So, Natalie went for a two-week immersion set of classes in Improvisation and Comedy Screen Writing at Second City. Her flight to Chicago was cancelled by American Airlines. She had ten minutes to purchase a new ticket, and get on another airline, running back and forth between Southwest and American to try to handle the baggage she'd already checked on the first airline.
It was just unthinkable that she'd miss one moment of her classes. They're expensive, and this is her dream. American Airlines is pretty automated when it comes to customer service. She called, I called and after five days of continuing effort, her suitcase finally made it to her hostel.
Then she got sick. She telephoned me with, "mom, I can't breathe, I'm sick," at 5:00AM. I'm about 600 miles away. I begged her to get to a hospital, especially in view of the headache that accompanied her symptoms. I expected she got the flu on her flight. The Walgreen's walk-in clinic sold her a $41.00 inhaler and sent her on her way. I'm wondering if there's a conflict of interest there somewhere.
I had already decided I'd be leaving at the first possible moment to join her and drive her home. Good thing I did because Thursday night, her wallet "vanished magically" in transit. She'd just used her debit card to put money on the transit card and "poof" next time she looked, the wallet was gone. You can't fly without picture ID. You can't even pick up a Western Union moneygram.
Benjamin and Denise Carroll came to her rescue. Ben lives there and his mother Denise sent him with funds $$$. THANK YOU, PRECIOUS ONES!
Mom and I drove to Chicago in record time. Mega Yay for "Heart O Chicago" motel, with a more-than-decent $74.00 rate, unbelievable in the middle of a huge metropolis. It was clean and comfortable. The clerk wouldn't take a reservation so I had to race across a town I didn't know, following my Godfrey-voiced Garmin. We made it just in time to get the last room. Whew!
It was a joy just to drive around in Lincoln Park. OK, I'll admit it's a funny scale by which to judge the fitness of a district, but girls were dressed in minimal outfits with lots of summer skin showing; congregating, walking, standing securely in such a way that I relaxed about the safety-on-the-street of my daughter. Young men conversed, strolled, rode bikes and just generally made it look like a great place for young ones to live, play, work and visit. There were plenty of enticing restaurants and businesses amid the architecture of old established buildings one just wanted to stroll through for the old worlde ambience.
It's a place I am definitely going to revisit and "sit a spell." Natalie was sad to leave, and so was I.
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