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Clockwork Geekery
Dec. 4th, 2005 07:39 pm[11:23] thunderclap so you want me to give you a call when i arrive?
[11:23] krystyn Yes! And dude, I can take the blue line to Chicago, and then the 66 bus right to your hotel.
[11:23] thunderclap score!
[11:24] krystyn In fact, I wonder ... if you called me at the right time, I could even try to get on your very train
[11:24] krystyn but that might be tricky
[11:24] thunderclap ha, that'd be amazing
[11:24] krystyn I'd have to trust the bus :)
[11:25] thunderclap hehe
[11:25] krystyn in fact, i recommend you do what I would do, since you're coming from O'Hare: take the Blue Line to Chicago, come up to the surface, and find Chicago Ave Bus #66, eastbound
[11:25] krystyn cos it actually goes right down Fairbanks
[11:25] thunderclap excellent, thanks. I hadn't quite figured out the gap from blue line to hotel yet
[11:25] krystyn http://transitchicago.com/maps/maps/F2005D.html
[11:26] thunderclap are the buses friendly to a carry-on sized suitcase?
[11:26] krystyn Sure, you'll be OK. It might be crowded, but you just kinda make do
[11:26] thunderclap right. that's public transit
[11:27] thunderclap its sort of sad, i'm almost more excited about being able to jump on bus/train/etc than anything else on the trip :) its all such a relative novelty to me
[11:28] krystyn Heee!
[11:29] krystyn I almost wonder if we couldn't attempt this.
[11:29] krystyn you could call me as soon as you get to the surface (cellphone signal) on the blue line
[11:29] krystyn I could wait for the bus
[11:29] krystyn you could call again or text when you're leaving the Irving Park stop
[11:29] krystyn tell me what car you're in
[11:30] krystyn and I could then go into the tunnel and wait
[11:30] krystyn and try to get on that car
[11:30] krystyn That's just my slight transit geekery, though
[11:30] thunderclap sounds rather doable!
[11:30] krystyn so don't mind me if it sounds weird
[11:30] thunderclap nope, fine by me
[11:30] thunderclap it involves less chance of me getting lost :)
[11:32] thunderclap you say as soon as i surface on the blue line. i assume that means come out of a tunnel or some such thing?
[11:34] krystyn Yeah, you start underground
[11:34] krystyn You stay aboveground for several stops, until Belmont.
[11:35] krystyn So, when you call as soon as getting out the tunnel, I wait for the bus
[11:35] krystyn then, when you call at Irving Park, I have time to go down under (losing signal) and wait for the next train that comes.
[11:35] krystyn Cos I'd be getting on at Logan Square
[11:36] thunderclap ah ha, gotcha
[11:36] thunderclap like clockwork :)
[11:36] krystyn or intense geekery
[11:36] thunderclap clockwork geekery!
It totally worked, too. Just barely. When Chad called, my hair was still wet from the shower, so I spent five minutes drying it enough so that the Inner Guilt Mother would not start screaming as soon as I stepped out the door.
I was on the bus when he called the second time, from Irving Park. It took an extra 45 seconds to get through one intersection (after missing the light) because of an idiot who could not parallel park, and a double-parked truck.
I ran down to the platform, walked towards the section of it that would hit the end of a shorty weekend train, and within 30 seconds, I heard the rumble and saw the lights of the next train coming in.
We so rock. I mean, I cut it close, but the plan worked just about perfectly.
It was really, really good to hang with thunderclap today -- we've been good pals on Halo for just over a year now, and had a lot of phone time as contacts for each other at three separate Tombstone Hold 'Em events for Last Call Poker. He's a very easy-going guy, and once we got him settled at the hotel, we were both ready to stomp all over the wintry sidewalks of downtown Chicago. We headed right over to Due's Pizza, had ourselves a small deep dish with black olives, spinach, and sausage, and lots of Pepsi. I gave him two poker chips from Los Angeles, and a bit of other very very cool swag, which maybe he'll tell people about in his LJ, and/or on the Unforums.
We talked game theory, and we talked about whatever came into our heads. We walked all over the damned place - over the Chicago River, into Millennium Park, and then, as we neared Monroe and Michigan, I said, "Hey, wanna see how long the Art Institute is open today? Ya wanna go?" It was about 2:30 at this point, and the galleries were open until 5PM, so we said HELL YEAH and we went.
People. I love this place, and I don't go there often enough. For months now I've been planning to go on Thursday evenings as they're open late then, but each and every Thursday something's come up, and I haven't gone. I love to see Monet's haystacks and water lilies. I love Magritte's not-a-pipe and train-fireplace. I love the suits of armor, and I love the furniture styles, and I love the Grecian urns and Sunday in the Park with George.
What I never knew until today was that they had Joseph Cornell.
JOSEPH CORNELL
Thunderclap can attest to this: we started to enter one room, and I saw a box from about thirty feet away, and I found myself almost running to it, chattering, "dude, is this a Cornell???" It was! It was!
I became seriously emotional as I realized that they didn't just have two, or five, or ten of his boxes and a few other ephemeral works. We're talking approximately thirty of his boxes, and I never knew. They were right here. In Chicago. Sitting there. Being all boxy and filled with stuff. I just kept gasping and covering my mouth and tried not to cry right there in the gallery. In one little dark room featuring Hotel de l'Etoile, there was a girl taking careful non-flash photos, and I made some sort of appreciative gurgling noise at her, and she instantly lit up and nodded and we both just sort of happily freaked out that there were here and oh my god how cool and so many of them! So many! I mean, they didn't have my favorite, Bebe Marie, but oh god, they had some of his bird boxes, and soap bubble displays, and light boxes for his beloved ballerinas ---
you do not understand, do you, the wonderfulness of Cornell? Look him up, man.
I hope thunderclap was not bored or annoyed that I needed to go around again and look at them all again, and just sort of rest my fingers on the plexi barriers and wish I could play with these things, to make them chime and rattle like they were meant to be. Oh, man. Oh man oh man oh man.
So then we walked out into the early evening with 7 minutes til closing, escaping from the gift shop with only a magnet, and a severe case of the giggles. We ended up at a Caribou Coffee, where thunderclap got a delicious-sounding caramel cider concoction, and I followed suit with a fairly tasty caramel latte thing. We sat and chatted and stretched our legs and ate peppermint marshmallows (not as good as Yum Yum's, I must say, which is why I purchased them), and all too soon we felt the pull of the day ending - he's hanging out with fellow con peeps tonight at an informal gathering, and I needed to head on home before public transportation got too scarce.
So, now I am home, and my fingers are a little cold, but I had a fantastic day hanging out with a fellow Beekeeper. Good times, good times.
JOSEPH CORNELL OMG
