Get Lit

Before I go too much further, I forgot something that happened on Friday. As we were walking back to the car a guy steps onto the curb a good twelve feet ahead of us. He’s built big with long black hair that goes past his shoulders. In his hands he holds a soccer ball. Eyeing me he tosses it straight up in to the air. I look away while Pete and Rob see where the ball lands. It smacks against the concrete with that deflated sound and the guy quickly walks over and kicks it around lightly, like a hacky-sack. After we cross to the other side of the street Pete says, “Anything can happen in Chicago.”

And now back to regularly scheduled blog…

Saturday morning and the day looked… alright. A lot of showers for the day and it being the Lit Fest, it wouldn’t surprise me if there was a torrential downpour (not that I wanted that to happen; I didn’t). The plan was for all four of us (Vicky included) to take the train into the city, walk over to the Fest and at some point Vicky was going to meet with her friend for lunch and eventually we would all go to the Blues Fest. All of us had our breakfasts separately and I grabbed my camera bag, making sure I had some Banana Boat SPF.

The train ride up to Union Station was uneventful for the most part. The spot we picked had train benches facing each other and I sat across from Pete. I take the book I’m holding in my camera bag, Jim Thompson’s “A Hell of a Woman,” and begin reading. Pete plugs earbuds into his ears from his iPod, and Rob and Vicky talk about… whatever. I don’t pay attention to them except when Pete points out the Farmer’s Markets each stop seems to have, that long procession of white tents. Vicky replies back and one time she exclaims, “Why’s that guy taking off his shirt?” Pete’s eyes shoot to her, he leans toward her and she replies, “Oh, he’s putting his shirt back on now. I was wondering about that.” I just shake my head.

At Union Station Vicky is trying to find a bathroom. Meanwhile, I make a beeline for one, use the urinal, then stand at the sink and apply sunscreen. A guy who took the sink next to me chuckled and says something. Yes, I hate applying that crap…
I catch up with Rob and Pete who are coming up the escalator. Rob is grabbing something to drink and I go ahead order a coffee. From there we begin our trek to the Fest. Let me talk about traveling with Pete: if you EVER find yourself in need of a tour guide who will never take the same route twice, Pete is the guy for you. The fact that he will take a zig-zagging path through a city is the only constant on the tour; he knows where’s he’s going it’s just that he’s a fan of the “scenic route.” I found myself an equal distance between Pete and Rob and Vicky, which at times became as much as fifty feet.

Arriving at the Lit Fest it felt… down. C-SPAN’s BookTV-mobile was there and I picked up one of their red book bags which held books in a “V” shape. Aside from that Pete went his own way, Rob began following me around and Vicky went hers. Eventually I lost track of Rob and was on my own. I ran into Vicky who asked me, “Did you lose my husband?” and I replied, “Well, he was behind me a few minutes ago…” I began perusing the books for anything I immediately wanted, as well as what the going price was. Several of the tents and vendors offered older books, some of which I already owned, but nothing new. No technical writing books. I was limited to how much I could spend as well as how much space I would have in my suitcase to bring them back with me.

-PLUNK-

Drip. Drip.

It started raining which means that within moments the vendors running the cash registers stop what they’re doing and pull tarps over the tents as well as any outside boxes with books in them. I met back up with Rob and Vicky and they called Pete to have him meet us in front of SRO’s, home of the World Famous Chicago Turkey Burger. We ate outside of the place last year. Quickly we discussed where to go for lunch while it began raining and reasoned that since there was an open table inside, we should have lunch there. We did.

After the rain stopped and book vendors slowly removed the tarps to show their selections, we were out and about again. I stopped at one and found hardbacks of Sue Grafton. “Hardback Sue Grafton? Who knew?” I poked some fun (especially since the cover art was from the Eighties) and a girl beside me laughed. I began picking up some books: “100 Stories,” Ray Bradbury; “The Best Time Travel Stories of the Twentieth Century,” etc. I hunted Rob down and got him to pick up Elmore Leonard’s “Western Stories” collection. Kim met up with Vicky and they went off to do something together and Rob came along with me. We stopped and took pics of mist at the tops of buildings before splitting for other stuff. I ran into the DuPage Writers group, introduced myself and talked with them for a few minutes. We ran into Pete and while they went to check stuff out in Dearborn Station, I walked around for a few more.

Going into Dearborn Station I had to use the restroom. After, I found Rob and Pete sitting at a table. I told them I wanted to look around one last time before heading out. It was 2 o’clock so Pete watched my stuff while Rob and I went out one last time for 30 minutes. He stayed inside the building for a moment taking pics while I rushed through tents. I picked up “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer and “21,” the book about the MIT students taking on Vegas.
Rob called Vicky and we were winding our way over to State to meet up with Vicky and from there to Grant Park for the Blues Fest.