Instead of the rain coming back another day, it should have come here, to California, where we really really really need it.

In general, I dislike traveling for work, but two-day trips are the worst. Day one is usually a long flight, because nearly everything is a long flight from here, and day two is usually a meeting and then a long flight home. I can't sleep the night before I fly, and so I'm tired, cranky and jet lagged before the first flight departs. So I go straight to my hotel, work and then try, usually unsuccessfully, to get some rest. Then, the next morning, I have to wake up by around 3 AM my time to get to the meeting and then fly home.

This week was no exception in terms of me feeling exhausted (but smiling and doing my best just the same). However, it was an exception in terms of me going straight to my hotel and crashing, because this week I got to go to Chicago, one of my favorite cities. This time, I went straight to my hotel, dropped my stuff, and then went straight outside for a walk because it was beautiful. I walked from my hotel, which was on Lakeshore Drive across from Navy Pier, down to Michigan Avenue, to Millennium Park, past the Art Institute (which was most unfortunately closed), to Grant Park and then to what used to be the Chicago Library but what is now the Chicago Historical Society (I think).

The next afternoon, before my flight home, my boss showed me the giant baboon that Picasso gave to the city before he died, and then I went to the Art Institute. It's being renovated, a modern art wing is being added, and a bridge from Millennium Park is being built, but it's still open.

I only got to spend about four hours total exploring the city over the course of two days, but it felt refreshing to be somewhere so normal, with so many people who behave so normally. (I have lived in Berkeley for too long!) And it must have rained the day before, because it felt good to be outside. (Why on earth does 65 degrees in Chicago feel so much better than 65 degrees in Berkeley or San Francisco?) The hotel I was staying at had big square benches with cushions on them just outside the lobby. I sat there and stared at the lake and just relaxed.

The flights to and from Chicago were difficult, though, and not only because I don't like flying (it scares me some). We flew over the Cedar River and it was clear how far the river had overflowed. Roads that were supposed to cross the river disappeared into it instead. In one case, I never could make out where the road resurfaced, if it did at all. It didn't seem to be just the Cedar River, either. Other rivers had overflowed their banks. Farms far from the rivers had small lakes in their fields. One town was submerged.

I only saw the flooding from about 30,000 feet. I can only imagine what it must look like up close.