(Sunday Paper, Year VIII, Issue 26)

When I go to Chicago for the Chicago Marathon in October, it will be my third visit to the city.

It’ll be my second without the family - more on that in a minute…

But I think the biggest compliment I could offer Chicago is this:

I could see myself living there.

I don’t always reach that conclusion with every city - but I do think about it everywhere I go.

“Could I live here?”

And with Chicago I felt an almost instant connection.

It seems appropriate that my first edition of The City Series (Cities I’ve Actually Been To edition) features Chicago, based on the importance of the city to me this year.

As for my first trip to Chicago - it was in the summer of 2015, for a friend’s bachelor party.

The trip revolved around a Saturday night Foo Fighters concert, at Wrigley Field, which I did not attend. (I was not as freelance-employed then as I am now and was a more careful budgeter.) I regret not going to the concert now - I know I would have enjoyed it. But I was part of a crew that stayed a couple of extra days after the bachelor party proper to go to both a White Sox game (I think that was Sunday) and then a Cubs game (Monday, probably?).

We stayed right in downtown Chicago. (Actually, counting this coming October, all three of my trips to Chicago will have involved staying downtown.) Others in the party were much more familiar with the city so I just followed along and took it all in. (Oh! We did an architecture boat tour. That was fun.)

A few years later Kathy had a work trip to Chicago and we flew out there with the girls. (Our first family flight!) She had a couple of days dominated by work so I did one day at the hotel pool with the girls, and another day we kind of walked around the city and checked out Millennium Park.

This time, too, we went to a Cubs game as a family…and then Kathy had the very cool idea that we take an Amtrak to Milwaukee and see a Brewers game. (Bonus City Series! Milwaukee - did not see much of this city.)

I like Chicago a lot. I love the area around Wrigley Field, I love downtown (where the marathon starts and finishes), and I think the best thing about the city is the fact that I’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of it. There is so much more to explore - it’s a great arts city and I haven't done anything from that cultural department.

I don’t know that I’ll be able to take much else in when I visit in October…but I will certainly look forward to going back a fourth time.

What I’ve Been Enjoying

This may sound ridiculous, but this week what I’m going to be enjoying is vacation. For the first time since I started freelancing as my work, I am completely logged off and not thinking about work. (Don’t get me wrong. There have been other vacations and other times I haven’t had work for long stretches [which may or may not have affected travel decisions such as Foo Fighters concerts, as noted above]…but that was at times I wasn’t regularly employed in a way that felt comfortable. This is is the first time in 10 years that I told work people I will be unavailable for a certain period of time and I don’t have to think about work and it already feels different.)

I tied up loose ends and logged out on Friday and won’t think about checking work e-mails or anything until around the 4th of July. (When everyone else is off, so probably the 5th of July.) It feels good.

Notes

*One thing I will be vacationing from is paying attention to the Mets. Don’t get me wrong - I’ll check scores. I always do. It’s unavoidable. But I won’t live and die with it. (And I would love nothing more than to tune back in in a week and see they’ve turned their season around.) (But I’m not hopeful.)

*It is very satisfying filling my little (not little) map of Framingham and seeing more and more streets in pink highlighter. It’s a daunting task, and I’m not sure it will be completed by October (doesn’t matter, doesn’t have to be), but little by little I’m seeing progress and that’s all I really want.

*My plan has me slowly upping the weekly mileage, but this week was a quick step back. The long run this week was only six miles (on a wet Saturday morning), next week I’m back up to 11 (on vacation). The map of Framingham streets will have to sit pretty stagnant for a week.

*A reminder that I’m running the Chicago Marathon to benefit Ronald McDonald House Charities. If you’re feeling generous, you can donate at this link. I appreciate it!

*Social media reports have it that the London Marathon lottery was drawn this week and will be announced the first week of July. I threw my name in. You never know. How bananas would that be?! (And don’t worry - I renewed my passport and received it recently, so I can go to London if necessary.)

*If you want to get wind of what I’m talking about on social media, the links are below. Give them all a follow. Oh, I have exciting social media news. Maybe I’ll post about that in July. OK. Thanks for following along!