August 4, 2025
I consider myself lucky to live near Chicago. It is a city that has always filled me with energy every time I've visited. From the lakefront to the airports to offices in the loop and businesses all over, I have always enjoyed my visits to the city. It might come from living near New York City when I was a kid before my family moved to Bloomington, Indiana. We would take trip to "The City" fairly often. New York City always loomed large over life growing up in Northern New Jersey. As a kid, my friends and I would always love riding our bikes up to a county park with a huge hill where we could see the NYC skyline. It was magical. I loved going on field trips and visits to NYC to see Radio City Music Hall and Rockerfeller Center.
Chicago has the same power me here in Northwest Indiana. Even when I was living in Bloomington in South Central Indiana, there was a huge Chicago influence. Students came from Chicago and the suburbs to attend Indiana University. We had a Jewel-Osco store near College Mall in the 1980s. I had a friend in high school who would let me read parts of his Chicago Tribune in study hall. My parents loved tuning into WGN to catch the news before the Indianapolis stations air their 11 p.m. news programs. Many people wanted to end up in Chicago after school. It was the cultural beacon that called people from the middle of Indiana.
Today, I took a trip to the city riding the South Shore Line into Millenium Station with my kids and a friend. Riding a train is always magical. I drive almost everywhere, so it is nice to just be able to look out the window and see the scenery pass by. It is nice to recognize places as we make our way to The Loop. Passing by Hegewisch, rolling through Pullman, stopping at 55th where the University of Chicago is. Looking to the left, I can see Howard Brown Health Center in an art deco building across the street from the train line. It is fun be familiar with the journey, but always seeing something different each time.
I'm writing this for #Blaugust. I saw the hash tag and some posts on Mastodon today when I was riding the train. I figured this would be a great way to get started writing a little daily. It is interesting doing it here in HTML and not using fancy blogging software. In many ways, this makes me think of how I learned to write on computers back in high school. I'm enjoying it. Sometimes all the special features and widgets get in the way of just putting words out into the world. In many ways, this makes it easier to just focus on the words and not how to figure out what option to click or select to make something happen.
Thanks for reading this, if you've found it. I hope you enjoy it!
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