The girls hit boystown.

Sunday, May 24^rd, 2015.
Chicago, IL

It’s 10am and I am slowly waking for Day 2 of Chicago. Today will be a little less structured (and a lot more rainy). Kelly, Erin and I have a few Skype calls scheduled with other AmeriCorps members who were unable to make it to Chicago this weekend. Our first call is with Julio. He is great. I can’t believe how everyone looks exactly the same as they did 10 years ago! After we wrap up with him, we call Cate. I am super excited that she is joined by 2 surprise guests – Darcy and Mr. Bingsly! Her Americorps cats!! Since we’ve last talked Cate has completed 2 more degrees and was relocated to Belfast to work as a fulltime professor at Queens University. She also looks exactly the same.

Now that our morning calls are done we take a quick walk around Erin’s neighborhood and end up at a little café for brunch. Erin and Kelly order the only vegetarian option and I order a massive scramble. It is delicious.

Next stop – Bucktown. We spend most of the afternoon wandering in and out of various stores, most of them local designers from Chicago. I am amazed at how much I like the clothes here. Chicago is definitely my style!

For dinner we have a Groupon for ALOT of sushi at a BYOB sushi restaurant. We bring both beer and wine and have an awesome time.

After dinner we are slightly soaked, its been raining all day, and we are all bordering on tired. We have two options for our evening. Go back to the improve theater in hopes of getting a seat tonight or dancing in boystown. Naturally, we chose boystown. On the way to the bars, we end up making a quick side trip to Walmart. Kelly’s shoes are totally soaked and she has decided to buy a new pair. The Walmart is super nice, lending further evidence to my hypothesis that Chicago is the cleanest place in the world.

Around 8pm we show up at boystown. We are a little early, but its okay. It's time to dance! I start off with a couple of Red Bull and vodkas (a drink that was clearly invented for the gay bar). Soon we are dancing with everyone. I am wearing the same flannel shirt that had donned on this morning and I am pretty sure that people think I am a lesbian. It’s okay though, the crowd is strictly male and there is no interest in me regardless.

Around midnight we are getting tired and Kelly and I have the munchies. We try to get some donuts, but the line is out of control. Instead we end up at Subway.

Around 12:30am we are back at Erin’s place. It was a long, wet, awesome day. Tomorrow is our last day in Chicago and I am already starting to feel sad.