Clark Girls

Chicago was wonderful! We love,love,loved it! We borrowed Patty's big red van so the kids could lounge around in the back and watch videos it has a VCR so the went vintage and watched The Little Mermaid, The Muppets and The Brave Little Toaster. We drove past a wind mill farm which I had never seen. That was spectacular! Oh, and we got a mobile phone for our trip, so I will have to give everyone our new number. We drove by McCormick Place(The Convention Center) so we knew where to go on Saturday morning.(Mike's idea, very practical)and then we drove down or up I mean LSD. Then we headed west through the heart of the city. The traffic was getting thicker by the minute (Friday 3:00) So we decided to head to our hotel. We pulled into the parking lot and out of the corner of my eye I see a man on the ground next to an electric chair. I say, "Oh, Mike look, that Man has fallen." So Mike pulls to the side and jumps out to see about this silver haired gentleman who is struggling to get back into his chair. His legs don't seem to work at all and his arms aren't strong enough to pull him up. I see Mike trying to help him but it's looking dicey so, I grab the keys, lock the van with Kayla and Conner inside and run over to help. We get him up into his seat and he explains that is is staying at the hotel for the MS Society Meeting. I have no idea how he drove himself there but he was driving an old chevy van. He fell trying to get his suitcase out of the side door. Ahh, it was heartbreaking but he was very determined and very independent. His name was Larry, I know this because he had an old hard shell suitcase and his name was on the side of it. I was concerned that he was injured but he didn't want to talk about that. I walked with him into the hotel and carried his bags for him and Mike parked the van. Mike ended up having to throw his jacket into the dumpster, it was soiled from having picked Larry up off of the ground. So, now we all are in the lobby and Larry wheels off on his own. We check in and I tell Jason, who is the front desk rep. about Larry because I was still concerned that he had been injured. Jason gives us a voucher for breakfast for all of us. and he tells us that if Mike wins AGT he will give us a Suite too! Our room is on the third floor, we turn and walk toward the elevators and it's then that we realize how beautiful and opulent our surroundings are. Four glass elevators and two glass escalators and an open lounge with a fireplace and a gorgous open restaurant and a gift shop and a coffee shop and a glass ceiling. And real plants covering all of the balconies and stone and tile and oh my gosh it's so big and beautiful. So, up we go. I meet a group of people with Habitat for Humanity who are there for a convention and we talk about Jimmy Carter. We walk into our room and it is modern and so cool. It's just so pretty, it's white and chrome and dark brown and rust and blue. I just love it. We hang out for a bit, go get ice, Conner is loving the escalators and elevators and then we decide to just have dinner in the bar. It's dark and plush and very fun. We order shrimp and calamari for appetizers which are delish. I order a dirty Stoli martini with the big olives in it and it is divine, Kayla and Conner both ordered Ginger Ale, yum. After we eat we walk all over the hotel and it is amazing, and we sit by the fire for a while and the guy at the coffee shop gives Conner a free hot chocolate! We have to get up early so we head back up to our swanky digs. Before going to bed we make our posters for Mike and they are precious as precious can be.Oh and you can see planes outside our window which is super cool too.
5:00 AM comes early and we head out for our adventure. We stop at the cafe on the way out which was so delightfully delicious. We get to the Convention Center and park and get in line. It's chilly out but not freezing and we are dressed properly so it's all good and pretty exciting. There was a man in a long black coat in a wheelchair behind us and he was so stoic. I wanted to talk to him so bad but he kept avoiding eye contact with me. He intrigued me to no end. He looked like Christopher Walken and he was all alone. I hope he makes it to the finals so my curiosity can be quenched. I feel like he may sing Gregorian chants or something, I have no idea.
It's all very exciting crazy people everywhere. And then here come the camera men swooping by and they do a MAJOR close up on Conner! AHHHH! Jumping up and down, screaming, holding up our signs. Finally we get to go into the Convention Center and we are lead into a large room in which we will spend the net three hours acting like fools for the TV Cameras, Nick Cannon comes out, He does his bit, that hand out little American flags so we can wave them too. Conner chases some woman down to get one and then we are finally ushered into yet another room where we get registered an WAIT SOME MORE! There are 100 stories of all we saw that day. I have to go for now, but, if I can I will continue later with the rest of the story, and as always, I learned some stuff about myself, about people and about L-I-F-E!