The entirety of this week will probably be dedicate to my thoughts on this year’s Willow Creek Arts Conference. It was great, and I’m glad I went. My first post is about “the city.” I’m 100% convinced that I love South Carolina, and God has called me here. Sure, there’s a cool transit system in Chicago. We made it into the main part of the city briefly to eat, snap some cool pictures, and get out once again. But I can say I’ve been.
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What really impressed me was the area slightly North West of the city where we saw the Blue Man Group in the Briar Street Theater. This is much more my style than the “big city.” From what I can gather, it’s an arts district of sorts.
There were tons of anime / comic book / retro-shabby / art stores, and one incredible coffee shop that had a fiercely good vegan apple cake (and yes, I did have the coffee).
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Blue Man Group? This was one of the highlights, and was an outing arranged as part of experiencing the arts in the city. What are they? Hard to say, it’s a combination of performance art, comedy (think Steven Wright meets a mime, very down played), percussion (played with various PVC instruments), and toilet paper (you had to be there). The Briar Street Theater seats around 500, and provides a very intimate show. The Blue Men frequently make their way into the audience, and pick people at random to get involved with the performance. Totally enveloping.
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In all, I loved experiencing the city of Chicago, but I wouldn’t want to live there, especially after dealing with the toll roads.
Glad you returned home safe and sound….you are right….it isn’t hard to see why our hearts belong in SC. As I think I have told you, I spent four, six month periods where I left GSP on Monday mornings (I had the advantage of a company that would pay for the American Eagle shuttle direct between GSP and ORD) and returned Friday afternoons. That is a WHOLE lot of Chicago. I was further north than you, so I spent more time in the ‘burbs than in the city, but needless to say I know the area quite well.
I also had the opportunity to follow the same kind of schedule (setting up Distribution Centers on SAP enterprise software) in Dallas, Kansas City, Los Angles (Ontario), and San Jose…..so over a 6 year period I made approx 900 Monday morning and Friday afternoon flights.
Needless to say, that is why I left an outstanding company, higher salary, and a job I actually loved to go to work at Ryobi in good ol’ Anderson.
I know, I should have figured out that I needed to change jobs prior to 6 years of travel, but I kept thinking the projects would end and I would be back at my old job in Gvlle……
Anyway, glad you are home and glad you had a productive and enjoyable trip.
See ya soon,
chip
Ken, have ya seen Apocalypto?
Interesting post. I’m not entirely sure what you meant about the kansas city craft show though, could you elaborate?