We went to Chicago on John’s birthday, but we didn’t get to see John.
We had tickets for the opera, Tosca, that’s really long, two intermissions. It started at 7:00, so we made a dinner reservation for 5:00, thinking maybe they could join us at the restaurant for a drink if the timing worked out. And it didn’t – he was stuck at work. It felt a little weird to go to a tapas place – Jaleo – at 5:00 in the afternoon. We were the first guests, and it all seemed a little too loud and too bright and shiny. But the food came and more people and they lowered the lights, and there would’ve been room for John & Megan to squeeze in at our table. It wouldn’t have even been much of a squeeze. We got all the traditional tapas, tomato bread and patatas bravas and garlic shrimp. And we had time for a paella with mushrooms and chicken. I had a sangria and a glass of red wine. All delicious, and we got to the opera in plenty of time.
Tosca is a traditional everybody dies opera – as Mark says the plot is two men, one good, one bad, want the same woman and there are some mixed identities and plotting but the end everybody dies.
Saturday the plan was to get a little breakfast and then go to the Art Institute. The weather sucked the whole time, rainy and cold.
Mark and I went out for a coffee while Maja slept. Then we got breakfast at Goddess and the Baker, a restaurant in the fast casual sorta healthy genre. Where you can get a good coffee, and usually good bread, but it’s really loud.
Basically instant oatmeal, with granola and blueberries and strawberries on top
We checked our bags at the hotel for breakfast, then we got them back and headed for the Art Institute for William Morris and Egypt. And that was my 2nd miscalculation. I thought we’d be able to check our bags at the Museum, but their coat check is closed for pandemic. My 1st miscalculation was deciding to take 2 pairs of shoes and a second bag. All of which proved that looking at art lugging a backpack and a shoulder bag is not nearly as enjoyable as without.
The member lounge was closed, too.
We still had time before the train, so we went to the Cultural Center and looked at more art. Robert Colescott. Who is not from Chicago. I liked the Wreckage of the Medusa, and the Tin Girl.
Robert Colescott, The Wreckage of the Medusa
The guard said seeing this painting made him think of the song, “Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man … ” – America. So I had that in my head the rest of the trip. Both at the Art Institute and the Cultural Center, the guards were talking to museums goers about the art, the trend in museums to let these lowest-paid people, who spend more time with the art than anyone else, take more of a curatorial role. I liked it.
And it was rainy, remember. So the whole afternoon I was either in a gallery, sweating under my mask with bag straps digging into my shoulders, or outside trying to get my hood up and mask off, maybe put up my umbrella, but it was mostly too windy, with bag straps digging into my shoulders.