Welcome to the Chicago...now go home

Tourists in Chicago are like death and taxes...all are inevitable. Normally, tourists clog up the streets and stores in summer (when the American Girl cult is heavily recruiting new members) and the holidays (when tourists buy items they can get at home but with the cache of saying they bought in...Chicago.)

I bring this up because tonight by brother, Andy, and future sister-in-law, Jessi, came to the city to see Rent at the Cadillac Palace Theatre. It's always fun to see a visitor's response to how we city-dwellers live day-to-day. Walking for longer than two blocks? Really? Why are we rushing to get on and off the bus? Why are people weaving around us on the sidewalk?

Tonight, they both arrived early into the city while I was stuck downtown leaving work. And because I was feeling better, the universe started screwing with me by making my 146 bus stall ten times on the way up to Lakeview. 1-0 times, including once on the corner of Michigan and Wacker. Fortunately, once we eventually made it on LSD, we were cruising, thank goodness. So we met for dinner at Angelina Ristorante, where I joined them during their meal (thanks to the bus) and the waiter proceeded to not ask me the entire time we were there if I wanted anything to eat or drink. My brother had to ask the waiter to fill an empty and unused glass at their table with water and he offered it to me to drink! So according to the restaurant's Web site, it's "committed to offering a quality dining experience..." but apparently that did not apply to our table.

The thing I love about spending time with my Andy is that he is the "male version of me," according to my friend Anne and Jessi. We speak the same language and can even finish thoughts without fully verbalizing them. At dinner, he and I went into our own language about movies and quotes from random television shows that we both like, while poor Jessi sat there, looking at us, saying, "I'm so confused."

So now it's time to watch last night's "Lost," because Andy is apparently chomping at the bit to talk to someone about it, so why not his doppelganger?