hullo, d.c. world! back safe and sound from my adventures in chicago with susan. and oh, what adventures we had...joe, a friend from college, was kind enough to let us stay at his apartment right in the middle of downtown. our first day in town consisted of walking around millenium park, up and down michigan avenue, up and down the magnificent mile, eating large quanities of deep dish pizza (verdict: awesome. anything made almost entirely out of cheese is just fine by me) and strolling around the lakeview area. later that night we headed out to matilda's to hang out with some of joe's friends, and carl was also able to drop by. sunday, susan and i headed out check out wicker park, where we spent like six bazillion hours shopping and just walking around after an awesome breakfast at the bongo room. we then made the fatal mistake of sitting down at pontiac, where we made the even more fatal mistake of going on a TOTAL BENDER. and as susan said, "some people get weepy when they're drunk, or angry - you and i get PATRIOTIC." we spent like two hours waxing on about how much we loved america and democracy and musing about ways the democratic party can not be afraid of nationalism or patriotism and take on the mantle more of supporting the military and..god knows what else. i'm lucky i didn't end up on top of the table singing "god bless america" and tap dancing. one beer and three *strong* margaritas later, i nearly died before forcing myself to go to a second city showing. thank god for the restorative qualities of boston market macaroni (yeah, i didn't eat as well during the trip as i would have liked).

monday susan and i split up to go visit our respective schools - she to do an orientation/reception thing at uchicago, and i was off to chat with the director of the new media program at northwestern. we talked for almost two hours, and it was really gratifying - i think he totally gets new media and is directing the program more towards a business model/structural idea of new media rather than worrying about traditional journalism. not that i don't enjoy traditional journalism, and god knows i'm going to have to take a lot of reporting/writing classes, but i don't want to be a newspaper reporter. i want to be a JOURNALISM FUTURIST. i just made that up. i don't really know what i want to be - something along the lines of a media consultant who can figure out how to help traditional media outlets adapt to technology and use said technology to better serve the public. and i think northwestern can help me do that.

ANYWAY. i'm going to try to put up my flickr stream later, and i know susan took a bunch of pictures, too - one sure-to-be classic is the miniseries that should be called "why tequila is evil"; it consists of one photo of me in the cab looking absolutely smashed - you can pratically see the words slurring out of my mouth - a second photo of me sort of hunched over, and a third photo of me near passed out on my own lap, eyes closed, looking like death would be a welcome respite.

as for general impressions of chicago - i liked it quite a bit. the buildings there are VERY TALL, which after living in d.c., land of the midget skyscrapers, was continually freaking me out. we had gorgeous weather, so i repressed the ideas of nuclear winters, and i thought all the little neighborhoods were adorable. but i was also homesick and half-freaked out for a lot of the weekend - the trip just made it that much more of a reality that i'm going to be moving halfway across the country in less than six months, and i'm not really ready for that at this point. but i'll get over it. i'm excited. i know this is what i want to do, and even though it means leaving d.c. behind for a year, i'm ready.