Adventures in Chicago

So here I am in Chicago, in the library at North Park University, and I've been here less than 24 hours and have already had some adventure. OK, maybe it's not really adventurous, but for me it's adventurous.

Yesterday afternoon, Megan had lots of graduation stuff to do, so Julia and I decided to go find a movie theater. We got directions, rode the El and then sort of got lost. We weren't truly lost, because we knew where the train stop was at all times. But we couldn't find the theater at first. So we walked around for a while. Then we found the street with the theater. It's in a shopping district called Lincoln Square -- it's a neat street. Once we found the theater, we realized we had 45 minutes or so till the movie started, so we walked back to a used bookstore we had passed. It's called Books and it's wonderful. It's a tiny little store, but it's crammed to overflowing with books -- canyons and cul de sacs of books. You wander around among the shelves and find yourself in odd little corners and there's hardly any room to turn around and Julia and I were in heaven.

After the bookstore, we went to the movie -- The Interpreter with Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn. We both enjoyed it. I enjoyed the way the story was told -- it revealed layers of the characters as the movie progressed. It wasn't perfect, but it was a nice change from overly simplistic thrillers. It was suspenseful and exciting in places, but it didn't sacrifice the story for the action.

Besides the bookstore and the movie, it was really nice to spend time with Julia. It's been a long time since we've just hung out together. I think that's going to be the best part of this trip -- spending time with my daughters and enjoying the women they've become.