"I was flying into Chicago at night, watching the sky turn the lake into blue-green smoke."

-Liz Phair "Stratford-Upon-Guy"

I've spent the past week in Las Vegas for work, as it was the dozenth visit I've posted nothing of it here and really only left the hotel twice to go for a walk the entire time.

I began rereading Ford's Bascombe books in Vegas and as poor a fit as they were for the Strip they are certain to be perfect for Chicago despite their Jersey setting.

Four amazing ladies waiting for their flight back to San Diego bought me drink after drink in old Terminal 1 in Vegas, eventually culminating in a wedding proposal, lol. This sort of spontaneous, unplanned social interaction seems to be more common following the efforts I've made to improve my social skills in recent years and the whole interaction was a blast

I was also inexplicably upgraded to first class on the flight.

It is 1am and I have just boarded the El train from O'hare to my Chinatown hotel, the ride, on the Blue and later the Red lines will take about an hour. Ive known for decades that the Blue and Red would get me from the airport to downtown and I'm thrilled to finally be riding the El, my interest in subways was nutured almost entirely by representations of New York's and London's subways along with Chicago's elevated train, the largest of it's type in the world.