Across an Ocean of Dreams*

29.06.03 at 3:53 PM

Chicago trip!

On Thursday morning, my aunt Dottie, my cousin Becky, my brother Ian, and I drove up to spend a few days with my aunt Karen, who lives in a city right outside of Chicago.

We arrived at my aunt's apartment around lunchtime. She lives right next to a Jewel, so we went there to get food and then came right back to eat and unpack.

Afterwards, we went to Shedd Aquarium, which was so neat. There was a dolphin show going on, and we got to see it. I was so excited, and I got to sit in the front row. I love dolphins so much. I would like to get to swim with them someday. I think it would be fun to be a dolphin trainer ^_^. I bought a cute dolphin plushie from the shop in the aquarium. His name is Darwin ^_^.

Anyway, after that, we went home and stayed there, just relaxing until the next day.

On Saturday morning, we woke up and went into the city, arriving there at about 11 AM. We had lunch at Ed Debevic's. Oh gosh. My experience there was slightly embarrassing but exhilarating at the same time. Well, I will get to that in a minute, though.

A cute girl whose nickname was Babycakes waited on us, and she was not very obnoxious at all; I was expected someone much more rude to wait on us, honestly.

But while my family was waiting for our food to arrive, I was checking out this really cute waiter: he had long brown hair, a sexy accent, just the right height, and looked like a prince to me, honestly ^_^. His nickname was Don Juan, as we figured out later. My aunt Dottie called over Babycakes and told her that I was infatuated with one of the other waiters, and we asked her if she could go get him so I could get my picture taken with him. At first, she was like, "No way! I'm not getting you a date! Go ask him yourself!" But eventually she went and got him. Kya~! I swear, he was the personification of divine beauty. He sauntered over and asked if he might get my picture taken with me, so I got up and walked over to him. He said I looked like a princess with my long hair, and my aunt Dottie told him that I already thought he was a prince ^_^. So, we stood next to each other for the picture, and my aunt Dottie was saying, "Get closer! Go on, kiss him or something!" Kya! I was so embarrassed. And he was not helping either, saying things like, "Don't worry, kiss me. You'll never see me again after all." Geesh! So I kissed him, and my aunt Dottie took a picture of that, and of the two of us a few more times.

When my family finished eating, Don Juan hugged me, and wouldn't let me go. We slow danced for the duration of a whole song. Sigh, it was so romantic. My family was waiting at the door for me, thinking that they were not going to be able to leave with me ^_^;. Some of the waiters were saying, "What are they doing?" "I don't know; they just starting making out!" and "Long hairs unite!" Heh. Then he got down on his knees in front of me and begged me not to leave. It was... nice. He wrote me a note to take with me that read, "I love you. You are my princess. I will never forget our dancing. Muuua!! --Don Juan." That last bit is a kissing noise of course ^_^;.

Anyway... so we left then ^_^. We went to the Art Institute next, and we did not stay a very long time... just a little over an hour or so. It was fun, though.

We then went back to my aunt's apartment for a little while, then we went to Leone's (I may be spelling that wrong...) for dinner, which was really good. Afterwards, we headed for the theater to see Starlight Express.

Starlight Express was magnificent, and magical really. The costumes were amazing, and the effects were great. I am amazed that the cast can do all of those moves on roller skates without falling!

Pearl was beautiful. Her microphone was not working at the beginning of the show, so I felt sort of bad for her, but she sneaked off stage during one of the songs to get a new one. Electra was seriously hitting on Purse. Is he supposed to do that? Not that I am complaining... And Greaseball was cute, and Rusty, too ^_^. I liked one of Poppa's lines: "Oil comes straight from the Diesel." He told that to Flattop during "Poppa's Blues." That was amusing, really...

And oh--C.B. was in it!! Or rather, Red Caboose, same diff. That made me very, very happy. Instead of singing "There's Always Me" to Dinah, he sung it to Rusty, which was amusing...

I loved "One Rock-n-Roll Too Many." It was cute. I love Electra, C.B., and Greaseball together. C.B. has always been my favorite, and no one understands why, because he is such a little bastard, but... I like him! ^_^

The show was a mix of the old and new versions, which kind of excited me, for I love the old version very much, and I was scared that it was going to be strictly the newer, cheesier version. Becky, on the other hand, was a bit unhappy with "Locomotion" and "The Rap," but that did not phase me. I think Becky just wanted to hear Buffy do her intro like on the CD... The "I'm hot and cheap and quick" bit. Ah, well.

On second thought, "The Rap" was kind of lame ^_~.

Anywho, the show was just done on a stage, so the races could not take place in front of us. Instead, the audience members were all given 3D glasses to wear, or safety goggles as Control called them, and during all the races, a movie screen would be brought up and we would watch a 3D movie of all of the races. They had filmed the races prior to the show, of course, because it was impossible to race in this particular theater. But it was still very cool.

And I bought a t-shirt souvenir at the show as well.

After the show, we all headed home to sleep, as we were pretty tired.

Saturday was our shopping day. The five of us drove downtown to do most of the shopping. First we went to The Alley, which is similar to Hot Topic, but it carries used items as well, and is extremely scary inside. Becky wanted to go, so we did. I am just freaked out of places that sell t-shirts that say "I love Satan" and "Jesus is a cunt." I was very nervous while we were in there, and walked close to Becky. But that store was in the mostly gay area of Chicago, so it was not all that bad. I swear, I have never seen so many rainbow flags in my life.

But after that, we were to the Northbrook mall (I think that is what it's called). We went there mostly to see the Sanrio store. I bought a grey Batz Maru shirt, some fingernail polish and some lip gloss there. One of the guys that worked there asked me what the shirt I had on at the time said, so I showed it to him. It was my yaoi shirt, and when he saw, he was mortified. He was like, "I thought that that's what it said... You don't see many shirts like that around here..." Heh. We checked out the rest of the stores in the mall as well.

After that mall, we went home to relax and watched Legally Blonde.

Later, we went to another mall, and I cannot think of the name of it, but it was pretty big. It was not downtown, though; it was nearer to my aunt's house. But anyway, we discovered another Sanrio store in there ^_^;. We looked around at a lot of the stores in there, too. In the Sam Goody, I bought the "Varekai" CD by the Cirque du Soleil.

After that mall, we just went home to rest. We watched The Kid together and then went to bed.

We got up early this morning to drive back here. My aunt Dottie missed a turn somewhere, so we were lost for a while, but we made it back alright ^_^.

Anyway, overall, it was so much fun. Becky and I were buddying up the whole time, which was great. We were holding hands a lot of places, and some people probably thought we were lovers or something ^_^;. I got a lot of pictures taken with Becky at various different statues and so forth. My scanner is crap, but I scanned some pictures anyway. Here are some of them:

Babycakes: Dancing, with me at the bottom of the picture.
Cardboard: Becky and I stick our heads through the cardboard cutout at the aquarium.
Dancers: Don Juan and a few other "Ed" waiters.
Don Juan: Cute! ^_^
Eyelashes: Tacky eyelashes Becky bought me.
Grope: Aunt Dottie gropes a statue.
Ice Cream: Becky and I pretend to lick the ice cream statue.
Kiss: *blush*
Lego: Me, Ian, and Becky with a Lego person.
Lego (again): Ian, Becky, and I with another Lego person.
Polyp: Aunt Karen, me, and Becky pose in front of a giant polyp statue.
Starlight Express: Me, Becky, and Ian in front of the Starlight Express poster at the theater.
Urinetown: Ian and Becky point out the Urinetown poster.

-Leah

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