Chicago part I

So, this is a little late, but better late than never right? On Wed. we headed down to Chicago for Rick's Great Grandma's funeral. We were told it would be at 9 am on Thursday and decided to head down the day before so we didn't have to deal with Chicago rush hour. Since we decided this on Tuesday while Rick was on his way to class and we didn't know anything about where it would be ect. it was an unorganized chaotic mess on Wed.

First of all, I was stuck in a meeting all day, so I couldn't do much of the planning. When I was finally able to find out what was going on I found out that Rick's Mom (Dorothy) and Shaune (her fiance) were coming with us and we had to find 2 rooms. Then we went back and forth, they were coming they weren't they were they weren't. ARGH!! It ended up being they didn't go. We tried to find a hotel briefly before going. This did not work so well, so we decided to take care of it when we got there. We knew of a few hotels in the area, one that would not take reservations, and would go from there. Finally we were off to grab some dinner and get on the road. It would take about 2 hours to get there, and I was already exhausted!

On the way there we hit construction in Kenosha and in two spots after crossing the border. I have developed some strange anxiety to riding in the car. I panic big time, and basically become a basket case. Especially through construction and heavy traffic and when crazy ass taxi drivers just decide to come over into the lane you are in. But we made it in one piece and I was glad that part was over.

The next task at hand was finding a place to stay. We knew where a few of the hotels were located and found one of them pretty quickly. This ended up being the one we called that said they do not take reservations. That should have been a big warning flag right there! Looking around we could tell that this was not the best neighborhood, but thought it would do since it was close to the cemetery and we were ready to settle down for the night. So we went in. There was one guy who walked in right before us. As he was renting his room I took a look at the signs. One was a city ordinance that prostitution was illegal in the parking lot and another read NO FOUR HOUR BLOCKS. Hmmm....things were now starting to click. The hotel person then asked the guy in front of us how long he'd like his room for....8 hours.

Next it was our turn. Two white kids carrying dress clothes and a suitcase.....nah we're not out of place here. We get our room and told the lady we'd like it for the night and we were off to our room....a jacuzzi suite at that! As we turn around we notice another couple coming in. The girl was most definitely a prostitute! Yup that confirms that we were in over our heads. As Rick put it he'd never seen a real life prostitute....only the ones on Pretty Woman. From my marriage to a black man with family on the not so good North Side of Milwaukee I have had the pleasure of seeing prostitutes before.