Picture if you will, a Sunday morning. I board a plane for parts east... yet they are called the MidWest. Whatever. I land in Chicago, a magical land of summer heat and winter snow... and check into the strangest hotel room I've seen outside of Las Vegas. Hotel Indigo takes its name very seriously. Everything is blue.

And because it's a strange city, and because people are strange when you're a stranger I jumped onto Grindr and tried to meet a drinking buddy, a dinner companion, someone to take pictures with - or of - and... I met Anthony. He's a fitness trainer and triathlete from Iowa by way of Atlanta. He's here for the Chicago triathlon and considering his Master's degree in sports administration. Yeah, I'm dating a jock! We actually have some friends in common in Atlanta (hello Nick!) and since he likes big bears, I guess it isn't such a wonder that we met. So Wednesday night we went down to Navy Pier for Chicago's summer fireworks. Skyrockets in flight, after dinner delight.

Fast forward to Saturday, a nice day spent walking around Millennium Park, seeing The Bean (more appropriately known as Cloud Gate for some reason), seeing sculpture of crazy Chinese things, drinking strawberry-lime-vanilla vodka cocktails at the Plaza. Oh, and then Korean BBQ for dinner at a place that wasn't quite the KBBQ that I was familiar with - they used a giant stone cooking shelf instead of a BBQ grill. And instead of all the meat you can eat, they only had beef and octopus, both of which we had.

Sunday brunch followed: pancakes. Mmmm... pancakes. Sunday was an interesting day - my first ever midwest thunderstorm. It was massive. Roaring thunder, pouring rain in sheets - I really know what that means now - sideways rain and wind, a true soaking. I felt as if I had fallen into a pool. It was that wet and wild.

Anthony's a great guy. A shame about that whole 1800 mile distance between Chicago and San Francisco. Then again, maybe the distance and the temporal nature of our relationship is what makes it so fresh and exciting. There is no time to plan, or worry. So we just relax and enjoy each other. I'm getting wistful and romantic, but really it's so nice to meet a guy who is fun, smart... yeah, I like this trip best of all so far. This is what a good life should be like.