Chicago MMXII

Wow, we just got an email about this at work. I can't remember ever having gotten a similar notice. I'm probably not leaving for another couple hours, so hopefully everything will be OK by then.

yes the sun-times story said roy's was "engulfed" so i guess a pretty big fire?

what a weird word

It's a lot of smoke - http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=8680800

LL, please give your K8ie my condolences about Roy's. I know she was a fan, too (she is the one who told me to shop there). I had been meaning to go there to look for a kitchen table.

Oh, weird. Ok.

Lots of smoke at Lincoln/Fullerton.

apparently the metra to ravenswood isn't running either due to a fatality?!?!

End times!!!

All the news sites are telling people to take the 35/22, which was my first alternate, but that's going to be complete chaos so I need to find a more creative solution to this problem.

Hey, do you remember very lovely mark e who came to Chicago and had drinks with us? fuck cancer I had missed this, so wanted to note it here in case anybody else had.

I never met him, but I read that thread and couldn't even manage to fomulate any kind of meaningful response. I just can't even begin to imagine that kind of pain.

I'm not saying anybody should feel obligated to post anything (at all) - just that I had missed the thread and would have posted sooner had I seen it.

Airports are probably fine but I associate them so firmly with stress/frustration/physical discomfort/flying somewhere I don't want to go, that I hate them by proxy.

I mean, they're not as fun as heavy traffic on the Kennedy, but I still love them very much. :D

Something really fucked is happening on the Halsted bus line. I think bc of the fire from what people are saying on phones. Driver letting people on thru the back door, dozens of people at each stop can't fit. Yuck.

I have a comfy window seat with cold a/c though.

JESUS. North & Clyborne has at least 50 people waiting at the bus stop.

Xp I haven't checked the cancer thread yet, but I remember Mark and hope he's ok....

Of course I remember Mark E! I'll go see what's happening.
He is a delight.

I've been on the Lincoln bus for an hour and am just at Fullerton. Got a seat though.

Well I missed my shrinkpoinent bc of this mess. The mayhem! It's like Independence Day on this bus route :-/

It seems improbable but it looks like i can see smoke all the way down at Fullerton.

Almost sure of it.

My plan B (36/22) was a bust. Plan C (13-something, 15-something) was fucked. Like, you couldn't walk by on the sidewalk for all of the people waiting. So I decide to walk north on Clark until the cab competition thinned out. Made it to Clark St Ale House. Having a beer.

…to be continued

i just realized that i have a condo meeting tonight
5 hour fac mtg + condo meeting in one day is a spelunking expedition into the pits of hell

I made it home before 5 PM, ran 6 miles in less than stellar air quality, and then ate a peach pop.

Get an I Go and come pick me up? :D

Also stop gloating. Your wife is trapped in River North or wherever the hell I am.

But you're having beer and I am not.

You might as well eat dinner there because I forgot to take out chicken. But by the time you get back it may be defrosted anyway.

People by my house said you could smell smoke in the air.

I ran, too. To my doc's office. Sucked. But he gave me a Diet Coke.

The only food here is pretzel rods. ;_;

I'm going back out to try and get a cab in about 15 min. Hopefully northbound 22 buses are okay by now. I'm buzzed enough to not be too miserable if I end up standing with my face in a stranger's armpit.

They're playing Bad Religion.

Now Better Than Ezra "Good." I'm totally going to sing to the dude next to me talking about his PC setup and making dick jokes. Y'all know how much I like to sing this song.

WahhhawwwawwwwawwwawwWAHawwww

STAND DOWN RED ALERT. I walked out of the bar and into a cab. I repeat: stand down red alert.

We're stuck in traffic now, though, and "I Did It All For The Nookie" is on the radio. Lolllllll at me forever.

I can't believe it's actually 80 degrees out here! The dew point must be insanely low b/c it feels AMAZING out here. I got a chill a minute ago when the wind hit my sweaty neck. Dry heat, yo!

Dew Point: 36 °F

That's awesome.

This is Je55e J3ndra with traffic and weather on the eights.

Ah! Turns out that I never knew where Roy's was. I thought it was at Lincoln, Irving, and Damen. No wonder there was smoke in Lincoln Park.

Boy was today a horrible day to have to drive. 2.5 hours to get home. LSD was a parking lot, 1.5 of those hours were simply getting from Balbo to Fullerton. I considered leaving my car overnight and taking a cab, but my boss called and said he abandoned his cab because it was just sitting and not moving anywhere.

Looks like Roy's is pretty much screwed, they're going to tear down the whole building now.

I hope it was an intentional insurance fraud fire and they wanted to lose the whole business and they don't get caught.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-man-injured-in-stabbing-inside-uptown-bar-20120530,0,2901475.story

I wonder which bar?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-teen-dies-after-early-morning-uptown-neighborhood-shooting-20120529,0,6503948.story

Good grief!

Okay, one more - http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-brown-red-purple-lines-shut-down-due-to-extraalarm-fire-20120529,0,328774.story

Not only did Roy's burn down, a Metra train killed somebody, and a fire near Rockwell muffed up Brown Line trains up thataway.

I'm glad to know I'm not the only weirdo who felt a bond with Roy's, though.

Luckily, everything was copacetic for me when I left work at 8. Kr was stranded in Evanston for a while, though.

The stabbing was on the 5000 block of N Clark and the only bar I'm aware of on that block is T's.

Man, Roy's was apparently an institution. I feel like I'm back in Wilkesboro the way people are eulogizing it. My barber said she sent a lot of her customers there and said how cheap and cluttered but nice it was.

Whoa that's right by my work!

Oh shit, the shooting was at Laurie's Pizza. Huh.

Both are right by your work and right by my old apartment.

What is going on Chicago? Calm down with the shooting and stabbings, eh?

just get the fires and violence over by July 3.