I love Chicago. Love the way it makes me feel alive and on the verge of..spring, this time. A trip to the city from the bleak outskirts of Midwest suburbia is a perfect fix for my sensory deprivation. You can have the fenced forest preserves and the farms and cutesy houses on their cutesy hills (none of it is nature, anyways --where have you seen manicured lawns and pond fountains in nature ?..:)-- I'll take the city with its noise and grime and obnoxious cab drivers any day -- maybe because that's how I grew up, feeling 8 million people's heartbeat everyday..People need people to thrive..as for the loners which I proudly call myself -- its always easier to be alone in a crowd than face your demons in isolation. Sitting on a bench in a city park or at a corner cafe, watching people go by, I am closer to nature, MY nature, than anywhere else. SO. After a very suburban weekend of kids and more kids and picnics in da dreaded forest preserve, my dear BF swept me off my feet like only he can, and an hour later we were checking in at the Drake, THE DRAKE that I love, with its grand foyer, its heraldic dragons and live jazz in the tea lounge. Drake to me personifies Chicago -- opulent, grand, fit for a queen !..yet mellow and comforting and inviting. Woke up early morning..glass of champagne on the bed stand, Lake Shore Drive in the window..We had breakfast in the Prairie Room and felt like newlyweds. Spent a day in the city..Picked out a "retirement hotel" for ourselves on the way back home..no, it won't be Drake, but it will be in Chicago, before the cornfields get the best of us :)............
