To The City That Will Always Have My Heart: Chicago
Chicago, you will always have my heart but I hate the hell out of you! Here is an open letter to the city of Chicago;
Warning! For those who truly love Chicago, the Windy City, you might want to advert your eyes for the next couple of sentences.
I hate Chicago. I mean, I really, really hate Chicago.
Listen, I am and have always been a gypsy, a free spirit whose wanderlusting heart finally got stuck in New Orleans. But, due to circumstances out of my control, my body had to come back up north. After another one of my long absences from living in “The Smelly Onion/ Striped Skunk” or Shikaakwa, what the Native American Miami-Illinois tribe so rightfully dubbed this land, it was time to leave the Big Easy. Honestly, this city causes a reaction in me like Malcolm McDowell’s character, Alex, in A Clockwork Orange gets when hearing Beethoven’s 9th Symphony during the brainwashing scene..
I’m being serious here, just driving up the Dan Ryan Expressway and seeing the city’s skyline, or just beginning to descend in an airplane and noticing Lake Michigan pop into view before landing at O’Hare Airport, causes me so much anxiety that Dr. Phil would have a field day with me! But Chicago, being the extremely tempestuous vixen that she is, likes to throw you these amazing Jon Lester type of curveballs when you least expect it.
Note: If you don’t know who Jon Lester is just google, “ badass Cubs pitcher from the 2016 World Series.”
So here I am, back in The Windy City, once again doing my best impersonations of Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part 3 saying, “ Just when I thought I was out…they pull me back in.” to squirrels in Grant Park.
For me, over the years, Chicago, has taken on the role of the drunken aunt at a very dysfunctional family reunion.
You know, the one that smells constantly of cheap perfume and booze. Yep, you know the one, because every family has one. That one that no one can stand but we all have have to put up with because they are family, but you, as the oddball….you secretly love them because once they are trashed all the real dirt comes out. The one that everyone in the family talks badly about, but if someone outside of the family does, and you hear about it, you would cut that bitch! Chicago and Chicagoans are like that!
Somehow in my sick and twisted mind and deep down in my little blackhearted soul, Chicago, even with all its drama and dysfunctional drunken aunt syndrome, I find myself always coming back for more and defending this town. Perhaps I’m a glutton for punishment or perhaps it’s that feeling of something so familiar, that makes me come back, but Chi-town, no matter how much I despise you, you will always have a place in my heart.
Let me shed some light. I was born here. I grew up here. My family is here. My daughter was born here. This city holds keys to my past. Chicago is my city of firsts.
Almost every part of this city has a walk down memory lane. My first love and my first heartbreak was here. My first kiss, first time having sex, first drink, first drug, my first concert, and my first time really exploring the world around me was on these streets. I got to see so many walks of life with every different neighborhood that surrounds downtown. From Wicker Park to Pilsen, to Logan Square, The South Loop, Bronzeville, Ukranian Village and beyond, miles upon miles of countless adventures and new firsts just waiting to be had.
Everything you want is at your fingertips here.
From amazing food to the birthplace of Blues. From Second City to speakeasies that served Al Capone back in the days of prohibition. High end shopping on the Magnificent Mile to the Flea Market and the best tacos ever to be found every Sunday at the Maxwell Street Market on Desplaines. This town has something for everyone. It is and always has been a cross between New York and Los Angeles, but with a blue collar, down home Midwestern charm mixed with a lot of corruption and underbelly grittiness. And that my friends, is character!
Chicago plays the role as a city of firsts for so many people who come here, that it creates such an electricity and vibe that people wind up falling in love with this town.
So much that they would even go through winters with a -30 below wind chill ,frozen eyelashes, and brain freeze. That’s why, this time when I came back, this city and I have come to an agreement to live in harmony with one another (for now or until that North Wind blows again and I just got to go! ) If I give Mama Chicago more of a chance and show the love, she will show me love too. She will open her arms with opportunity, open my eyes to her beauty( which is extremely plentiful) , and allow the artistic muse that runs rampant in the streets to come over and play, continuously.
Ole Frankie Blue Eyes Sinatra had it right when he said that Chicago was My Kind of Town, because once this baby gets into your heart, it’s in there forever, even when you hate it.
