Chicago Theater. After walking around all morning I remembered I had a conference call to tend to at 2 pm. With no where too quiet to go to I figured my best option was to HI-Chicago and sit in their lounge area for the call. Mike and I arrived asked permission to go upstairs we did, and I had time to kill so we played ping pong for a little while. It started getting closer to the time of my call. He informed me he was going on a Tinder date with a woman he met previously in LA. as I did my call. The call was fine. I then text him, not hearing back for at least 30 minutes later after my call to let me know he's at the United Center. I took a train there to go looking for him, after making a lap and half around the stadium we reunited. It's now around 4:30 pm. I have officially been up for 12 hours walking around a city. I asked Mike to contact Anthony again, Mike started to get frustrated with me for asking to contact him, and for mentioning I was getting exhausted and needed to relax and lay down. Anthony finally reached out to us and we arrived at his house at 6pm (nearly 14 hours of us being awake).
Anthony was a short Vietnamese 26 year old man, who has been living in Chicago for a year now because a job brought him there. His studio apartment had empty beer bottles laying around everywhere, his ID, debit cards, and other various personal information was laying all over the house which made me aware his real name is Chi. We introduced ourselves and sat on the couch and watched ESPN for about an hour together. I let Anthony know I was hungry, he said he was too. I told him I was a vegetarian earlier in our introduction. His first response was "there's a Chick Fil La down the street". I asked him if there anything more local or more vegetarian friendly. He then said "I guess there's a Chipotle a few streets over". Surprised by his lack of variety in "local restaurants" and the fact that we're travelers looking for somewhere new to eat. He took us to one of America's most popular chains. As we were in line he asked if we wanted to get this to go? I said I'm hungry now, and would prefer to eat it here. Mike didn't hear that conversation, a minute later he asked him if we were getting it for here or to go. He said "Let's get it to go". I then asked if we could just eat here since we had just been walking around endlessly around the city without eating much at all. He settled. We ate there. As we were walking back, he took us to a liquor store to buy us a 12 pack of Stella's. He asked us for money to pitch in. We arrived back to the studio where Anthony sat on the couch and started drinking away. I had two Stella's. Mike doesn't drink, they start to watch football documentaries till 2 am. I passed out at 9:30 pm.
Day 2: A horrible day turned good
The next morning, Anthony is heading out for work I ask him for his key as for I didn't want the same situation to happen twice, he gave it to me and left. Mike then was quiet... I asked him if everything was okay? He said no, he was upset with me for "complaining how tired I was yesterday, asking Anthony for his key, and asking to go somewhere other then what Anthony wanted (Chick Fa La)". I was surprised at how angry Mike was with me. We started arguing then Mike said "I think we should go our separate ways". YEP a guy I've known since 2007. who invited me out to Chicago in the first place just said that. I agreed, Mike left Anthony's and slammed the door. I was by myself in a strangers apartment.
I called my girlfriend and asked if I could stay with her brother Jose and his long time girlfriend Megan in Northern Chicago. She called they said yes I got the okay. This was fantastic news, I just had to wait till 6 pm, when they were both off of work, and it was only 11 am. I walked outside started my day off with a pumpkin doughnut then made my way over to the John Hancock building where brand ambassadors were handing our free hummus and chips. I ate it in the Water Tower Mall. I roamed around the stores, and then decided to pay a visit to Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago. It was amazing, the art was incredible. I can't say enough good things about that museum. It was my third time visiting the place. I stayed for about 3 hours. I then decided to make my way to Second City. Where many great entertainers graduate from to go onto to bigger things. As I was walking there it started raining so I sat in the Starbucks for awhile to charge my phone and waited for it to slow down. I made it to Second City to find out there was a recent fire next store that has caused them to shut down for the next few weeks. It was still very exciting to see it again in person. I left and made my way back to Anthony's for the first time that day to drop his spare key back off, after 10 minutes of being there, he walked in early from work. He told me he had an interview and needed me to go. I left the key behind took all my things, and left. That was my last time seeing or hearing from Chi "Anthony". I made my way to The Chicago Diner and very delicious diner that specializes in vegan and vegetarian options I had a tofu steak, with potato's, and a side of vegetables. It was fantastic!
Megan text me letting me know she was home. I made my way over, we greeted. She gave me a great welcome back. We picked up some beers from next store, waited for Jose to get home, and we all watched the kickoff game Patriots vs Steelers. Catching up together, and having a few drinks. It was a ton fun. We all went to bed right after the game.
