Liz's Trip To Chicago: Day 2

Well day 2 of my trip to the frozen Yukon got off to a shaky start. Hope and I walked 5 blocks from her house to the el train this morning. It was 10 degrees outside. At least there was no wind...in Chicago you have to take what you get get weather-wise. It was about 8:40 am when we arrived at the Damon el stop which is about 15 minutes from downtown. I had a 9 am appointment at my dentist (very important) so the timing should have worked out perfectly. But of course it did not work out at all.

As we walked up the steps to the el my fabulous friend Hope astutely pointed out that the throng of people descending from the el was a bad sign. No one commutes to Hope's neighborhood except maybe the grungy teenagers who work at the 400 coffee shops in the area. As soon as we got to the track we found out that a train had broken down and they had no idea when the trains would be running again. Thanks for the help CTA employees. As far as I was concerned this was a disaster of epic proportions because the only way to get downtown in 15 minutes from Bucktown is the el. Bus or cab will take you about 25 minutes.

Naturally competition for cabs in sub-freezing weather during rush hour is fierce. Fortunately it took me about 20 seconds to connect with my city-girl persona. While Hope was trying to call Yellow Cab (motto: Screw You) I noticed an empty cab about a block away. In a scene reminiscent of one of those Avis commercials that OJ did in his pre-murder years I vaulted over newspaper stands, hurdled trash cans, and tossed an old woman into traffic to secure our ride. Scruples and manners are highly over rated in the cut throat world of Chicago transportation.

Anyway, long story short I was 15 minutes late to see my dentist. But it turned out OK because they said they could see me at 3 pm. Crisis averted.

Then I had some other errands, a luncheon appointment, and a trip to Neiman's before I could rush back to Hope's fabulous apartment to check email and deal with my frostbite. On my way to run errands I got a call from my fabulous (fabulous, not to be confused with fancy) friend Ron. Ron is a huge fan of Pufatufniks. In fact he may be our only fan but he is loyal and that is really what counts. Quality not quantity is what make a great fan base.

Ron and I went to graduate school together. He had the distinction of being the only person who did less work than I did in a certain class that we won't discuss here because I don't want anyone to disbelieve Ron's claim that he is the only person to ever graduate from U of C's GSB program with a 4.5 GPA.

Ron and his fabulous wife Kathleen are expecting their second child in April. Their son Vincent (try calling him Vinnie and see what a lovely shade of red Ron turns) is so adorable. He is going to break some hearts when he grows up! Anyway, the soon-to-be-baby-Villa is a girl. Naturally I suggested to Ron that he name his sure-to-be-gorgeous-and-brilliant-daughter Elizabeth. Sadly Ron shot this idea down on the grounds that he already has both a sister and a friend (me I suppose) named Elizabeth. I guess I can understand his reluctance to populate the world with too many Elizabeths. The question is: what should Ron and Kathleen's daughter be named?

I think that for a future blog post (maybe tomorrow if I don't blog about Anna Nicole Smith instead) we should create a list of potential names for Ron and Kathleen to choose from.

If you haven't met this lovely couple you should know that they are both classy, smart, successful, extremely fabulous, very beautiful, and very well dressed. Also either one of them could drink your average rugby player under that table in less than an hour. Well Ron could, Kathleen only weighs about 80 pounds so I doubt if rugby binge drinking records have anything to fear from her. Given that vivid description of the parents what are some possible names for baby girl Villa? Stay tuned and I will list all names that make any sense at all....