Lorman Chicago
It's been a busy past five days. I shall cover Friday and Saturday. In summary:
Friday: During the day I cleaned up around the house and packed so Jessica and could leave for her conference in Chicago right after my interview. I went for my interview at 3:30; I got there a bit early so I just waited until it was time. My interview was actually with a different person with whom I had the phone interview on Monday. I don't remember all the questions I was asked, but remember that I had what I felt were good answers for all of them. I think she liked that I had worked in a lab before because they really seem to value people who can demonstrate a strong focus on detail. The list of questions she had for me was three pages long, longer than I've had before. I also had a number of questions for her. She seemed caught off guard by them, but afterward each she said it was a good question. I hope this left a positive impression.
After I came home I changed and we took care of the pets and headed out. I do get bored with the trip from Eau Claire to either Chicago, Urbana, or St. Louis being all the same until Rockford if we want to go to Chicago or Bloomington if we're going to spit to either St. Louis or Urbana. The GPS led me a bit astray as it wanted me to cut off the interstate in Janesville, WI when it wanted us to take a US highway over and to the southeast. But with the rapidly melting snow and some light rain, the fog was terrible (so bad I could hardly see a place to turn off) and I had to turn around and get back to the interstate. After the GPS recalculated a new route, it said the route we were now taking was faster than the first one. Not much else to report than it took a bit of circling around to get to the hotel, in that there wasn't too great a direct route such that we had to keep turning to get closer to roads that got close, etc. Despite how tired I was, I didn't sleep very well via a combination of being right next to the interstate, the fan running all night on the heater, and being in an unfamiliar bed.
Saturday: We headed out early from the hotel at 7 AM to get on at the terminal station on the blue line to take to the south side of downtown at the Hilton Hotel where Jessica's conference was taking place. We had a bit of an issue with getting a CTA card because we only had a $10 and a $20 bill but, unlike a day pass which we normally get but have to get one for each of us, we could split fares on a card with a cash value. The trip down took over an hour, but I think it was better than driving into downtown and back out. Jessica was also able to read her paper to me to make sure she was good on timing.
We got to the Hilton three blocks from the red line Harrison stop. We found out where all the rooms were and got her registered. With a half an hour we went for a walk over to the lake, down to the museums, and back. While Jessica was in her three-person group presenting, I waited in the lobby on that floor and read and played sudoku and games on my PDA; I had a nice comfortable chair and kicked off my shoes. After she was done we decided to hit the town.
While walking to get a scone, we say Illini basketball coach Bruce Webber walking down toward the hotel on his phone; we think he was staying there as a fellow Illinois student who was also at the conference said she saw him the day before. He was in town for the Ben Ten tournament.
We headed back to the lake and went to Shedd Aquarium. The line was long, but we'd really planned on going, so we waited it out. It took us about 45-50 minutes to buy our tickets from when we got in line. But the weather was mild that day (almost too warm with me wearing my coat and a backpack). We just got the basic tickets, but it took nearly two hours to see all the specimens. I took a lot of photos, but, as I had expected, many didn't turn out. The tanks are dim and unless the fish is still the photos will be blurry as the shutter speed is very slow to get enough light. But we enjoyed looking at everything; Jessica really liked the river otter and the seahorses were nice and the king crabs were interesting to see.
After the aquarium we headed back up Michigan Ave to catch a bus north. When I first came to Chicago on my band trip over May 9-11, 1997 we'd eaten a meal at Gino's pizza and I remember how huge and thick the pizzas were and had always wanted to go back. Before leaving Eau Claire I found their original location and we decided to have lunch there. We took the bus north, getting off at the Apple Store at Huron and walked up to a block to Superior. We got a medium pizza so we'd have leftovers to take home. Interestingly we found out that Gino's had actually closed for a few years and had just recently reopened, so we lucked out in that they were actually running again. The pizza took 45 minutes to bake, so we spilt a Caesar's salad and played sudoku and just relaxed.
After dinner it was time to go home. We caught the red line and transfered to the purple line where it ended and got back to our car around 7:10, only 10 minutes behind schedule. However, since we were only a few block from the Baha'i house of worship, one of only seven in the world. Well, we just had to get a photo of that.
I drove for a bit, but I was tired from my poor night of sleep, so for a change, Jessica drove most of the way back. We got back around 1 AM and turned the clocks from 1:30 to 2:30 as we went to bed.
