Saturday, November 1, 2008

I woke up at 5:51 AM Saturday morning, having set my alarm at 5:40 AM but hitting "Cancel" instead of "Change." After a moment of mild panic, I threw my breakfast into my carry-on and dashed to the airport to catch my 7:21 AM flight to O'Hare. The flight went without a hitch and I made my way to take the train to downtown. Two stops later, the conductor announced this was the last stop. Bewildered, I followed everyone off the train, when a nice hotel worker told me that the blue line tracks were closed between Jefferson Park and Cumberland due to construction. They packed us onto shuttle buses to take us around the closed zone, then put us back on the train. I navigated a few more subway and bus changes and made it to my friend Kailin's apartment near the University of Chicago.

We wrangled out our afternoon plans, I dozed for half an hour, and then headed out the door for lunch in Chinatown. We ate at Lao Shanghai, ordering Xiao Long Bao (soup dumplings for which Shanghai is famous), vegetable soup for two, salt and pepper fish (Kailin), and Szechuan eggplant (me). The food was good and portions were huge, but service was a little poky and ambiance nonexistence, for those who care about that sort of thing. Total for lunch was about $35 including tip. We ended up boxing about 1/3 of our dishes each, though the eggplant was too saucy to survive an afternoon jostling in a cardboard takeout box.

Picture from LTHForum post
Reviews: Yelp.com; Citysearch

At this point, Kailin left to take in a show at Steppenwolf with a friend, and I poked around in Chinatown for about 45 minutes before leaving to meet Anna at Navy Pier. I ended up getting a bamboo steamer and foot pumice, though I tried without avail to find a mentholatum inhaler for Josh.

At Navy Pier there were still some Halloween things floating around, as well as many, many children. It probably would have been more fun if we were, say, five. But I did get in touch with my inner child, sort of...

We hiked over to Michigan Avenue and made a beeline for American Girl Place. This is basically the greatest shrine to spoiled middle-class childhood possible, and I came to do my obeisance.

My parents bought me Kirsten when I was a kid and I loved her a lot, but Samantha was always my favorite. When I went to Chicago last year for New Year's, I talked myself out of buying her and I've been kicking myself ever since. When I found out that Samantha was retiring at the end of 2008, I knew I had to get her before it was too late.

Other stops along the way included the Disney Store, Macy's, Crane & Co Paper, the Lego Store, Ta-Ze, and the Sanrio store. Many of those purchases include Christmas gifts, so they cannot be written about yet. On the way home Kailin took me to Open Produce, a little place "dedicated to providing fresh produce to the community at affordable prices." Their prices were higher than the average Columbus grocery, but the concept was intriguing and I was only buying a little bit, so I splurged on a $1.50 giant plum.

Sunday, November 2, 2008
Woke up at no-idea-what-time-thanks-to-Daylight-Savings-and-Central-Standard-Time. Ate some fruit, then went back to sleep. Woke up again, showered, had some oatmeal and read a little before getting on the bus to go back downtown. Wound up at the Museum of Science and Industry, waiting for the #10 bus to come at 10:10. At 10:20, getting slightly concerned, I called the CTA to check whether the 10 was rolling that day. It was, but did not start until 11:10. My audition was supposed to start at 11:30. I frantically called Kailin to see if there were alternate ways to get downtown, and she told me to cross the street and catch the #6...just as it rumbled away. A cab driver saw me bumbling down the road flailing my arms around and asked if I needed a ride. I spent my last $20 cash to get to the Westin on Michigan Avenue by 11:00 and heard the cabbie's colorful views on politics. (Keeping in mind that Chicago is on fire for Obama.)

At the Westin, I found the audition room and filled out some paperwork. They snapped Polaroids (seriously?!) of each person (19 total) and ushered us into an extremely cold meeting room. After introductions (lots of political science majors and quiz bowl graduates), they gave us some hints about answering questions, then administered another 50-question test. This was followed by 7 mock rounds of Jeopardy with three of us playing at a time. After each round they did the little personality interview Alex Trebek always does after the first commercial break on the show. Then we were free to go.

A girl from Kansas State and I made our way to O'Hare, which was a little nerve-wracking because I rolled in around 3:10 for a 4:00 flight. Luckily I got through security fairly quickly and settled onto the plane next to a guy who turned out to be from England, working for OCLC. The sun set behind me as I jetted back to Buckeye Country, after the craziest weekend I've had in a while. Callbacks will be in late March for taping in April. Stay tuned...