It's just the blues, Mary the blues...(Day 20)

By the time anyone reads this, I'm pretty sure it will be a little bit after Christmas. So I hope everyone had a good one!

This post is the very first post from my very new computer my friend built for me. It was completely unexpected, and without a doubt is one of the most generous things that's ever happened to me. I wish I knew how to express gratitude more in depth, but really...I appreciate this act of generosity so very much. Please, go download his album and maybe toss him a few bucks for it.

I've been very fortunate to cross paths with so many amazing people this year, and I wish I could come up with a more literate way of saying I wouldn't trade a moment of what has happened this year because of it.

A few years ago I cut ties with a lot of people because I felt they were poisonous. It got really lonely for a while, but then I got involved with a girl and I kind of just stopped thinking about it. But when she left, I kind of realized how hard it is to make friends the older you get.

The last night in town for me, before I moved to Albany was fueled by alcohol and no sleep. I really felt like the world was ending, and I just didn't care anymore. To say I was running from a broken heart is a bit of an understatement: I was flat out going to fly away from it.

There was a layover in Chicago.

I'll never forget sitting in the airport. It was so cold, so cloudy and rainy and it might've been one of the most beautiful moments I can ever recall.

In airports they tell you not to leave your luggage unattended. I wanted to get out and explore since I'd be there a while and they don't have lockers anymore.

I feel kinda bad about this, but not too much. There was a blind guy sleeping in the chair next to mine, so I quietly slid the luggage I had with me under his chair and took off. I saw his ticket was the same departure as mine, so I'm pretty sure I was okay.

Chicago is an amazing city. The architecture, the people...every bit of it is a story ready to be told if you're willing to listen. It has a spirit to it a lot of other places just lack for whatever reason.

Sitting outside of a coffee shop drinking tea and eating a sandwich I managed to steal from the airport (come on, I only had 25 bucks to my name and airport food is more expensive than imported cheese). I sat and ate it, still very, very drunk.

And I thought about how the city looked in the 20's. A young Al Capone making a break for it, shooting at the law with a Tommy Gun standing on the ledge of a Model T nearly tipping over and cash spilling out of the window. I imagined him skirting the law and running alcohol during prohibition.

I imagined people staring in shock at the headlines of the St. Valentines Day Massacre, and wondered how they dealt with the turning of histories page: One of a Nations morality falling on it's knees to profit. I wonder if anyone truly felt organized crime was the distortion of the American Dream. No one wants to die broke, no one wants to live poor...and by God you do what you have to do.

I imagined the streets coming alive in celebration when Michael Jordan brought home the Bulls first title with him, and how he seemed so super-human.

A few hours I boarded the plane. I got a little bit more drunk with a Chinese guy sitting next to me on Airplane wine, which...believe me isn't exactly quality vino, but it will getcha where you need to go when you're three-thousand miles above and beyond the past you're trying desperately to disappear from.

That's all for tonight. I hope everyone has a great (safe!) Christmas. Drink lots of nog, eat some gingerbread cookies and sleep in!

Until tomorrow!

I imagined people spilling out into the street on October 10th, 1871 as their town burned to the ground in the Great Chicago Fire. I imagined mothers wailing and men yelling in confusion and grief for neighbors and loved ones less fortunate to find the cobblestone outside.