dianaschnuth

I hadn’t known what happened that afternoon. All I knew was that I was trying to get home from work, and my dead-end street was blocked off by a fire truck and a couple of police cars. I contemplated going off-road and getting around the fire truck by driving through the field across the street; there was a cop car hanging out in the field, though, so I just parked the car a good five houses down and walked the rest of the way home.

I started out quite irritated, but felt my face soften when I saw the family huddled together on the sidewalk. Something had happened, I knew — something tragic.

I didn’t find out exactly how tragic until two days later, when a neighbor came to our door and asked for a donation for the family. Aaron and I were taken by surprise, and told the gentleman that we didn’t have any cash on us, before it occurred to us that we probably could have written him a check.

Fast-forward about six weeks. This evening, right before Aaron left for work, the 13 ABC remote van pulled into the field across the street from our house, near the tree where the incident occurred. Let me tell you, it’s a surreal experience to be watching a live remote on the local news, then to look out your front door and see the live remote happening right there.

Our neighborhood isn’t exactly close-knit. I only know the first name of our next-door neighbor’s son because he dropped his driver’s license in the street one day a couple years back. The gentleman who came to our door, who lives a few houses down, has offered to snowblow our driveway for $20 in years past. After about five years in our house, that’s about all the contact we’ve had with our neighbors.

Even so, even though I don’t know them personally, I feel for this bereaved family, and I do hope that they learn the truth about their son’s death soon.

So, Aaron and I are planning a quick getaway to Chicago over Labor Day Weekend. We decided that there’s enough interesting and fun things to do within a day’s drive of Toledo that there’s no excuse for us not to get out and experience them. Right?

We have a few ideas of things to do: check out the view from the Sears Tower, eat some pizza, walk around Millennium Park and enjoy sounds of the jazz festival, and hit Mitsuwa Marketplace, the giant Japanese market northwest of town. One friend suggested the planetarium, which sounds totally cool. Another friend is trying to convince us to go see Blue Man Group, too, but we’re not totally sold on it yet.

In order to generate ideas for things to do and places to visit, I decided to Google the phrase, “in Chicago, you have to…”

Here’s what I came up with, vacation-appropriate or not:

• In order to brave the elements in Chicago, you have to dress yourself accordingly—three fleeces layered on top of each other and a ski mask.
• If you are in Chicago, you have to go here [Giordano’s Pizza] for dinner at least one night.
• You’re in Chicago- you have to pay a visit to River North.
• When running in Chicago you have to run along the lake.
• But [Sears Tower]’s the third tallest building in the world and once you are in Chicago you have to go!
• I still don’t understand why in Chicago you have to pay for parking at the hotel you are paying to stay at.
• Are you still in Chicago? You have to make a pilgrimage to Hot Doug’s! Gourmet hot dogs.
• (In Chicago, you have to ask for ketchup on your hot dog.)
• Also, when you’re in Chicago you have to try chicago style hot dogs and Italian Beef.
• In Chicago, you have to pay double tolls if you don’t use the automated system, and it’s a lot slower.
• If you are in Chicago, you have to go and see a concert to get the real summer in Chicago experience.
• In Chicago, you have to get the deep dish.
• If you’re in Chicago, you have to visit Michigan Avenue, and since you’re seeing Michigan Avenue, you have to amble down Oak Street.
• I started out in Chicago. You have to learn the business.
• If you are in Chicago, you have to try Goose Island and it’s even better if you drink it at one of their fine establishments.
• If you’re in Chicago, you have to have a potbelly [sandwich].
• Now, since you’re in Chicago, you have to get a flame broiled steak at the Weber Grill (yeah, sounds touristy, but the quality is excellent) and a stuffed pizza at Giordano’s – just don’t have the pizza for lunch before a game.

Well, then. That should keep us busy.

To wrap up, I’ll leave you with this little number from the 1982 movie Victor/Victoria:

While I didn’t get our entire vacation video edited in time for last night’s party, I did manage to get our Nikko video edited down to a brisk four minutes. Expect more shorts from our Japan vacation in the coming weeks!

Aaron and I had been dating for less than a year when he moved out of his dad’s house at age 22. After that, we were finally able to spend weekend nights together (as the twin bed in my dorm room wasn’t terribly conducive to overnight stays, and I couldn’t exactly sleep over at his house with his dad around).

Those days were lean for Aaron, monetarily speaking, so he’d make food for us most Saturdays, except when we went to the $5 Chinese Buffet for lunch. There were a couple of years, one in particular, that I remember spending entire Saturdays in his apartment, eating Chicken Helper Shake-N-Bake for lunch or dinner — rather, the more generic but still tasty Chicken Bakin’ Magic or Chicken Bakin’ Miracle — and playing video games ALL DAY LONG. Broken up by rounds of snoo-snoo, of course.

Recently, Aaron ripped the audio from the Puyo Puyo Sun PlayStation game, and we listened to a few select tracks on his computer, including the intro:

We played the shit out of this game back in the day, so I didn’t even need the visuals. I pantomimed everything that went on during the intro, even though I hadn’t played the game for years. And when the track got to about 1:35, I made the funny face I used to always make, mocking the main villain character (who, incidentally, is named Satan).

Yep, those were the days.

So, what else did we play? Let’s see… we started out on Saturn and SNES, mainly, then moved to Dreamcast and PlayStation. I remember playing Bust A Move, and Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, and Dr. Mario. [Edit: And how could I forget Tetris Attack? We played the shit out of that one, too.] We didn’t just do puzzle games, though; I held my own quite well in Soul Calibur and the occasional Bushido Blade. Later on, we got hopelessly addicted to the Tony Hawk games, with 2 and 3 being our favorites. As we got a little less rabid in our gaming days, we’d play Cool Boarders 2 and SSX Tricky and the later Tony Hawk games and Dave Mirra.

These days, we don’t do a whole lot of gaming together on the weekends. When we do, we tend to stick with Carcassone on Xbox 360, or Boom Blox, or sometimes Wii Sports or Rock Band.

We should really get back into gaming together, though, even if we have to drag out the Saturn or the Dreamcast to do it right. Those days were so much fun.

First brought to my attention via Wil Wheaton:

This is fan-freaking-tastic.