Day 3: Drinking time
Jose woke me up in the morning to take me to Millers Bakery. It was great. I had a slice of Smores pie and a orange juice. He headed out to work and so did Megan. I felt sick, that morning I stayed in most of the day. I decided I needed to get up and go for a run. I originally planned to only do a 3 mile run. That changed fast, literally. It turned into me running for over an hour and half totaling run to 10 miles. It was intense, and left me exhausted but I was proud and feeling better. I went back to change and shower. I became really, really hungry after burning around 1500 calories. I originally wanted Deep Dish Chicago styled pizza, however I needed to settle fast so I ate at Little Caesars which was right next to their apartment. I came back up, ate, then deiced to go back out for a 3.1 mile run. This got me to a total of half marathon, It was cool but wore me down and put me down to losing almost 2000 calories for the day.
Megan arrived home. She asked me if I wanted to attend German American Beer Festival which I saw being set up all day. I agreed, we brought our own mugs which we both poured a beer in each as we were walking there. We finished our beers and were ready to fill up our massive sized mugs. It costs $11 to fill them up to the top. We both had one filling. This was HUGE I thought. We stood around and watched German folk musicians sing and dance. The crowd was really getting into it.We then started walking around exploring the games, and retail. We then left and made our way to a German styled bar just a block away from us. We both had 2 more beers each. We were really starting to get drunk, but it made for excellent conversation, we both enjoyed. We then made our way to the Daily, and order a beer each and a side of fries. Jose met with us, we ordered a few drinks to get to our level. We ate and drank and made it home.We each had 2 more beers at home, and Jose dared himself and I to eat my left over pizza, with one of the hottest hot sauces in Chicago. This was HOT!!! It was burning my mouth for over an hour. I had nearly 10 glasses of water to cool myself off. It was crazy. We all talked, laughed had a great time. Everyone passed out.
Day 4: Puke City
The next morning Jose had to be up at 5 am for work. He left. Megan asked if I wanted to go to a brewery tour at Half Acre brewery. They have a Saturday morning deal where you get 3 beers, and get to keep the Half Acre glass for $10. I hesitated, I felt very hungover from the night before. I then agreed. We stood in line. We took turns visiting the grocery store across the street for a very small breakfast, which mine was a blueberry muffin and a bottle of water. We got in had the 3 beers, did the tour, and kept the glass. It felt okay actually... We then made our way to get Deep Dish Chicago styled pizza. As we were waiting for our pizza I went to the bathroom to pee, turns out I threw up 8 times while there. I then informed Megan I had to go, we packed up headed home, and I threw up about 6 more times at their house. I slept all day. I was so weak, and so sick. Megan brought me a Gatorade, crackers, and bananas. I started to feel a little bit better. I ate my deep dish pizza finally. Packed my things and said my goodbyes as I was still feeling nauseous but I had a plane to catch. I made it to the airport, caught my plane and arrive back to Baltimore at midnight.
Day 5: A flattering ending
The next morning I had work 7:30 am and got off at 3:30 pm. I still didn't feel completely okay, but work was slow so I got to relax during most of it. It was Sunday, September 13th. Tonight was important because I bought my girlfriend Kim and I tickets to go see Explosions In The Sky and Death Cab For Cutie at Merriweather as her birthday present. We went and it was amazing!!! It was such a great show, and we had such a great time watching it together. It ended a very interesting week, in a very good way. This trip was truly an unforgettable experience and I'm happy I can share it with you.
Thank you for reading,
- James Lane
In 2015, I have had a layover in Chicago via bus, via plane, and have driven to Chicago and stayed there for 4th of July weekend. I have had no intentions to go back this year, however I was convinced....
Buying the tickets
A friend named Mike needed to go to Chicago to fly out to get to LA for very cheap tickets. He asked me to go intriguing me the price of $70 round trip. I agreed. He asked me to get us a free stay at HI-Chicago. I requested but could only get myself the free stay. He would of had to pay $30 a night. He refused. I cancelled my reservation, and declined to going to Chicago anymore. He said he would figure this out...
This is a person I have been to (New York, Boston, Miami, New Orleans, Denver, Toronto, LA, etc.) with. I decided to just go along with it. He found a Couch Surfer named Anthony (Chi is his actual real name). I agreed, I bought my $70 round trip tickets with Spirit. After I bought them was given an offer for a $50 rebate signed up, usually I wouldn't think twice about this I figured since it was on Spirit's site I would try it out, so I did. After about 10 minutes I realized this was a mistake I contacted the companies 1800 # where they informed me they can't cancel my membership for at least 4 weeks. This was kind of terrifying because they have all my card information as well as other personal information. I was in a minor panic, so I called up my card company and had them cancel my card and send me a new one a few days before my trip. Fortunately I got it in time.
