Bon Vieux Temps - A

 

[In the following, my "tone" may be off a bit.  My thoughts and emotions about the following are rather all over the map.  In many ways I am not sure I know what to think about the following just yet.  My thoughts are still rather embryonic, and are marinating in the amniotic sac of growth.  My thoughts also vacillate back and forth from positive to negative, etc.]

My group of folks I was attached to at this conference are a nice enough bunch.  They hail from all sorts of regions across the US.  I do not know if it was purposeful on the part of the conference folks, or just happenstance.... but each group of five seemed to have a specific distribution of ages.... one "old guy" (or gal), one person appearing to be in their mid-40s to perhaps very early 50s, one person in their 30s, and two "youngsters" (probably late 20s).  In my group, as you can surmise.... I was apparently needed as the representative "old guy". 

 As you know from what I wrote about yesterday, it had been a rather intensive set of meetings most all of the afternoon on Friday and well into the evening on Friday.   As mentioned we ate dinner together Friday to continue working on topics of the meeting while in a restaurant Friday evening, and came back and worked some more.  Saturday's efforts started bright and early too.

Everyone in my group seemed to be of the "eager-beaver" type of mindset... meaning they wanted to work... and to work... and work some more.  The Energizer Bunny could have taken lessons from the folks in my group. I CAN and DO work hard.  BUT, I have a significant challenge with working in group settings for EXTENDED periods of time.  I begged off from going to lunch with my team members on Saturday.

Dammit!  I was in CHICAGO.  I can work non-stop at home.  

And, I am rather introverted by nature.... so too many "group" activities wipe me out emotionally and physically.  I NEEDED some time by myself.  NEEDED to NOT have to be "on" for a while.  While it may sound inconsistent, but walking about in the big city, although crowded, felt like some of the much needed "alone" time I was craving.  

So, I promised my group members that I would be back at the started time of the afternoon session at 1:45pm.  I found out later that the others in my group ended up eating lunch in the restaurant at the conference hotel and continued to work, but, the best I can say is c'est la vie. 

In my mind's eye as I had been imagining this trip... I had hopes to visit the Iwan Ries Tobacco Shop and the Hemingway Home Museum in Oak Park.  And, I also very much needed to attend Mass as well.

Well, with the schedule of the conference, and the extremely "gun ho!" nature of my comrades in my group, I knew I really did not have a helluva lot of (if any) free time.  With aspects of the conference and its "group work" extending late into the evening again on Saturday, I realized it also shot-to-hell my pipe dream (pun intended) of buying a day pass membership to the palatial Iwan Ries Smoking Lounge, having a few drinks, smoking my pipe, and just relaxing for a few hours.   

I had to think things through carefully in order to at least have SOME modicum of fun on this damn trip.  The conference was set to end early Sunday morning.  That did not leave too much time before my flight.  I needed, at the very least, to attend Mass before I took the "L" back to O'Hare.  And, unfortunately, Iwan Ries was closed on Sunday.  

So, at ~2:00am this morning, I was mapping out a plan.  The best I could come up with is as follows:

Sunday, if I high-tailed it out of the conference as quickly as possible, I could hop on the "L" and likely reach Oak Park just in time for 11:00am Mass at St. Edmund Catholic Church.  And, immediately after Mass, I could easily and quickly walk over to the Hemingway Home Museum and get a tour of the place.  With tours running ~90 minutes or so, I thought I might be pressing it a bit, but I thought take the tour and then I could then hop back on the "L" and take the train to O'Hare with just enough time to get my ticket, get through security, and get to the appropriate gate for my flight.  

The above plan seemed reasonably possible to do.  However, it left out my other hope.... to at least VISIT Iwan Ries.  

With my already knowing I would be working all day and into the night on Saturday with my group, I knew there was no longer any hope of spending a few hours in the lounge at Iwan Ries.  I felt a lot of mixed emotions about that realization.  

Before I knew the intensity of this conference schedule, I was still hemming-and-hawing about whether I should have a pipe while there or not. But, now, I realized that option was gone.  And from what I read, the smoking policy of Chicago strictly forbids smoking indoors anywhere (from what I read, Iwan Ries had to get special permission for the Lounge space, and there could be no sales of any sort in that space.  The Lounge had to be separate from the store itself). 

Having the option of potentially smoking  my pipe in the lounge taken away... felt quite disheartening to me.... even though I felt undecided about whether I was going to ultimately smoke my pipe or not.  With the indecisiveness on whether or not I should smoke my pipe in the lounge off the table...  the decision on whether to smoke my pipe was no longer resting on my shoulders as it had been determined by City of Chicago edict.

So, I got up Saturday feeling a bit frustrated.  Fortunately, the hotel's fitness center was open 24 hours.  I got up at 5:00am and ran an extra fast and hard 3.1 miles (5 km) (Note.... I had completed my goal mileage on Friday, so I did not have to run at all.). I thought it would help me dissipate my frustration.  

The run did ease my frustration in a way.  While running, I came up with an idea in my mind.  I decided that no matter what "the group" wanted to do at lunch (who am I kidding, they were going to want to WORK), I was going to take that time for me, and go to Iwan Ries. 

Not being able to ultimately smoke my pipe in the Lounge actually helped with my resolve to make the decision to say to my group members (this is in my mind, of course) "To hell with working through lunch!" a bit easier.  In reality,  I told "the group" that I needed to run an "important errand" with the very limited time I had in our lunch break. 

I did, though want to at least SEE the INSIDE of this historic and beautiful tobacco shop. To ME, this WAS important.  This became my goal during the lunch break. 

As soon as the lunch beak was announced,  I was hoofing it out the door as fast as I could, stocking hat and gloves already in place on my head and hands.  And my backpack was strewn across my shoulder.  

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