Adventures in the US - Chicago, Spring 01

I think I’ll follow this up with more adventures in the US.

A trip to Chicago, and it was a bad time for me. My relationship with codfish was just over, and although I hadn’t realised it that was the start of the problems. Also hadn’t realised why people seemed more hostile towards me during that period – it was because I was full of rage and it showed.

A few of us went to a bar (OK – it was Swensen’s – now you know) and we tried to order drinks. The waitress was some eastern European. We tried to order drinks. They asked me for an ID, and when I didn’t have any, she refused to serve me. I would normally have accepted it with equinamity but as said earlier, not in a good mood. Plus I was already in my mid 20s at that time, and somebody telling me I looked under 21 was really off putting. “I’ll have a water.” The waitress glared at me and I ended up starting an argument with her.

After that unhappy episode I also got annoyed at my friend who was hellbent on wanting to get drunk that evening. Eventually we just went to a convenience store, bought a whole lot of liquor to drink in our hotel, and then glugged it all down. I found I was able to hold my liquor better than the rest (and I was drinking less too) so 2 hours later I was the only one still able to function.

Still feeling in a bad mood, I proceeded to make a semi-pornographic movie where, with a large dose of black humour, I stimulated raping one of my friends. Shingot saw that video once and admitted to me that he found it “disturbing”.

I may have been half drunk while making that movie but what I found remarkable was that the person who shot it on digital video later on when to edit and splice the clips together - without my guidance. The fact that he was able to piece together a fairly lucid philosophical argument out of my drunken ramblings indicates that I couldn't have been very drunk at that time.

The plane trip back was not that much better. Thanks to not very good time management, we reached the plane barely seconds before we closed the door. Next to us there was this grouchy old lady with a little dog. We were mucking around with our luggage when we accidentally bumped into that lady with the luggage, and she started lashing out at us for making too much noise and whacking her. We just sat back and cringed at the fact that we were going to be stuck with her for the 2-3 hour flight.

But she got her just desserts in the end. When the airplane took off, it literally scared the shit out of the dog, and she was pretty red faced much of the trip, asking the stewardess for more kitchen towels to clean up her mess. On one hand there was the grim satisfaction but on the other hand there was this terrible stench.

Chicago is really not that bad. I know I’m telling you a lot of the grouchy parts of the trip, but it’s a nice city. Yes, if you’ve read Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” you’d know that it was a horrible place to live in 100 years ago. Yes, when Al Capone was controlling the city in the 1930s it was completely crap. Yes, there was 1968 and all that, but I’m sure you all have parents who will tell you that Singapore was not always such a liveable place, at least for 10-20 years after the end of the war.

Guess I hadn’t grown up that much at that point. I was only starting to grow up. I travelled with my sister around that time, and earlier this year I travelled around with my sister again, more than 5 years later. She says I’m much more relaxed around angmohs this time around. Yes, I’m calmer with people these days.