Merry Christmas!

Well, when it rains, it pours. Probably because I'm still in Chicago.

The plan for "escape" was thus: I would fly in to Chicago, stay with my friend Kim until this morning, when we would drive to Kalamazoo. The plan failed on account of her car not starting. At present, either AAA will come and we'll (hopefully) get her car started and take off, or we'll head downtown and catch the 3:00 train to Kalamazoo. Again, hopefully, because apparently people in the Midwest have the memory of a goldfish when it comes to snow.

The Chicago adventure has been pretty sweet thus far. Last night, after eating at Subway (which incidentally is how I know Chicago is a real Canadian city), Kim and I went to the Hideout, a spectacular bar featuring live music, stuffed fish on the wall, and an enormous portrait of Barack Obama on the outside. Kim managed to pay for drinks with brownies (that's not a joke, she brought brownies and we drank for free), and the band actually made a nice little song out of asking for drinks from the bar. They were pretty sweet, the bar itself is spectacular, and I had my first Bell's since August.

Outside of all that, we should be heading home sometime soon, whether by train or by car. If you're already home for Christmas (or whatever holiday you're celebrating at the moment), you're probably not having nearly the adventure that I am. So just remember that.