Chicaaaago (sh-kääääg, -kô-)
We (mom, Jackie, and I) arrived in Chicago on Tuesday afternoon. We decided to catch the subway train from the airport seeing at it was only US$1.75/each (bargain!). On the way we saw a horific accident on the freeway (the train travels along the freeway) where an SUV had rolled on it's side and the front windscreen had been totally smashed, bent, and skewed. So many police & fire units there.
40 minutes later we arrived at the station which we felt would be in about the centre of downtown. It was. But we had to walk our heavy suitcases up a whole bunch of stairs up to street level.
We caught a cab and 5 minutes later we were at the Red Roof Inn (RRI). On the way we saw a T.G.I. Friday's so we dropped our luggage in our tiny hotel room and went on a 80 second walk to the resturant.
Later that evening we went to the Second City (which is like a "Comedy Store") and we watched the funniest performance there!
Later that night (12:00am) we were watching cable television in our room and I was about to go to sleep and mom went to the bathroom to get ready for bed and we heard a "ohh" and we thought mom just did one of her silly trips or something. But then she started to say "Guys... guys... I need some help." I didn't think too much of it. I just thought she needed a hand to get up.
As I started to get out of bed she was saying "Guys call someone." and "Get a doctor guys. I'm bleeding." It was dark besides the light coming from the lamp above mom's bed. She had her hand against her head. I turned the lights in the room on. She pulled her hand away from her head. It had blood all over it.
This is when I become concerned. Jackie was over near the telephone trying to figure out what to dial. "Is it zero for reception? Do you want me to call 911?.... Mom?" She kept saying. Jackie was pretty much freaking out. I was keeping my cool because someone has to. Mom told me to find the travel insurance. Jackie got a hold of reception and told them to get an ambulance. 30 seconds later we heard the sirens.
Jackie got mom dressed, got mom's glasses/wallet/etc, whilst I got all the insurance info and changed from my PJ's to my street clothes.
When the paramedics (firemen, the side of the ambulance read "Chicago Fire Department Paramedics) came up we tried to figure out what she hit her head on. Mom thought it was the luggage holder which was in a cove in the wall. I thought it was the corner of the wall because that's where her head was closest to and what could have done that kind of damage. No one really knows what she hit but we do know she did trip over her massive suitcase which was lying in the middle of the tiny entrance-way.
They male paramedics bandaged mom's head and checked her blood-pressure (which we funnily enough were doing a few days before hand at Grandpa's house because CJ had a blood-pressure reader) etc. Then we took a 50 second ride to the hospital which was 2 blocks away.
A nurse checked mom out at the waiting room, then she did all the paperwork. As she was doing that Jackie told me too look around and listen to what's happening at the front desk. A lady a bit older than mom had done exactly the same thing! She tripped over her suitcase and bleed from her head. After that we just had to wait. By now it was about 1:40am. At about 2:20am mom decided she didn't want to wait anymore because we found out there was a 2-hour wait. A security man highly suggested she wait but she didn't want to. He said to come back around 7am when it would be realllly quiet. So we caught a cab back to the RRI and mom requested a bigger room. We moved into the larger room which included a fridge and microwave and was two floors higher than the previous, smaller, room. We went to bed (time now being almost 3am).
The hospital called mom around 6:30am and told her it was empty and it would be easy to see a doctor now. She needed staples in her head (similar to stitches), three of them. She walked to the hospital and back because it was so close. She was back at around 8am. We slept until about 11am.
I can't remember what we did between 11am-3pm. My memory is shocking! OH! I think we got some Dunkin Donuts. Not quite sure.
After 3pm just Jackie and I headed to the internet cafe which was a 60-second walk. We used some free 15min coupons which we got the previous day when we used the internet there.
Then Jackie and I went for a walk to the Sears Tower (233 South Wacker, haha Wacker!, Drive). On the way there was a new McDonalds (Mickey D's) which took up a whole block of land and is two storeys high with elevators and escalators to assist you to the upper level. Pretty cool. Same food though.
After a munch we continued on our journey, blocks and blocks from the hotel. It was a very foggy day. I kept looking up to see where the tower was but we couldn't see it. We only had to ask one person to see if we were heading in the correct direction. We were. We finally came to it and looking up the top was covered by fog. At the entry they warned us that there was ZERO VISABILITY, but we didn't care. We wanted to experience the 103-floor height anyway. Once we got to the top all there was to see was white. Ta-da!
Tomorrow... New York.
posted by Derek Jay @ 05:07
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