i’m so happy that i live in printer’s row.

i love downtown chicago during the day. i love it even more at night, when it’s deserted. when you’re out going down sodium-lit streets, and the only traffic is a few cabs or busses, walking on sidewalks still wet from having been washed of the day’s dirt, that’s when i love it best.

it’s like all those fantastic buildings are there just for me — the huge stone columns of classical buildings, the bronze decorations on walls of old limestone, the smooth granite walls with brass fittings on their revolving doors that lead into four story marble foyers — they’re all mine, and i love having the opportunity to enjoy them, all to myself. when there’s no one there, you just can stare up and up at some marvellous construction and just soak in the stark gorgeousness of it all.

i like walking past the security guard who sits, bored, outside of an underground parking structure, and telling him good evening.

i like smiling at and thanking the guy who turns off his hose to let me walk past before resuming scrubbing the sidewalk, then getting my toes wet in the spray from a leaky part of the hose.

i like going to daley center at night and playing in the fountain or on the picasso.

i adore standing in the middle of the wells street bridge looking east, and watching all the lights reflect in the vibrations caused in the water by the two brown line trains passing overhead.

when i moved to chicago, i went to uic, and i would often go wander around downtown. when i was working at interaccess, i worked a late shift, and i went for dozens of long walks, all around downtown, up the lakefront, up to the gold coast or old town. there’s really nothing like it. i’m so glad chicago isn’t like manhattan; this part of the city does sleep, and while everyone else is away i can have all that grandeur to myself.