This week I feel like the Sausage King of Chicago, so you can interpret that however you wish. I had a full day of travel yesterday, waking up at 4a CST, a busy day of work and client calls, and then a quick bite when one of my favorite coworkers. My day lasted from about 4A to 8P.
I booked a last minute room on Hotwire.com, and ended up at The Wit Hotel. I got the vibe when I checked in that it was going to be pretty fabulous, but I wasn’t expecting to score the Riverview Spa Room (!!!) Holy Moses, is it righteously rad. You can bet that I’m draped with every amenity, typing in front of the giant windows like Carrie Bradshaw, looking down over the river and West Wacker St. When did my life get this swift kick in the Happy Pants? It feels like it’s broken in the on position.
My feet hit the floor this morning at 7 and I ignored the voices telling me I was too tired to run. Once you get out on the bustling, holiday streets of the city you’re crazy wide-eyed awake. I ran through all the streets I ran when we lived here, my walking routes around the area where I used to work, past the El trains and skyscrapers that were under construction and are now some of the tallest buildings in the skyline. Trump finished the 2nd tallest building in Chicago before I finished my record. Goddamnit. Hahaha. I can’t comprehend how much I’ve needed to grow and expand since my feet first hit those streets. That life seems black and white now, and these visits I come packing more freedom and security than I ever knew as a resident. Maybe Abe Froman commutes in from Akron?
Ani Difranco produced a record for Utah Phillips (famous old folk poet/singer) a while back. He had fought in the Korean war, and somewhere over there he had the realization that “the only freedom he would ever experience would be the freedom in his mind”. Free your mind and the rest will follow. Wasn’t that an En Vogue song? Chase freedom down every moving sidewalk, up the tarmacs and into the sky, up and down every trail, up the 10 steps to your attic office, across every highway in the Midwest region. My commutes are the reward for battling it out on the Santa Monica freeway, or on the Chicago Red Line. On my better days I experienced freedom in those oppressive commutes, while grinding it out in that sea of hamsters. L.A. traffic is about as close to hell on Earth as you can get, and some people feel the same about riding the train every day. L.A. set me up to make a better situation out of Chicago, despite opting to walk the mile to the train in both directions, and teaching myself how to meditate on the train, in front of people. If I could withdraw my focus and put it somewhere more serene, even in those circumstances, I can make it anywhere. Next stop is State & Grand. Doors open on the Right at State & Grand.
My life has been stuck in fast forward since we landed in Chicago in Fall of 2004. Sometimes I’m not sure if we ever really lived here, but all of the physical, financial, emotional, and spiritual ties I feel to this place were created during those 2 and a half years.
Switching speeds here, I took it upon myself to do a little hula hooping in Cleveland the other day. I’ve gotten our entire company (100 people in 11 offices around the country) to commit to filming themselves hula hooping near some local land mark, and mailing me the footage to edit into a sick company-wide Hula Fest. It’s a unity thing. It’s a motivational thing. It’s a completely silly exercise in FREEDOM. Sure, I may be wearing a suit, but I tell you that it’s a beautiful choice to Spiff it Up after a long week of working in the attic. Below is the video I threw together to get more participation from our offices around the country. Grab your hoop and meet me at the Rock Hall. We will celebrate our freedom together.
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