Chicago!

I couldn't really say that I was disappointed with breaking down in Chicago. The plan was to spend two days in Chicago and shoot over to Boulder, CO. I would have loved to stay a week. it looked like we would be there for 4 days. I have never been a fan of weekend visits to places I have never been. . I was disappointed that we would no longer have time for Boulder though. Every time I have to rush around for some reason I say that I will never do it again, that life is to important to hurry, but at the same time I don't have the foresight to avoid it it seems.

It took about 20 minutes to drive to Tristan's. The only notable event was driving by a chocolate factory. Oh My God. It was Divine. The most delicious smell of brownies that completely overwhelmed the smell of diesel in a half mile radius.

At Tristan's we met with Scott, Megan, and Dylan and shared pleasant and stimulating conversation over a pipe and a case of beer. In the dark. Dylan had forgotten to pay the electric bill. It reminded me of when Crystal and I decided that we were not going to use electric lights at night. I find candle light to be nice and though I don't think my night vision is better then average I feel very comfortable from camping so much. I remember, while living at the Hostel in the Forest, how I would often lead people down trails at night. I could not see much but I learned to trust my feet and look between objects instead of at them. After Bob went to sleep Tristan and played a game of go. Tristan was my primary go teacher and is still one of my favorite opponents. We always play long games. We played with a 3 stone handicap and I won. Tristan talks to himself while he plays, and for the first time my reading was good enough to understand what he was talking about and to talk with him. I was very proud.

I woke the next morning with a call from Bob hurrying me down to the coffee shop. I don't remember what was so important, nothing perhaps, but I didn't take the time to enjoy waking up. The coffee shop was remarkably pleasant. The owner had a more then friendly disposition and I felt more then at home. Tristan and I started another game of go, and played until lunch time. We stopped at the apex of the game. Tristan had just made an annoyingly good move, my position that I was so happy with was then thrown into a quiet chaos. I would have to start a large fight in order to win. Go is like life, sometimes, after all of your effort, when you think that surely you have come to your stride, your starter doesn't work any more.. In go, it can be said that you don't play against your opponent. That's why we have handicaps. When my opponent makes a good move I can be happy for him, although sometimes I am to disappointed in myself to share in that happiness. Every move in go should have many purposes. Tristan's move did. First I had to respond to an immediate threat, which I did. Next I had to consider my lost territory. I might have had enough to win... But he could pick at me for the rest of the game taking 3 pts here and 1 point there... I would lose for sure. I needed to find something big. I had two options and I couldn't read either one out. I tried for the one that, if I failed I would not lose as much. Sometimes optimism is nothing more then waiting for the unknown. Maybe, like in the last game, he would misread something that I could read well? After my first attempt failed my second ended in total disaster. The conclusion of the game waited for the evening, we were to meet Scott, and Emily for Lunch. In the end I failed to read a self atari and had to resign
But lunch was great!
Hot Doug's is a hot dog stand with a gourmet twist. Bob was interested only in the duck fat fries, the rest of us got one of the specials. We each cut off bites to share and Hot Damn! Hot Doug's is surely some of the best, most original food in the country.

After lunch we went back to Scott's to talk and when Emily left for work we went for a stroll downtown. Scott is a natural born tour guide. For hours we walked and for hours he talked. We went to many of his favorite spots, my favorite being “the bean” It's a big bean shaped mirror thingy. We played there for a while and watched people before I got the idea to do acrobatics with it, playing with my reflection. There was a photographer from Istanbul who took pictures, she said that she could send them to me when she returns home in June. Aside from the bean there was much freeganing which Scott enjoyed as much as Bob and I. The day ended at a birthday bar crawl. I really just wanted to dance, but the only place that our friends knew of was a hipster hotspot with less dancing then meat marketing. Meh. Now, it may seem odd to those of you who met me within the past 3 years, but to those who have known me for longer can understand that the rampant sexuality of the past few years was not “normal” for me. Now my exploratory interests are more creative, and though I enjoyed the past few years immensely I am not going to be pursuing sex for the sake of sex anymore.

Highlights from the rest of the trip include meeting a crusty punk who was casually looking for a ride and going to a Gamelon. The gamalon was everything I could have asked for and more and the the punk was fully Crusty. Anybody who remembers how much I smelled when I was 18 has some idea. I am sorry for that by the way. We picked her up while we were dumpster diving. After many false starts we finally found a good dumpster and got 2 full boxes of assorted foods. The best were the raspberries and cheeses, more practically were all the eggs, onions, potatoes and tomatoes. We through Jamie in the shower and fed her at Scott's house but she still smelled something feirce. The funniest was when we were talking about looking pitiful being really useful for getting people to help you. I said I used to carry a pitiful looking change of cloths for just that purpose but have now changed that to a clean change of cloths. She said that she doesn't look pitiful on purpose... Bob and I exchanged a knowing glance. 'that means you are pitiful'. I felt sad for her, I thought of the Tao Te Ching. I wanted to give her tips on how to travel more comfortably but she has been traveling for almost as long as I have and she is committed to her scene. Better not come off as condescending. After listening to her stories (all a little negative) and smelling her for long enough we decided it was time to go home. I asked Bob to lie to her about getting an offer from someone with gas money so that we wouldn't hurt her feelings but when I realized that in order to leave her with food we would have to let her know that we were not going to be picking her up in the morning. I told her as kindly as possible. She had mentioned more then once that she kind of wanted to stay in Chicago so I did not feel at all guilty.

The next day I played Tristan an even game in go. I was fairly confident because I have a fair board sense and I had thought much about his strengths and weaknesses and thought that I could open in a way that would put me at an advantage. I won or lost by Komi, meaning that if we considered it an even game then he won but if my handicap was not giving him a point advantage for playing second then I would have won. I was thrilled.
After the game we headed off for Seattle, WA.
We drove almost through Wisconsin before we stopped to sleep.