Tourist

Recently, Mia and Catano were in town, visiting from San Francisco, The City as they say, as the first part of their vacation/going-to-a-wedding travels. Catano actually has a first name but like Draplin, I prefer using their last name versus their first. Some people just sound good that way.

When we have visitors in town, we get to play tourist. Showing people your home turf as you might not usually see it yourself. While Chicago has been home for a decade now, I rarely do the tourist thing. I have never been up the Hancock or the Sears Tower. I worked in a building right across from the Hancock for a few years, during the dot-com days, up on the 28th floor in a building that charged too much for office space, where money was being spent like it was going out of style. That was 2000 after all.

It was nice — picking out the best that Chicago has to offer, tailored to their specific interests and seeing all of my bikes being ridden around is an interesting thing to behold. Vegetarian restaurants were visited, coffee and tea shops were left in our wake and we rode north, south, east and west.

What interests me most these days, alongside riding bikes and obsessing over trying to find the right small day bag, is conversation and engaging in it on silly and serious levels. Ultimately, it’s what you talk about — how you say and how you listen.

I spoke and listened. What I heard is that good things may be afoot.