Dwelling in Probabilities

We're back from our lovely whirlwind Amtrak tour of scenic Wisconsin/southern MN/northern Illinois.
Jana's award turned out to be a bigger deal than we expected (in a really good way) so we got off to a great start. One of our Chicago friends got to join us for that, which was very cool. The hotel turned out to be far more swank than we epected so it turned out we got a really good deal on the room.
On Saturday, I met up with some erotica writers who I know from online and had a lovely lunch with them while Jana went off to go be a happy book artist at the Newberry. We got to eat dinner with a friend who we hadn't seen for awhile and her charming new (to us) toddler. All good.
I happened to notice a concert announcement for Estrojam (kind of like a women's music festival in a hip urban way) in the paper so off we went. Turned out I had us get off the train a few stops early, then dragged poor Jana a long way through the rain and drunkend Cubs fans part Wrigley Field to get to a club called The Metro (like First Avenue but with more character). But it was all worth it because we got to see NINA HAGEN do a benefit for Chicago Girls Rock, the new rock and roll camp for girls. If you haven't had the pleasure of listening to the diva herself, Nina is a punk diva/performance artist from Berlin. She's been performing for decades now; singing quirky songs about peace and love, women's rights, animal rights and the plus side to meeting aliens (the outer space kind). Have I mentioned that she rocks? Absolutely amazing show. And the women acrobats weren't half bad either. :-)
Sunday, we were off to the Shedd Acquarium, followed by water taxis and trollies all over the place. Then we went wandering in search of dinner and found one of the best restaurants we've ever eaten at. It's called Vermillion and it serves Indian/Latin American fusion. Who'd have thought that chocolate, cream and avocado with a side of pepper sauce would work together? Check it out if you're in Chicago and feeling both flush and experimental - 10 W. Hubbard.
Monday morning, we were off to the Cultural Center of Chicago to check out a fascinating exhibit of work by women artists from 175 countries or so. It'll move on to San Francisco some time in the next few months to form part of the core collection of the new Women in the Arts Museum in San Francisco.
A swell time all around. And now back to work...