Day 1: Couch Surfing Intro
It was the morning of our trip, my girlfriend Kim offered us a ride there, meaning we had to wake up at 4:30 am to catch a 6:20 am plane. We did, and made it through security in time for a quick breakfast at Potbelly. We boarded our plane and arrived in Chicago 7 am Central Time. We caught the train to Anthony's neighborhood. We arrived out front of his house and Mike claims he isn't answering his phone. This was unfortunate due to the heavy bags we were carrying around. With no where to go we decided to walk around the town for a few hours.We stopped in a shopping mall, and waited for the shops to open. We walked around the stores, and then decided to check out the sites of Chicago we visited River-walk, Millennium Park, and The Chicago Theater. After walking around all morning I remembered I had a conference call to tend to at 2 pm. With no where too quiet to go to I figured my best option was to HI-Chicago and sit in their lounge area for the call. Mike and I arrived asked permission to go upstairs we did, and I had time to kill so we played ping pong for a little while. It started getting closer to the time of my call. He informed me he was going on a Tinder date with a woman he met previously in LA. as I did my call. The call was fine. I then text him, not hearing back for at least 30 minutes later after my call to let me know he's at the United Center. I took a train there to go looking for him, after making a lap and half around the stadium we reunited. It's now around 4:30 pm. I have officially been up for 12 hours walking around a city. I asked Mike to contact Anthony again, Mike started to get frustrated with me for asking to contact him, and for mentioning I was getting exhausted and needed to relax and lay down. Anthony finally reached out to us and we arrived at his house at 6pm (nearly 14 hours of us being awake).
Anthony was a short Vietnamese 26 year old man, who has been living in Chicago for a year now because a job brought him there. His studio apartment had empty beer bottles laying around everywhere, his ID, debit cards, and other various personal information was laying all over the house which made me aware his real name is Chi. We introduced ourselves and sat on the couch and watched ESPN for about an hour together. I let Anthony know I was hungry, he said he was too. I told him I was a vegetarian earlier in our introduction. His first response was "there's a Chick Fil La down the street". I asked him if there anything more local or more vegetarian friendly. He then said "I guess there's a Chipotle a few streets over". Surprised by his lack of variety in "local restaurants" and the fact that we're travelers looking for somewhere new to eat. He took us to one of America's most popular chains. As we were in line he asked if we wanted to get this to go? I said I'm hungry now, and would prefer to eat it here. Mike didn't hear that conversation, a minute later he asked him if we were getting it for here or to go. He said "Let's get it to go". I then asked if we could just eat here since we had just been walking around endlessly around the city without eating much at all. He settled. We ate there. As we were walking back, he took us to a liquor store to buy us a 12 pack of Stella's. He asked us for money to pitch in. We arrived back to the studio where Anthony sat on the couch and started drinking away. I had two Stella's. Mike doesn't drink, they start to watch football documentaries till 2 am. I passed out at 9:30 pm.
Day 2: A horrible day turned good
The next morning, Anthony is heading out for work I ask him for his key as for I didn't want the same situation to happen twice, he gave it to me and left. Mike then was quiet... I asked him if everything was okay? He said no, he was upset with me for "complaining how tired I was yesterday, asking Anthony for his key, and asking to go somewhere other then what Anthony wanted (Chick Fa La)". I was surprised at how angry Mike was with me. We started arguing then Mike said "I think we should go our separate ways". YEP a guy I've known since 2007. who invited me out to Chicago in the first place just said that. I agreed, Mike left Anthony's and slammed the door. I was by myself in a strangers apartment.
I called my girlfriend and asked if I could stay with her brother Jose and his long time girlfriend Megan in Northern Chicago. She called they said yes I got the okay. This was fantastic news, I just had to wait till 6 pm, when they were both off of work, and it was only 11 am. I walked outside started my day off with a pumpkin doughnut then made my way over to the John Hancock building where brand ambassadors were handing our free hummus and chips. I ate it in the Water Tower Mall. I roamed around the stores, and then decided to pay a visit to Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago. It was amazing, the art was incredible. I can't say enough good things about that museum. It was my third time visiting the place. I stayed for about 3 hours. I then decided to make my way to Second City. Where many great entertainers graduate from to go onto to bigger things. As I was walking there it started raining so I sat in the Starbucks for awhile to charge my phone and waited for it to slow down. I made it to Second City to find out there was a recent fire next store that has caused them to shut down for the next few weeks. It was still very exciting to see it again in person. I left and made my way back to Anthony's for the first time that day to drop his spare key back off, after 10 minutes of being there, he walked in early from work. He told me he had an interview and needed me to go. I left the key behind took all my things, and left. That was my last time seeing or hearing from Chi "Anthony". I made my way to The Chicago Diner and very delicious diner that specializes in vegan and vegetarian options I had a tofu steak, with potato's, and a side of vegetables. It was fantastic!Megan text me letting me know she was home. I made my way over, we greeted. She gave me a great welcome back. We picked up some beers from next store, waited for Jose to get home, and we all watched the kickoff game Patriots vs Steelers. Catching up together, and having a few drinks. It was a ton fun. We all went to bed right after the game.
