I can has Upfi?

[wendyzski]

Through a long process of ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to”s and “I’ve always wanted to” s,  a group of four women from the CheezFrenz Yahoo Group decided to take a vacation condo in Mexico (Cabo) for a week.  One of them is from Germany, and since she gets 6 weeks of vacation a year and was already headed across the pond, she decided to take some time and couch-surf around the US for a bit. 

First she landed in NYC and spent some time with csmall, and then on to upstate NY to visit some folks in Syracuse and visit Niagra Falls – they stayed in a Canadian hotel with a view of the falls and had a Canadian woman come and visit for a bit.  Then they put her on the overnight train to Chicago…

 

 When I told her that I assumed her train would be late, she asked why.  I replied “Because American trains are not like German trains”.  I was correct – she was a little more than half an hour late.  Since I had only seen photos of her, and her usual icon is a caterpillar, I was standing at the visitor’s ‘Do Not Cross This Line’ station holding a sign that read ‘I Can Haz Upfi?’ with a clip art of a caterpillar on it – much to the puzzlement of everyone else disembarking.  We went to get her some noms;  where she discovered that in addition to not knowing how to run trains on time, Americans have no concept of portion sizes.  She ate her soup for breakfast and ended up saving the sandwich for lunch.

 Because of the timing we only had a few hours to kill before taking the Megabus to Indy for more CheezMeetings, we stashed the luggage in a locker (you need to scan your fingerprints now to get a baggage locker o.O) and  I hit upon taking one of the Water Taxis up and down the river for a bit.  It’s a nice view of some of the more interesting buildings and bridges, doesn’t involve walking, and an all-day pass is only $6.  I was able to tell her about some of the more interesting ones, and some amusing stories about things like the Chicago Flood back in 1992 and the Eastland Disaster.  (Yay for having watched a LOT of Geoffrey Baer programs over the years…)

 

We were to get the Megabus at 3:30.  Since it’s a budget service, they just sort of line up on the street for one particular block and everyone somehow managed to get aboard the correct busses.  This did not compare favorably with German busses either, but she was very polite about it.  We boarded, and while we weren’t able to get the front window seats like I’d hoped I did get her a window seat and she got to see the ‘scenery’ of Indiana ( corn, corn, soybeans, corn, little pond, soybeans, cows, corn, soybeans…) on the way.  The bus was also late, but in this age of cellphones we were able to coordinate our pickup and meet with Punkin (OH) and Marfa (MI) as well as our local contacts KitKatsMon and Pfabulous Pfred.  We had a lovely dinner (and Upfi was counseled to ask for only HALF an order of ribs).  Then we all redistributed ourselves (Upfi was staying with KKM and PP and the rest of us were at a LaQuinta a few towns over – yay priceline!) and headed off to bed.  (Martha is the one who survived breast cancer and leukemia, is 2 years past bone marrow transplant, and still going)

 Since the official CheezMeet wasn’t until noon ( and I have severe cat allergies), we had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel and then hung about in the pool for a while before heading over.  There was a rather amusing moment when the three of us were sitting in the lobby on our various wireless devices while looking up and comparing directions to the Howse Uv KitKat.  We managed it fairly well, and while I was still “OK, what number are we looking for” in the development, Martha spotted the car in the drive with Ohio plates that read ‘LINDYCAT’ and we knew we had arrived! 

We had physical attendees from several states, and a couple of folks attended by phone and we even Skyped Sooz from Seattle!  There were lots of yummies and prezzies and talktalks and stories.  The folks in Syracuse had given Upfi a ‘Very Hungry Caterpillar’ scrapbook, so everyone had to fill out a page or two.  We overstayed our welcome by a few hours, but eventually I started wheezing and we had to make our departure.  Martha was driving Upfi and I back to Chicago, and they had to listen to me cough all the way back.  We got back a bit before 9, ordered in some Asian food from across the street and then crashed.

 In the morning, since at this point no one had any idea what time zone they were in, we all managed to get up and out eventually and headed down to Navy Pier to take a sail on the Tall Ship Windy.  I sang a couple of chantys for them (and for one of the ship’s storytellers), and we had a grand old time.  They were telling stories of Great Lakes Pirates, and at one point were handing around a beaver pelt.  Martha and I asked the nice young man if we could pet his beaver.  A lady across from us suggested that we might not have meant that how it sounded.  We told her that actually, we did.  Martha and I were laughing and Upfi was alternating between laughing with us , taking photos, and I suspect pretending that she didn’t’ know us…

 Martha’s knee was really bothering her, so we took the slow bus back (which was of course late) and Teenie arrived from MI a bit before we got back to my place.  We sat around icing Martha’s knee, telling stories and laughing, and eventually ordered in some Chicago Pizza.  (I was very sad to discover that Carmens has closed – so we ordered from Giordanos).  Sadly, I wasn’t able to get skype working on the living room computer so we were unable to call Sooz again.   Talktalktalk until fairly late but were still pretty good because Upfi had her flight out of O’Hare at 8:30 which meant getting there at 6:30 which meant leaving my place at 5:30.  O.O  Since Martha had to get back home by 1 she offered to drive her there, so Teenie and I got up, helped them load out, wished them well, and then went back to bed.

 We got up around 10 and then I spent some time duct-taping her (so that she can make a custom dress-form), and then she went off to have lunch with another Chicago friend and I took a nap.  Company is lovely, but a couple of days in strange places and I was very sleepy. 

The End.

 

Comments

[petmoosie.livejournal.com]

Very interesting about the lockers. Nice that there are some at all!

[lisagems.livejournal.com]

Sounds like fun.

Weird about Carmen's though. I noticed the eviction notice earlier this week, and saw an eviction notice on the Carmen's in Evanston yesterday.

How do you kill a pizza place next to a college campus? How do you kill TWO pizza places next to TWO separate college campuses? Weird. Sudden.

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

I had no idea they had closed until I tried to order. Phones were "temporarily out of service" and while the website was up it linked to GrubHub which then did not have them listed.

They were my original and favorite place for Chicago Pizza. I first went there in the fall of 1984, and was hooked. The Evanston location even moved twice - it used to be in that triangle-y building at Fountain Square (in the real estate space, and that area west of the 'el tracks on Church was some kind of factory. Their crust was a little more buttery and their sauce a smidge sweeter than other offerings. It was the frozen pizza I first took home in my luggage on college vacations. It was the place I ordered from when friends came to town and I wanted to show them "real" Chicago Stuffed Pizza. It was a downtown Evanston mainstay, and when we had a "reunion" of the old NU SF group we had it there because EVERYONE knew where it was!

I has a sad to find it gone.

[lisagems.livejournal.com]

Did some poking. Apparently they haven't been paying their rent, for like, a YEAR. wow. I figured Loyola was tearing down more buildings, but that... I'm guessing if the one here was in that much trouble, the one in Evanston, with a lot more close competition for eaters, was suffering as well.

I remember the Carmen's being in the triangle building. It was the 1st "Chicago style" pizza I had, too. Unfortunately, I was completely spoiled by the family's favorite pizza place in Elkhart. The butter flavored crust and sweet sauce tasted strange and not at all like the spicy sauce I was used to. I grew to like it more, later, but Volcano's St. Louis style pizza will always be my favorite.

Still. It's sad to see them gone. I'm not thrilled with the local alternatives.