Day 2

After sleeping in a bit for recovery, I knew I had to get my office up and running. First order of business was getting an additional monitor. Quick internet search revealed a Staples within walking distance downtown. Strapped on a backpack and headed out. Now, for normal folk, I don't think you understand how novel this idea of walking to a store is. But, it's just something we don't do in Los Angeles. Walking is bad enough but carrying something? Pshaw! Thankfully it was a nice day and since it was pretty early in the day, it was quiet out.

I had tickets for the Sunday Matinee at the Chicago Symphony. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra wouldn't be playing, but Hilary Hahn, a renowned violinist, would be playing. Hilary Hahn came on the classical music scene in her teens as a violin prodigy. And over the years, I've seen her in concert a number of times. Now in her early thirties, I'm very impressed to still see progression in her ability. Her tone is amazing and she has that certain energy that obviously comes from her loving what she does. I had booked these tickets based on her and wasn't even sure what the program was.

To my delight, it was a very intimate format of just her and a piano. In the classical music world, this is a rarity. Such a grand venue can accommodate a full orchestra, and they usually take full advantage. However, the program revealed that this was quite purposeful. Hilary Hahn is a big fan of the single violin/piano format, which is not in vogue currently. And in effort to bring back the format, Hahn had commissioned 26 new works from contemporary composers for a violin and a piano. They would be encore performances - just a few minutes in length each. She would perform 13 of those pieces in the matinee along with works of Bach and Beethoven.

The encores were varied in style, ranging from beautifully melodic to somewhat atonal. I liked them very much because their novelty forced me to listen. My appreciation of classical music has widely broadened over the years and listening to these pieces and truly enjoying them made me realize how fortunate I was to have developed these tastes. Hilary played each piece beautifully. She took the microphone to thoughtfully introduce each encore. And in between when she forgot what she was playing, she hopped over to her music stand in her gown... still such a charming child.

Hilary Hahn has been on the classical music scene for about a decade and a half. She's not a veteran, but is certainly one of the foremost female violinists today. And despite her young age, she has is using her position to try to effect change in this genre. I find this incredibly impressive. It's a bold choice to commission so many contemporary works. It promotes the composers, to be sure and opens concert-goers - such as myself - to things outside our natural comfort zone. It's a risk... and I loved it.

As the intermission came and I contemplated running out for a drink, the woman next to me struck up a conversation. She was probably in her sixties, there with her husband. She asked me if I was enjoying myself and I told her I was, that I was from out of town, but that I had heard Hilary in concert on multiple occasions before. She asked what I was doing in Chicago and I proceeded to tell her of my scheme to figure out if I wanted to move here. She was excited for me and encouraged me to make the move. And as the conversation progressed, as it often does, it led to my disclosure of many details of my life, namely my family relationship. She listened intently and told me that all her kids lived within 5 minutes for her suburban home and that they got along splendidly well. I told her that I wished it could be that way for me, too, but that it wasn't. She was very nice and expressed sympathy for my situation. As intermission came to a close, we wrapped up our conversation and turned our focus back to the performance. Two pieces later, as we applauded, she leaned over to me and whispered in my ear that I could still be a good daughter from Chicago. I thought that was really sweet and I told her that I knew that. It was just another afirmation that Chicago is the right way to go.

After the concert was done, I decided to walk back home. It was only a few blocks up Michigan Avenue. It was still light out and just chilly enough to warrant my trench coat, but warm enough to make it enjoyable. It was late Sunday afternoon and there were tons of people out on the street. Millennium Park was on my right and I walked by fountains and Cloud Gate (the huge silver jelly bean). As I looked up at the beautiful architecture of the Chicago Public Library and surrounding buildings and walked with the sun on me... I felt the vibrant energy of city. I knew in that moment that I was falling deeply in love with Chicago. How could I not?

I went home and got ready for my first date of my trip. After leaving my relationship of 11 years, I took about a year off to gather myself and center. Recently, however, I felt that I was ready to meet people and "get out there" again. Planning trips, buying tickets and making reservations without anyone in particular in mind was starting to get to me and I wanted to share and learn again. So, in this day and age, I joined the world of online dating. As the commercial says, there were tons of people that I had heard had met their mates on match.com. I'm not expanding my social circles, so why not? LA dating was a sobering experience - and if I'm to be honest, probably one of the reasons why moving to Chicago sounded appealing. But I thought that Match.com would be a great opportunity to establish some contacts in a new city and maybe get some willing volunteers to show me around. I added a paragraph to my profile and let everyone know exactly what the situation was and made a few dates.

My first date was with D. It wasn't too deep into our first conversation on the phone that I realized that he lived in the EXACT building I would be staying in. Okay... this could be either really good or really bad. To purpose, I never told him which floor I was on - you never know! But, it turns out, D is a really nice guy. We made plans to go to the Purple Pig - a great restaurant where no reservations are accepted. But, by the time we met, I was starving, so in order to avoid a long wait, we went to another restaurant. Conversation flowed nicely. It was really easy to talk and be very honest with D. We moved from the restaurant to a bar and sat there for a while just chatting the night away. We left the bar and decided to walk home because it was so nice out. It really was quite mild and walking in it was a pleasure. We walked by an art installation of a 25 foot Marilyn Monroe statue. I passed on taking a picture. A bit too kitschy for me... but I'm hoity toity like that.

Our route home took us along the river and we drank up the sites. There might have been a bit of smooching, but I'm not going to say. We slowly made our way home and went back to his place. His apartment is on a lower floor than mine. It has two bedrooms with a wraparound balcony. In addition to my view of the lake and Millennium Park, he has the added angle of Navy Pier. It's gorgeous at night. Take note... this good size two bedroom, two bath apartment will set you back $3400 per month! Lakeshore East is a new neighborhood that has a lot of appeal and it is priced accordingly! Parking is an additional $200+ per month! Don't get me wrong... it's very nice and the amenities are top-notch... but wow... that's a lot of money. Needless to say, I probably won't be living in this building when I move....

Hung out a bit and then headed home. It was hardly a walk of shame, but it was nice that it was just a few floors up.

I'm having a great time so far... too bad I have to work tomorrow!