Friday: During the day I cleaned up around the house and packed so Jessica and could leave for her conference in Chicago right after my interview. I went for my interview at 3:30; I got there a bit early so I just waited until it was time. My interview was actually with a different person with whom I had the phone interview on Monday. I don't remember all the questions I was asked, but remember that I had what I felt were good answers for all of them. I think she liked that I had worked in a lab before because they really seem to value people who can demonstrate a strong focus on detail. The list of questions she had for me was three pages long, longer than I've had before. I also had a number of questions for her. She seemed caught off guard by them, but afterward each she said it was a good question. I hope this left a positive impression.
After I came home I changed and we took care of the pets and headed out. I do get bored with the trip from Eau Claire to either Chicago, Urbana, or St. Louis being all the same until Rockford if we want to go to Chicago or Bloomington if we're going to spit to either St. Louis or Urbana. The GPS led me a bit astray as it wanted me to cut off the interstate in Janesville, WI when it wanted us to take a US highway over and to the southeast. But with the rapidly melting snow and some light rain, the fog was terrible (so bad I could hardly see a place to turn off) and I had to turn around and get back to the interstate. After the GPS recalculated a new route, it said the route we were now taking was faster than the first one. Not much else to report than it took a bit of circling around to get to the hotel, in that there wasn't too great a direct route such that we had to keep turning to get closer to roads that got close, etc. Despite how tired I was, I didn't sleep very well via a combination of being right next to the interstate, the fan running all night on the heater, and being in an unfamiliar bed.
Saturday: We headed out early from the hotel at 7 AM to get on at the terminal station on the blue line to take to the south side of downtown at the Hilton Hotel where Jessica's conference was taking place. We had a bit of an issue with getting a CTA card because we only had a $10 and a $20 bill but, unlike a day pass which we normally get but have to get one for each of us, we could split fares on a card with a cash value. The trip down took over an hour, but I think it was better than driving into downtown and back out. Jessica was also able to read her paper to me to make sure she was good on timing.
We got to the Hilton three blocks from the red line Harrison stop. We found out where all the rooms were and got her registered. With a half an hour we went for a walk over to the lake, down to the museums, and back. While Jessica was in her three-person group presenting, I waited in the lobby on that floor and read and played sudoku and games on my PDA; I had a nice comfortable chair and kicked off my shoes. After she was done we decided to hit the town.
While walking to get a scone, we say Illini basketball coach Bruce Webber walking down toward the hotel on his phone; we think he was staying there as a fellow Illinois student who was also at the conference said she saw him the day before. He was in town for the Ben Ten tournament.
We headed back to the lake and went to Shedd Aquarium. The line was long, but we'd really planned on going, so we waited it out. It took us about 45-50 minutes to buy our tickets from when we got in line. But the weather was mild that day (almost too warm with me wearing my coat and a backpack). We just got the basic tickets, but it took nearly two hours to see all the specimens. I took a lot of photos, but, as I had expected, many didn't turn out. The tanks are dim and unless the fish is still the photos will be blurry as the shutter speed is very slow to get enough light. But we enjoyed looking at everything; Jessica really liked the river otter and the seahorses were nice and the king crabs were interesting to see.
After the aquarium we headed back up Michigan Ave to catch a bus north. When I first came to Chicago on my band trip over May 9-11, 1997 we'd eaten a meal at Gino's pizza and I remember how huge and thick the pizzas were and had always wanted to go back. Before leaving Eau Claire I found their original location and we decided to have lunch there. We took the bus north, getting off at the Apple Store at Huron and walked up to a block to Superior. We got a medium pizza so we'd have leftovers to take home. Interestingly we found out that Gino's had actually closed for a few years and had just recently reopened, so we lucked out in that they were actually running again. The pizza took 45 minutes to bake, so we spilt a Caesar's salad and played sudoku and just relaxed.
After dinner it was time to go home. We caught the red line and transfered to the purple line where it ended and got back to our car around 7:10, only 10 minutes behind schedule. However, since we were only a few block from the Baha'i house of worship, one of only seven in the world. Well, we just had to get a photo of that.
I drove for a bit, but I was tired from my poor night of sleep, so for a change, Jessica drove most of the way back. We got back around 1 AM and turned the clocks from 1:30 to 2:30 as we went to bed.