Unconditional Chicagoland Suburbs

Yesterday on my mostly loving and uneventful drive to Chicagoland I stopped at the Ikea store in Bolingbrook.  It made me wish for lots of money to buy lots of beautiful furniture, but then I got control of my slobbering and headed down to "Marketplace" where there are small beautiful and fun affordable things to buy.  And buy a few I did.  I bought some cute little lamps, a shower curtain, a bathroom scale, some new wine glasses, and some special light bulbs to fit the cute little lamps. 

I paid in cash, which seemed to cause a flurry of anxiety among the employees at the checkout.  There are lanes which say "credit or debit only."  In fact most of the lanes said that.  So I got into a lane that did not say credit or debit only.  But after ringing up my purchases, the checkout gentleman said, "credit or debit?"  I said I would like to pay cash.  He had to call a manager.  I think they had to get some actual cash in the drawer to make change.  The process of counting out bills seemed to give my checkout gentleman a slight headache. 

I had wanted to stop by a Trader Joes while I was up in the area, too, but I ran out of time, shopping energy, and patience for driving in Chicagoland traffic.  Shortly after leaving Ikea a refrigerator box flew off the back of a pickup truck on I-355 but miraculously everyone behind him managed to stop without colliding with the box or with each other.  As I drove past in a different lane I saw the pickup truck driver gentleman running back toward the box.  I assume it didn't have a real refrigerator in it, but I didn't stick around to find out. 

I checked into my hotel which seems to be in an area of the suburbs where there are no stores or homes  It's on the west side of O'hare airport and the entire region appears to be filled with warehouses, businesses related to shipping and receiving, and truck parking lots.  Fortunately there is a restaurant in the hotel.  I ate at the bar and watched part of the Cubs game.  I enjoyed listening to a group of happy women seated at a table behind me, their laughter filling the room.

I headed back up to my room and watched the rest of the game, except for a short nap in the 7th and 8th innings.  When I awoke, the Cubs were still up 2-0 going in to the bottom of the ninth.  The Marlins had 2 on with 2 outs when one of their players hit a ball toward left field.  It looked like it would drop into a hole between Ramirez at 3rd, Soriano in left, and Starlin Castro (the youngest player right now in Major League Baseball at 20) at shortstop.  But out of nowhere came Castro, literally flying like superkid, and he caught the ball to end the game.  He got so excited that he ran over to Aramis Ramirez and hugged him.  It made me laugh with joy to see the joy he still experiences playing the game.  I will trade any big name star who seems bored with baseball for a bunch of young players who still have that love for the game when I'm manager.  Next Year!