Chicago!

Chicago was a great success - and, naturally, very windy.

What you’ll see here includes:
A gourmet charcuterie shop that had been open one week and was already overrun by hipsters to the point of standing room only
The Bean, the outdoor theater, the Marilyn Monroe statue, and other awesome touristy landmarks
The Hughes brothers, childhood friends since age 4, separated from me for 15 years and reunited by Facebook
A Lego store!
The wonderful Jeff and Abby (henceforth Jabby ), who kindly hosted me for the latter half of the trip and showed me their awesome city neighborhood
A truly bizarre picture owned by Jabby
A black paper crane on the anniversary of 3/11

What you won’t see here:
Food porn, despite eating wonderfully well (thanks to Jon Hughes’ mastery of all things culinary!)
The Hughes brothers’ parents or girlfriends, all of whom were wonderful. The parents, especially, were great to catch up with as someone verging on grown-up
The rest of the Mexican clothing shop Jeff and I walked through: though that denim blazer thing is unique, there were also tactical vests and a belt buckle with a weed leaf and ‘SINALOA’ in giant lettering (hint: drug cartel reference)

I graduated!

I finished grad school!

I did it!

There’s even photographic proof!

I apologize for the terrible photo quality. Point-and-shoot + ‘cloudy’ setting on a sunny day + shaky hand = photo fail.

But you can still make out my face (it’s the one with the hat, sunglasses and a nice red sunburn). 

Dear classmates, I have several more photos that aren’t posted in this entry that’ll probably go up on Facebook. Keep an eye out.

Prom (part 2)

I went to prom!

OK, not really. My grad department had its annual Spring Fling, an end-of-year party with everyone dressed up. This one was on a boat. (The DJs, of course, made sure to play I’m On A Boat.)

Much fun was had by all, as was much champagne, and it was an awesome way to salute classmates (and first-years we’ll leave behind) with just three weeks until graduation.

The lovely Suihan made an excellent date; however, my jacket was not an excellent fit for her when she got cold. She was a trooper, though.

Also, everybody loved her shoes. And my tie, which matched her shoes. That was her doing.