My CrossFit Getaway to Chicago: Day 2- Windy City CrossFit, Navy Pier, and Dinner w/ Georgia at Room 21

Wow... that's a long title... even for me. :P The problem with Chicago is that I'm already a long winded person, and now, I have four days of stuff to catch up on... geezo peezo! :P So anyhoo... where was I? Oh yes, the wake up call. When the wake up call went off, I immediately woke up. My body felt ok, like it wanted to get up anyway, so I got up at 6:00 and looked at my phone. Bad news... Jerry wasn't going to make Windy City with me. Boo. So I thought to myself... well I could just not go... I could check out one of the closer locations, or I could suck it up and go by myself. Well, I sucked it up and chose option C. Their earliest workout was at 9, and I wasn't sure how long it would take to get the 7 miles across town, so I left at 8. My cab driver seemed to know where he was going.... until we actually got on the road. The address for Windy City was listed as 2054... well at 2250 he goes... "Oh, we need to keep going." Now, me, I'm no rocket scientist, but I'm pretty sure that when they set up cities, the numbers usually get bigger as you head up the street. Call me crazy, but that's usually the way it works. So, I told him that I thought we had driven by and he goes, oh... haha... sorry. Yeah, sorry my foot as you add another $3 to my cab fare. Jerk.

But, then it got better, because he couldn't see the address so he goes, "Oh 2017 is here, so it must be down the street. You can get out now." WTF?! Who does that? Well, anyway, I got out and headed down the street. I was totally confused because I didn't see a gym, I saw no sign, but I saw a nondescript building with an open door. Through the door I could see the sets of rings hanging and I knew I was in the right place. Ah... the familiars of CrossFit. I went in and hooked up with Justin... (dude, get your heads out of the gutter... I don't mean like that) and got set to hit a workout with Windy City. Justin was a way cool guy and his crew was really nice. Invariably, my shyness returned being amongst a group of total strangers, but it was great to work out with them. The workout was a team challenge, but even so it was a nice little gasser, of course, it had to involve.... RUNNING! Gack! :P It was funny to try to figure out their 400 meters because it was between bus stop signs. I guess that's how you do it in the city! :P The Windy City fun looked like this...
400 M run
25 SDHP (45)
25 Wall ball (10)
400 M run
25 Chins
25 Push ups
400 M run
25 CL/PP
25 KB swins (23 lbs)
400 M run

I will say, I had a couple issues doing this, just because of differences in equipment. It's amazing how comfortable you get with your own toys, so that when something is switched on you, it feels off. Kipping on the stationary bar was hard. I was over kipping and was having trouble getting the height I needed because I was swinging too far. It was wierd. We also did the high pulls with a barbell. It's a totally different feeling from the KB. Wall balls with the dynamax balls were also a little funky for me. Overall though it was a really good workout. People seemed floored that the whole reason I traveled was CrossFit. I guess it's not really something that everyone understands. But eh, what can you do? All in all, it was a good workout, and Justin was really nice. When I asked him how much I owed him for the drop in, he said nothing. Talk about a nice guy! Well, I headed down the street to hail me a cab (I know... I've never hailed a cab either so this was also exciting) and on the way, some random dude, drives by in his car and yells, "Me love you long time!" Wait, what? Are you for cereal? Dude, I'm covered in sweat, I'm sure I smell, I have chalk all over me, my hair is half in a ponytail and half plastered to my head and you say that? Wow. I MUST be dead sexy. :P The man had some serious issues.

After my (cheaper) trek back across town since my cabbie knew where to go this time, I managed to get myself down to the Navy Pier. A way cool spot for families, and a cool spot to take a lot of great photos. I ate lunch outside and even remained somewhat Zone friendly. I actually did try, but I asked them to replace the french fries with fruit, so they brought both instead. Curses.... then I HAD to eat them... dangit.... :P I ambled back to the hotel in time to take a nap... and get ready to head out with Georgia. Let me just tell you, hanging out with Georgia was awesome. She is such a fun, smart person to be around, it's hard not to have a good time. I'm only sorry that I don't get to hang out with her more! We looked very nice if I do say so, and we headed out to Room 21 for some dinner. It was great, except for the fact that this cab driver seemed fairly intent on killing us by nearly getting into three accidents. Word, Chicago has some of the worst driving I've ever seen. And I thought Maryland drivers were bad... ;)





The dinner was awesome, although perhaps the drink choices I had were not the best. Champagne with dinner... hindsight is 20/20 considering that I still had yet to run the 5K... :P Ooops. But all in all Georgia and I had a fabulous time and we talked a lot. She is truly a very stong person and I'm very glad that I got to spend some time with her. After dinner we jetted over to a bar for a little meet and greet. While we were at the bar, some very creative (please note the sarcasm) dude wanders over and is like, oh you look like Miranda, Carrie, and he looked at me and goes... and you must be Samantha. Now, how I got pegged as the harlot, I don't know, but I was nonplussed by his lack of originality. Hello, the movie opened Friday. That line may have worked last night, but not tonight. :P After that, I had a great time, but let's just say I had some beer goggles on, and a little miscommunication. I was staring across the bar at a guy, who was pretty cute, and apparently, it's difficult to discern from across the bar if a girl is looking at you or the other guy. So Drunky McDrunkerson, instead of my cutie patootie, on the other side of the bar (who truthfully from my side did not look unattractive) came stumbling over. And oh yes, I mean stumbling. He then proceeded to slur his words all over the place and was totally not as cute as I had originally thought. Finally, after telling us 5 times about his twin across the bar, and falling into an ackward silence (ACKWARD!), he decided to depart.

Not long after, Georgia and I headed home, or well, to hotel... :P Ah... yes, what a fun evening. But.... I still haven't run the 5K! Stay tuned for Day 3- Run for the Zoo, Mexican and Margaritas, and the Block Party! Ooooooh boy... ;)