today is my last day in chicago. the past few days have been a blast, albeit at the expense of my bank account. so, as much fun as i've had here, i am actually happy to be going to champaign.

the funny thing about chicago is that every time i come here, i can never figure out why i left. i mean, i absolutely love this city.

the only thing that i don't like about chicago is its location. the only notable cities nearby are milwaukee (about 90 minutes), indianapolis (3 hours), and detroit and st. louis (both approx. 4 1/2 hours). and it's debatable to call milwaukee and indianapolis "notable."

the cool thing about the east coast is that there are so many cities in close proximity. start at boston. from there go to new york (3 1/2 hours)... to philly (90 minutes)... to baltimore (90 minutes)... to washington d.c. (45 minutes)... to richmond (1 hour 45 min)... to raleigh (3 hours)... to charlotte (2 hours 45 min).

to be fair, i'm not exactly feeling bad about never having seen charlotte or richmond, but if i'm going to include milwaukee and indianapolis above, then, places like raleigh have to be included here. i almost even included hartford, but i know first hand that hartford really really sucks, so i left it out, no matter how much i wanted to include my home state on the list.

but, anyway, i'm getting off the topic. aside from the location, i love chicago. the restaurants are awesome here. there are countless cool bars to hang out at which are all open late. the people are nice and friendly. the public transportation is convenient and covers most of the city.

what's not to love? i still feel like i am home when i am here, and i haven't lived here in four years. even then, i was only here for a year.

oh well... for now, i am happy being a visitor.

i leave for champaign as soon as i get my lazy ass out of this chair and into the shower. i'm excited to see my best friend that i've known for as long as i've had the ability to remember.

who knows what we'll end up doing, but he has high definition television, so i could easily see us doing nothing but hanging out in his apartment. honeslty, i could use the time to recover.

or, i could use the time to pound more mind erasers...

yeah... mind erasers...