Chicago trip - 2025

I spent a couple days last week in Chicago with one of my best childhood friends. We left on Amtrak (had to take a bus for part of the way) and landed in Chicago mid-day at Union Station. It was rainy and overcast, but that didn’t dampen our spirits. We were just excited to get together again. It had been quite a while. The trip back was quite eventful - I almost got in a fight with someone on the train, but common sense prevailed and it didn’t go anywhere. Tensions are high right now and it wasn’t the day for me.

We did some shopping and met up with another friend of mine, Ricky. He lives in the outskirts of Chicago and works near the train station. He met up with us for lunch on our second day and then we all met up again for drinks after he got out of work. The funny thing about Ricky is I met him at a random bar off Michigan Avenue one night many years ago. We exchanged social media handles and instantly became friends. We have kept up ever since and I consider him to be a dear friend for life.

We stayed at the Marriott on Michigan Avenue and it was a pleasant room. It wasn’t overly busy and it was close to the shopping and places to eat. I feel like we did pack a lot of things into a short period of time. We visited Nordstrom Rack, Stan’s Donuts, and Ricky took us to a bar called Monk’s for dinner one night. I had a cheeseburger and fries and it was everything I’d hoped it would be.

I’m nearing the end of my Acting I class. Looking forward to getting my monologue out of the way and once that’s done I can have a short break before Acting II begins. The monologue I chose was from Erin Brockovich, the scene with the lawyers in the conference room. I’ve been working hard on it and I can’t wait for it to be done. As far as actual work, I haven’t done anything since January for acting/modeling. In a way, that’s okay because my life is pretty hectic right now.

I’ve already booked my next trip at the end of the month. I’m heading down to New Orleans for a writer’s conference. I want to get back into writing/journaling. As some of you know, I used to be a photographer in a former life (post book era) and I may even bring my camera with me and take some photos. Who knows?

I’ll keep up here - or at least try to. Until next time!

xoxo

H