Day 3: Drinking time
Jose woke me up in the morning to take me to Millers Bakery. It was great. I had a slice of Smores pie and a orange juice. He headed out to work and so did Megan. I felt sick, that morning I stayed in most of the day. I decided I needed to get up and go for a run. I originally planned to only do a 3 mile run. That changed fast, literally. It turned into me running for over an hour and half totaling run to 10 miles. It was intense, and left me exhausted but I was proud and feeling better. I went back to change and shower. I became really, really hungry after burning around 1500 calories. I originally wanted Deep Dish Chicago styled pizza, however I needed to settle fast so I ate at Little Caesars which was right next to their apartment. I came back up, ate, then deiced to go back out for a 3.1 mile run. This got me to a total of half marathon, It was cool but wore me down and put me down to losing almost 2000 calories for the day.
Megan arrived home. She asked me if I wanted to attend German American Beer Festival which I saw being set up all day. I agreed, we brought our own mugs which we both poured a beer in each as we were walking there. We finished our beers and were ready to fill up our massive sized mugs. It costs $11 to fill them up to the top. We both had one filling. This was HUGE I thought. We stood around and watched German folk musicians sing and dance. The crowd was really getting into it.We then started walking around exploring the games, and retail. We then left and made our way to a German styled bar just a block away from us. We both had 2 more beers each. We were really starting to get drunk, but it made for excellent conversation, we both enjoyed. We then made our way to the Daily, and order a beer each and a side of fries. Jose met with us, we ordered a few drinks to get to our level. We ate and drank and made it home.We each had 2 more beers at home, and Jose dared himself and I to eat my left over pizza, with one of the hottest hot sauces in Chicago. This was HOT!!! It was burning my mouth for over an hour. I had nearly 10 glasses of water to cool myself off. It was crazy. We all talked, laughed had a great time. Everyone passed out.
Day 4: Puke City
The next morning Jose had to be up at 5 am for work. He left. Megan asked if I wanted to go to a brewery tour at Half Acre brewery. They have a Saturday morning deal where you get 3 beers, and get to keep the Half Acre glass for $10. I hesitated, I felt very hungover from the night before. I then agreed. We stood in line. We took turns visiting the grocery store across the street for a very small breakfast, which mine was a blueberry muffin and a bottle of water. We got in had the 3 beers, did the tour, and kept the glass. It felt okay actually... We then made our way to get Deep Dish Chicago styled pizza. As we were waiting for our pizza I went to the bathroom to pee, turns out I threw up 8 times while there. I then informed Megan I had to go, we packed up headed home, and I threw up about 6 more times at their house. I slept all day. I was so weak, and so sick. Megan brought me a Gatorade, crackers, and bananas. I started to feel a little bit better. I ate my deep dish pizza finally. Packed my things and said my goodbyes as I was still feeling nauseous but I had a plane to catch. I made it to the airport, caught my plane and arrive back to Baltimore at midnight.Day 5: A flattering ending
Thank you for reading,
- James Lane
Hahahah this fucking story.
ReplyDelete1. Seems like business as usual with your friend Mike. Don't you guys always almost get in to a fist fight during every trip??
2. That whole Chi part of the story is super sketchy, you're lucky he didn't use your skin for a lampshade
3. Congrats on running a half marathon dude that's dope!!!
4. Give 1000 thanks to the people who helped you out, they sound like really awesome friends
5. Keep writing this stuff down, this one was like a horror story there for a sec
6. did you ever eat a legit deep dish pizza????
7. who the hell runs 10 miles, eats a pizza, then runs a 5k....
LOL! Thanks man,
DeleteYeah this is probably the last trip Mike and I are going to do together for many years. Thank god. I did eat the deep dish after I puked like 14 times, and my sense of taste was gone so I really have no idea what they still taste like. Lastly thanks again. I'm training for the half marathon in Bmore! I'm stoked.