“Come on, baby don’t you want to go
Come on, baby don’t you want to go
To the same old place, sweet home Chicago… ”

I’m back home again, but spent this past weekend in Chicago for the IDF Volunteer Conference.  I got really lucky flying out on Friday.  Thunderstorms had closed airports and canceled flights for many people.  I landed at Midway without any delay and didn’t even know there’d been a problem until we couldn’t pull up to a gate because there weren’t any available.  That’s when the pilot told us that the airport had been closed for an hour and that we were only the 2nd airplane to land since reopening.  I waited for Heather to arrive from Florida and ran into Sonia and Steve in the process.  We all rode the “L” together to get to our hotel, the Palmer House.  Friday night there was a reception and dinner planned.  Lisa’s flight was supposed to get in around noon, but 3 canceled flights later, she finally showed up by the time dinner was over.  Z showed  up during dinner.  Her boys were a bit upset with her though since it was her birthday and they wanted to spend it with her.  As is usually the case, our SCID group was ready to hang out in the bar where we could all chat and catch up. 

There were several different educational sessions which were really quite interesting, but which I doubt anyone would want to read about.  The fun part though was Saturday night’s dinner and show.  We had dinner at an Italian restaurant called Topo Gigo’s.  Food was great and the waiters really hustled.  Their entire tip must’ve been hinged on whether or not we got to the show on time.  Then on to Second City for their Main Stage performance of “No Country For Old White Men”.  What a riot!  The performers manage to make fun of just about every political view out there.  My face hurt I laughed so hard.