Chicago, IL – Day 7 – Practicing at the Mecca

I finally practiced some yoga in a studio.  There is a bikram studio about 2 blocks from my snooty hotel in Chicago, “The Allerton”.  This place is snooty in all respects and really doesn’t market to my demographic, and not the gangsta persona, the average middle class dude persona.  When I asked the concierge which subway stop was the White Sox game, he chortled and visibly rolled his eyes before explaining to me in English with a French accent where it was.  I later heard him speaking French and it was obviously his second language.  The bikram class was welcomed as I think that the heat did my body good.

I rode the red line out to Wrigley for a day game against the Pirates.  The neighborhood around the stadium is incredibly well maintained and everything from the housing to the signage is about the Cubs.  The buildings on each street that are outfield facing have grandstands built on top of them that look into the stadium.  These are sold as seats to the game even though they are outside the stadium on the roofs of adjacent buildings.  After securing a ticket and taking the standard picture in front of the marquee that says “Wrigley Field, Home of the Chicago Cubs” it was game time!

It was a beautiful sunny day albeit a bit chilly and some stadium knowledge would have been useful on a day like today.  I was sitting in the left field lower box seats about 10 rows off the field (these are seats between 3^rd base and the outfield wall) and was soaking up the sun, even applying a bit of suntan lotion.  By the third inning, the sun was no longer available to this section of the stadium and would not be for the rest of the game.  However, the entire outfield bleacher sections all the way around and the right field lower box seats had sun the entire game.  This would have been good to know when purchasing the ticket.  Fortunately, there were enough empty seats that by the ninth inning I was sitting in the right field seats anyway.  The Pirates won the game 2-0, and on a food note I had probably the best hot dog I have ever had at a game.

I was thinking about the home teams winning on this trip, and other than the first two games where the Twins beat the Mariners, which isn’t much of a feat, the home team has lost every game!  I won’t go as far to say that I am a jinx, but maybe I am a jinx!

Kind of a short and boring post, but it was that kind of day.  Relaxing and enjoyable.  I love Chicago, a lot.