Chicago

 

Our trip: Mental health--as bad as it's ever been. Everything else about the trip--great. 

Q had a cough on our drive up. He told us that his teacher gave him a cough drop at school that day, and that one of his friends counted how many seconds between coughs (very, very few). We stopped en route to buy cough drops, but they basically only helped when he had it in his mouth. Not so great to spend the night with the four of us in one hotel room. 

Valentine's Day: In my heart I've always thought it was nonsense to care about these made-up holidays. But then the day comes and I'm mad if I don't have candy. So this year I was wise enough to tell Francisco--I do not by any means believe in Valentine's but it would be great if you could get me something. He brought a tiny bottle of champagne and lots of chocolates to Chicago. I'm very, very lucky in that man. 

The hotel breakfast was not great--they had red velvet waffles with whipped cream, sprinkles, and chocolate for Valentine's day, which meant that we had to stand in long lines to help the kids get this basically breakfast cake. Then I had to watch them eat it while also watching Sponge Bob on the TV (read: distraction, messes) all while listening to two audio sources (music and Sponge Bob). This situation was one big trigger for me. 

On Saturday, we followed up that torture with the pool, which everybody enjoyed and the kids did not want to leave. 

Then Al's Beef, which Francisco has become addicted to since The Bear. 

Then the Driehaus Museum--a Gilded Age mansion, restored. The chandeliers and the lamps and the vases and the tile were all to die for. I loved it. The boys were good--the docents really engaged them. (I guess it might make sense to tell you what good means for going on a house tour with my kids--they didn't complain at all; they also refused to look at anything on the second or third floors.)

I'm telling you--it was all the vases and the lamps. They were mostly flower-inspired. And there was so much green. 

I think clouds!

The museum was delighted to display contemporary art (above). The founder is dead, so I guess they can do what they want. 

Mary Cassatt!

The fire screen!

Then we stopped for coffee and croissants. Then a siesta at the hotel. 

Then we headed up to a play--a recreation of a debate at the Cambridge Union in 1965 between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley. It was fascinating and well done. And Q was able to follow along--and had thoughts. (Blaze got headphones and an audiobook.) The actors loved having kids there--most of the audience had grey hair and lived through the original debate. One actor came by afterward to tell the kids thanks for coming. 

We stopped for chipotle on the way home. Today: the traumatizing hotel breakfast, mass, home. 

There was a wonderfully homily--that the human condition is poor (we are born with nothing and we leave with nothing); that we need to weep--to need others, to be vulnerable. So I cried the whole way home. 

The church felt like it had been covered up for Good Friday--there were almost no statues or anything representational. The boys noticed--when I asked them what they thought about the stained glass, Blaze said he had two thought--he likes the colors; but he doesn't like that there are no pictures in them.