Okay, I Admit It, I'm Totally Erudite

I've been travelling a bit more than usual for work lately. All of those plane rides and handshakes have resulted in multiple colds, a sinus infection, bronchitis, and three weeks straight of antibiotics(!) But, even though I was still sick, I was so excited to find out that I was going to Chicago in the beginning of December.

If any of you follow me on Twitter, you might remember my manical pre-trip tweets about going to pre-Divergent Chicago and all of my #ChicagoBookGeekStyle tweets. If you don't, I'm sooooo kindly geeking-out blogging about my trip here.

Before I start, I just want to say that Chicago is lovely (and windy) and I really enjoyed my stay there beyond just hunting for elements of a pre-Dystopian world. I had amazingly good deep dish pizza at a local pizzeria, ate some great Japanese fusion food, and munched on the best gingerbread popcorn ever while taking in the gorgeous architecture. I can't wait to go back someday.

But now, on to the Divergent-y goodness:

The first night, I realized that my hotel room looked out on a building just perfect for Dauntless ziplining:


The Hancock building at night

Since I've totally embraced the fact that I'm Erudite (don't hate me), of course I had to find our headquarters:
 

The Chicago Public Library

Reading by the giant lima bean at Erudite Headquarters (the Lima bean in Millenium Park)



Of COURSE I'm wearing blue. My glasses were in my suitcase back at the hotel, though (contacts, FTW!)

 

No, I did not jump on those trains. What do you think I am, Dauntless? Ha!:

 

The L trains

 

I walked over to the Hub for my choosing ceremony:

 

The Willis (formerly Sears) Tower

And pretended to be Dauntless for a few minutes...

On the glass platforms of the Willis Tower. Not really freaky or scary and actually kind-of cool :)
Don't tell Janine I said that, though!

 ...but really, those simulation results don't lie. I'd rather be reading a good book than jumping off of buildings like those Dauntless ruffians.

And, that's it! Next trip, I'll make sure to make it down to the Navy Piers to see what all that fuss is about carousels and Ferris Wheels. :)

On a non-Divergent note, I also stopped by the Russian Pointe store. Before I stopped pointe because of my achilles tendon rupture*, my last few pairs of pointe shoes were Russian Pointe. When I saw the store, I knew I had to stop in and at least buy a pair of mini pointe shoes-- and I was lucky enough to find a pair that matched my last pair of recital pointe shoes (dyed black!):

OMG, that black dye got on EVERYTHING. Our feet were grey, our tights were ruined, even dance bags had streaks of black dye in them. In my next life, I'm just special ordering black shoes instead.

I was a happy little ballet and book geek that afternoon. Then, I boarded my flight and sadly waved goodbye to my #ChicagoBookGeekStyle adventure.

If you want more Divergent road trip goodness, definitely check out the Fictitious Delicious Divergent Road Trip blog post, which is full of awesomeness.

Have you been to Chicago? And geeked out, like I did?

 *I still managed pointe one year after the surgery, but I just never fully regained my strength in my left leg. Multiple tendonitis episodes pretty much sealed the deal for me on ending pointe. :(