That's right: the above lyric is from a mobile phone commercial. Which should tell you something about my knowledge of rap. My knowledge of Chicago is pretty similar -- I've been here once before, but I was what, twelve? I went to the top of a big building, I stayed in a nice hotel, and I ate a pizza that was thiiiiis big. Well, this time I plan to pretty much do the same thing. But I'll be drinking more.

After Catherine and I got in and rendezvoused with the rest of the crowd we grabbed Charles and split off, then wandered around the city a bit. We had some authentic Chicagoan Potbelly sandwiches (the deep-dish comes tonight); bought the requisite spirit-crushing graduation card (we're here to see Charles' little sister Jo get her BA); and went to the top of the Hancock Building and had high-priced drinks in a high-class, high-positioned bar among our decidedly low-class tourist peers. Tank tops and hairy shoulders abounded; for maybe the third time in my life I counted as relatively well-dressed without there being an affianced or dead person nearby.

But now our room is ready, so we've retreated into the AC. Also, there are beers and seats here. And after getting 4 hours of sleep the previous night, I'm ready to take it easy. There's drinking and eating to be done soon, after all. We need our rest.

But we did see some sights, and here's one of them. It's a river of some sort, maybe? Let me know if I'm dishing out Chicago trivia too quickly. My cameraphone didn't seem to capture this, but it seemed pretty green already -- do you guys really need to dump thousands of gallons of dye into it every year just to make it marginally greener?