The Berghoff

The Berghoff is a famous old German restaurant in downtown Chicago. I've walked past it too many time to count, taken dozens of pictures of their sign, but only visited one half time. 

In 2006 many terrible things were happening in Chicago. Chicagoans went momentarily crazy and allowed Marshall Fields to disappear and The Berghoff to close. It was my senior year and I had made many many efforts to make a last visit to my beloved Fields and hadn't made it. When my aunts suggested they take my sister and I to Chicago to visit The Berghoff and Marshall Fields one last time I, of course, accepted. We made the trip in February 2006. As we trekked down Adams and got closer and closer to The Berghoff it took our notice that the famous sign was not lit up. We also noticed that the crowds which should have accompanied the last day of this historic restaurant were non existent. My aunts had gotten the date wrong and a lonely sign on the door told us were one day too late. 

The happy ending is that instead we dined at the Walnut Room and bought Christmas ornaments at Fields one last time before the unspeakable turn to Macy's. The Berghoff had an even happier ending and reopened, hardly two months after our visit.

And that my friends, is how I visited the Beghoff one half times. 

And I'm Back!

Normal optimistic Char is back with vengeance today! (that's kind of an oxymoron I do think...) This video did it for me. If you don't do anything else all day watch this video. It will be so worth it. 

Ok first, it's in Chicago. Put anything in Chicago and I will fall in love with it. That's all it takes. I'm super easy. Second, anytime I can recognize things I'm a goner. "That's the bean! That's Millennium Park! Wrigley! I've been there! The Art Institute! OMG!" All-it-takes. Third, can I just tell you for a minute how much of a sucker I am for love stories? Hermione and I are notorious for asking how couples met, fell in love, got engaged, got married. First date stories are the best! It's pretty much my favorite thing to do and I always always want to ask people but I do realize that that is not always appropriate so I don't... However I have to say, not one person has looked at Hermione and I reproachfully when we ask, on the contrary, each person's eye (be they man, woman, or professor) has lit up in an excited yet embarrassed way and fully expelled every little detail much to our insane enjoyment. 

Life is good my friends. Life is good. 

Awful Awful Night...

Working on a horrendous midterm at the moment... Next time warn me before I take a 400 level class as a tutorial... The roomie picked tonight of all nights to actually stay in our room (only the second time so far this year) and tomorrow little kids come trick or treating in our dorm so the girls on my floor are up late decorating and they're making more noise than I thought humanly possible. Quite possibly the worst timing ever in the history of the world.

To be here is all I want in the world right now. 

I Believe it's Officially Fall...

I was reading one of my favorite blogs today and she was writing about how excited she was to see that her husband had turned on the heat for the first time this fall. I felt the same way friday night when i got home for fall break, except it was my dad turning the heat on because ya know, I'm a 21 year old college student, but the overall effect is the same! Anyway, there's just something so great about going outside and finally knowing without a doubt that it is fall. For me, that means that winter is around the corner, for others it means beautiful scenery and crisp days, and for others it means apple cider and pumpkins. Any which way you slice it, it's good. 

At the end of the blog however she mentions that she knows it's fall because Macy's has decorated their windows. I would like to take this opportunity to reassert my devotion to Marshall Fields and my absolute disdain of all things Macy's. Poor choice of department store KA, poor choice... 

However, not being from Chicago I suppose I can't expect her to know, but still...

Hancock Observatory

This is why I love this city. Right now I want to go home, hope on the South Shore, and spend the rest of my day here. Every moment I'm more convinced that I am meant to live in this city at least for a little while. We're soul-mates. 

Photo Courtesy of Shoplifters of the World

Quarter-Life Crisis? Perhaps...

I've gotta say, I've been feeling kind of weird for a few months now. I first noticed it when I was not at all motivated by my history quizzes or excited by the bits of  knowledge it constantly throws at me that I normally rattle off to my boyfriend and family while they roll their eyes and appease me by telling me how insanely cool it is that the influenza epidemic wiped out millions. There are just a lot of things that I want and with the decisions I've made in the past it doesn't seem likely that I'll get them. For example, I really want to live in the city for awhile, and I'm not sure why, but it's really important to me. When I go to Chicago with people the first thing they say when we get back to Westville is that the city is nice but it really makes you appreciate how great such a small town is. I never say that. I love the city and if anything getting back to Westville makes me miss it. Now if I had gone back a few years ago and picked going to Purdue for fashion merchandising that dream would be almost a certainty in the very near future. But I didn't, I picked social studies ed at Manchester which seemed like a really great decision at the time, but now sometimes I question it. On a somewhat smaller note, I'm also conflicted about my friends. I've got two really close friends and neither of them are very much like me. Now I see Sex and the City and how different those girls are and how it makes their friendship better, but sometimes I just want someone to really understand how I feel because they feel the same way too, not because empathy allows them to figure out how I might be feeling. Well anyway, things have been weird and I felt like letting a few of them go. Maybe I'm going through a quarter-life crisis. Does that exist?

Blog Tag... Fact I

Blog Tag!

The Rules:

-Link to your tagger and post these 3 rules on your blog > check!

-Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird > getting there...

-Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs > yeah I don't know 7 people that blog so...

- Let them know they are tagged by leaving a com

ment on their blog > yup can't do that either...

So because of time constraints (my limited attention span, and the limited amount of time my creativity will remain active) I'm going to do this in a few different blogs tonight, well, hopefully all tonight... 

Fact I

I love Chicago. If I won oodles of cash and a 

free vacation to anywhere in the US on a game show, I would go to Chicago. I've been there probably a hundred times and I still love it. Sometime in late elementary I got to take classes at the Chicago Ballet, and quite honestly I hated it, it was on the 14th floor of some building on Wabash and they refused to use air conditioning because sweat is good for you (however, let me tell you, 90 degree July heat and sweaty pointe shoes filled with pus from your toes are not a good mixture...) Anyway, during the hours I waited with my mom and/or dad for the South Shore to come and rescue me we explored downtown Chicago. It wasn't my first time there, I had taken countless field trips to the museums and my grandma had taken me to Marshall Fields for Christmas, but it was the first time that I went and just walked around. I don't enjoy being on a schedule, I like to be able to do what I want to do and I love to look at things and observe. That summer was the first time I got to do that in Chicago, and it was the beginning of my love for that city. 

I love that it's always too cold or too hot so dressing appropriately is pretty much impossible, you'll wear a parka and I guarantee that it will be 70 degrees when you step onto Millennium Station platform. I like the crazy people on the South Shore and the people who will hand you a pamphlet on anything from Judaism to why George Bush looks like a monkey. I love LaSalle Street and how it looks so clean and pretty. I love the loop and the noisy El. I love how because everyone is so rude when you do smile at them or say excuse me they look at you like you just handed them a one hundred dollar bill (or they just stare down their 

stuck up noses at you...). I love going into buildings and getting in an elevator, pushing all of the buttons, then getting out on each floor to make a mad dash to the nearest window to check out the view! I love that Subway is the only fast food place that costs the same amount as in Indiana. I love that Chicagoans won't shop at Macy's. I love to hear the spirited debates over the Cubs and Sox in the streets. I love how it's always too busy and the lines are always too long. I love everything about that city! Honestly I could go on and on, and I'm sure in a future blog I will, but for now I think this is enough... 

Fact II tomorrow