Back in the Windy City

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Well, here I am, back in the windy city again...that's right, Chicago! Now I happen to really like Chicago, perhaps because I had such a great first visit here (though alas, I was not blogging then), and perhaps just because it's a city that sits well with me for unknown reasons. Because generally, when I'm here, I don't get to see much of it. Like the last time, when I came just for lunch.

But anyway, I'm here for a recruitment meeting today and tomorrow, which has had a small social component thrown in that allows us to enjoy a little bit of the city. I know you may be reading this and thinking in horror, "Chicago in November!?!" But actually it was in the sixties today and will be almost seventy tomorrow! Right now, at almost 11pm, it's 55 degrees, while at my house, it's a balmy 25, so we've really lucked out. Despite the lovely temperatures though, I am getting a lesson in why they call Chicago the "windy city" - every time I step outside, I'm almost blown away! In fact, leaving dinner tonight, one of the delegates joke that with my pashmina, I could have parachuted off the top of the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower!

But I digress.

The flight this morning left at 9:02 and was fairly good on United - the seats were certainly more comfortable than Continental has been with just a hair more room to breathe. It was still a mostly full flight though, so I think we were all glad that it was a short one, and we de-planed fairly quickly at O'Hare. Then it was off to the W Hotel Chicago - City Center. I specify that because there are two, and one of our delegates was accidentally booked into the other one by one of the legal secretaries, until I noticed it on Wednesday and got the hotels to switch the bookings.

Despite the fact that I've been in 19 countries in the past five years and have stayed in a lot of nice places, I'm still impressed by this hotel. I'd say that's mostly because it's a little funky (as the W's tend to be), and it's different to the hotels we normally choose for a conference. There are some things I don't like about it - it's really dark everywhere, to the point that even this afternoon, on a sunny day, with the shades open and all the lights in the room on, I was still having trouble seeing whether the shirt I was ironing was still wrinkled or not. I also don't like that they put the garbage can in the bathroom next to the shower, about ten feet away from where the sink and counter are. Just not logical. Plus, it's a hair modern for my taste. And the tv is located so high on the wall that I can't be lying on the bed and changing channels without having my arm up in the air. But there are lots of things I DO like, from the pillow that says "Wish" on the bed, to the kaleidoscope on the desk, to the sign that says "Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself" on the wall, to the coasters, which say things like "What are you thinking right at this very second (write it down)" and "What you think is important (speak your mind)." I need messages like that to inspire me. Plus, the bath products are from Bliss and smell delicious. And there's a small fur (fake, don't worry) blanket on the bed. I'm a big fan.

But although I would generally be happy to stay in the hotel the whole time I am visiting a place (sad, but often true), there was work to be done. We met up with one of the delegates and headed to lunch at Potbelly's Sandwich Works, the "last sandwich shop before the river" as he described it. Right on Adams Street, like our hotel, it was a little overwhelming at first. You had moments to decide what you were going to eat as we stood online and gave our orders to a guy with a notepad. I went for turkey with swiss, and apparently they're all toasted and we were to give our toppings orders to the people at the next station. I grabbed a cream soda from the fridge, almost gave my toppings order to the wrong people, and finally got it right. I thought they'd have oil and vinegar, but nope, mayo was my number one choice. So I went with that and lettuce.

The sandwich was good, but really tasted a little bit like peanut butter. I think they're well known for a PB&J sandwich also, and it seemed like they used the same knife to cut my sandwich as they had with a PB&J. Since I like peanut butter, that was okay, but it was a little bit weird with the melty cheese and turkey! But I was STARVING (since I'd gotten up at 5am, had a muffin and a bag of skittles for breakfast and downed a granola bar around 12 before lunch at 1pm) and it tasted delicious.

Afterwards, it was on to the office, right on the river, for our meeting. Once we had finished, we planned to meet at 6:15 in the lobby of the W to head to the Willis Tower for dinner at the Metropolitan Club. One of the firm's attorneys is a member there and had arranged for us to have dinner, though he ended up being out of town. The club is on the 67th floor and I was grateful that the elevators are not glass and open to the outside! I just about made it up the escalator (which went just from the 66th to the 67th floor). Our dinner was in a private room, but we started with a drink in the bar, which had one glass wall exposing the view. Stunning, certainly, but I couldn't have worked there, so close to the window! The furniture was comfortable, though I felt as though all night I kept sitting on the edge of my seat, so that I could talk to and hear everyone else. And I loved the photographs in the bar, which were all pictures of parts of bridges. They were industrial, but very artistic - I enjoy anything that seems to be a unique view of ordinary objects, because it exposes their beauty. The one thing that made me nervous was that the chandeliers over our heads wavered slightly the whole time, as if there was a breeze in there. Very odd and disconcerting - I kept wondering if one would crash down on us at any moment!

Finally, we moved into the private room, which had a lovely view, but was basically set up as a boardroom with dining accoutrements. However, that turned out to be no big deal, since the food was very good. I started with a salad of baby lettuce, which had a cheesy flat crouton on top. It was delicious, but a little bit salty for my taste. Following that, I had the filet mignon, with mashed potatoes and fried onions (and some carrots, but I basically ate one of those - I don't love them cooked). The filet was very good and combined with the potatoes and onions, it was just perfect. I could have forced myself to eat the whole thing, but I couldn't fit it and dessert (which I try not to skip ever). Most of the group ordered the filet, and I think those who did were very happy with it. For dessert, I had a waffle covered in melted chocolate with caramel ice cream and bits of peanut brittle. So good, though the melted chocolate and waffle could have been warmed up a little to make it just perfect. After that meal, I was glad we were walking back to the hotel (though it was only about three blocks away), because I was SO full! But we had great conversations and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves.

We capped off the night with a drink at the bar, which is called the "Living Room" and is basically the entire lobby of the hotel. That makes it a bit weird when you're walking back in from the entrance of the hotel to go to the elevators and to your room, since you're basically walking through a lounge, but it's just another quirky thing here. Apparently, there's also a club in hotel, and we could hear the music pumping and see the locals lining up to get in. It was funny to be sitting in the lobby on extremely modern furniture while looking around at more classical architecture, highlighted by the spinning disco balls above our heads. I loved the vaulted ceilings, painted gold, and thought the disco lights cheapened it a bit. At any rate, I think everyone was glad to head up to bed after a bit. We have more work to do tomorrow and then it's back home!

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