Some bad planning and worse communication between folks who organized a client meeting found me in Chicago for an extra night and a day. At first I was peeved about being stuck there instead of being at home. Then I reconsidered that feeling - the nest is empty now. Home is not what home used to be. We one of us travels the other catches up on errands and is usually at around much. Home has become a more static base of life - things remain the same there and it's largely empty. Walking around downtown Chicago that evening was a time to take a hard pause from work and the daily routine of home. I focused on the stop signs, browsed stores, watched the boats in the river and people milling about.
A young woman walk down State Street a little ahead of for several stop signs until we parted ways, reminded me of J a lot. She would be about the same age, maybe working her first job. It is how I imagine J looks as she goes about her independent life. I paid attention to her attire and how she backpack matched her shoes by design or accident. When passing by Philz Coffee, I remembered at once how this was J's favorite coffee at some point and she bought me a bag as a gift sometime in high-school. Part of me wanted to go there get a coffee just to relive that memory but that was not how that memory was even made. When I returned to the hotel several hours later, my mind felt clearer than it has been in a while.
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