Chargo

Today Ellie took me to what is literally her favorite place in Chicago. It's the place she's been the most excited to take me to since I got here. Ellie is absolutely obsessed with Costco. She will sing its virtues with every breath in her body. You can get everything you need there, she says, and in ridiculous quantities. Her favorite thing, though, is the food. We literally went to Costco for dinner. I have to admit, it did not disappoint. I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture of the food, but I can describe it to you now. A giant hot dog, about half a foot in length but unfortunately not Chicago style, a medium soda, and a churro the size of my forearm all came to me for about three dollars. It was probably the cheapest meal I've ever had and by the time I was done with it my stomach was just barely edging toward the wrong side of full. It was really solid comfort food. We went there from my latest attempt to get through to the voter outreach organization. Su...

While I was downtown, I decided a trip to a certain Chicago landmark was well overdue. The Bean, formally known as Cloud Gate, is a giant silver bean-shaped statue in Millenium Park, done by artist Anish Kapoor. If you follow anything art-related, you might recognize Kapoor as the selfish artist feuding with Stuart Semple because Kapoor got himself exclusive rights to the darkest shade of black ever invented. This feud is also where I know The Bean from, because Ellie sent me Facebook events in the wake of this feud that had to do with painting The Bean Blackest Black, or Semple's counter, Pinkest Pink. The Bean is evident as soon as you get into Millenium Park, and it is kind of mesmerizing. It shows a distorted but somehow very inviting reflection of the city around it. I definitely didn't expect The Bean to speak to me. Near The Bean is this sign with a QR code... And if you use the QR code... The Bean calls you! And The Bean has a lot to say. It introduc...

I have to admit something to you, dedicated Chargo readers. Depending on how the rest of this week goes, we may be approaching the end of the line. As you know, I did manage to get a job last week, but I only work that job three nights a week. That's not quite enough to keep up with the cost of living in Chicago, and I'm having a difficult time finding another place to live. There's a chance I could stay with a friend for a while, but in the interest of trying to stay longer, I'm mostly working on finding another job this week. At first, I pictured a large search of all the downtown areas for whatever coffee shop or retail job I might be able to get hours at. My search has become far more focused now. I'm trying to get a job with an organization that does voter outreach. Courting this organization is going to take a lot of time and energy, and it's likely I won't have any left to look for a different job. I've decided it's worth the risk anyway. I ...

Today it happened, folks. I had an actual conversation on the Green Line. I was sitting across from an older woman in the same area as another young woman. When I first got on the train, that seemed like the obvious safest spot. There were two other women, no men, and I was in the back where I could see everything. I started to question that a little bit when the older woman started scratching herself everywhere, but she was still a tiny frail-looking old woman and I wasn't the only person there, so I didn't worry about it. Eventually the train came to a weirdly long and unscheduled stop. I didn't think about it too much, because there have been construction delays lately, but then a police officer came into our car and moved swiftly through the emergency door. That was enough to get me to pause my podcast and look around, which is when I made eye contact with the old woman. Now, one thing I have learned about Chicago, but I suspect about any city, is that people here fol...

Today I went on an adventure with my roommate, Sylvia, to The Second City comedy club in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago. The Second City is a legendary comedy club that has produced names such as Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. It was featured on an episode of Anthony Bourdain's series Parts Unknown as an iconic spot in Chicago. Going to a show at The Second City was something that was non-optional when I came to Chicago, and Sylvia and I decided to go to a best of show. We got to the show about an hour early, just slightly before the doors opened. This turned out to be a fantastic idea, because we got seated right in the second row. The only people who had better seats than us were people who paid about twice as much for the show for tickets with priority seating. I definitely didn't mind having an hour to sit in the showroom. There were little pamphlets to read that included a menu and it gave me time to really take in the atmosphere. I bought a drink in a souvenir glas...

Anthony Bourdain is one of my dad's heroes. Dad has a habit of sharing the things he loves with me, so Bourdain is quickly becoming one of my heroes too. This is why I may have been abnormally excited to get a job answering phones at a local pizza place. At first, the excitement was practical; an income is an important step for me if I want to be able to stay in Chicago this summer. Then I thought about Dad's copy of Kitchen Confidential that I got half way through before I had to leave, and I got really excited. I turned up to my first shift fifteen minutes early, as per the overlap of Bourdain's standards and SEA's standards. A thrill of excitement ran through me as I was directed back through the kitchen to begin my training. Ellie joked, when I first got the job, that I wouldn't be very busy because people order online so much now. It turns out that answering phones includes online orders. All in all, my job includes answering phones, taking orders off of onl...

...But sometimes it's literally rainbows and butterflies. I spent the day today exploring the city with my friend Chloe. A fun thing about Chicago museums is that most of them have free days. They're exclusive to Illinois residents, but you don't have to have an Illinois ID to participate. All you have to do is give a zip code, so the Oak Park zip code works just fine. This morning Chloe sent me a list of some places she really likes around the city that were free and we decided to go to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum and the Lincoln Park Zoo. They were close enough together to do both. In the early afternoon, Chloe biked over to her aunt's house where I'm staying. Then we walked to the green line together. We talked through some of the things that had been bothering me last night, and Chloe gave me a couple stories about weird encounters she's had on public transportation, and a few tips on how to make it feel less sketchy. It felt the least sketchy it...