So I should be grading like mad. Instead I'm feeling under the weather. Yuck.
So instead of thinking about my grad class projects, I'm trying to plan my trip to the AWP conference in February. The first hotel's already sold out. I know people were talking about getting hotel rooms in "cheaper" areas, but, as someone who has lived not four blocks from the Hilton on Michigan Ave., I would like to caution everyone: February in Chicago is cold and dark and, while New York may be the city that never sleeps, Chicago has a strict bedtime. The Loop empties out by 7:oo or 8:00 pm on weekdays and in the winter the tourism isn't alive enough in the park district to make up for the businessmen leaving.
Yes, there will be young people on the L at night as they travel to bar hop and party, but the streets get fairly deserted save for the people who live on them. Places that are cheaper may be far away from public transportation stops or require transfers.
And people who think they'll just drive need to know that parking is at least $30 a day in the surface lots and that your hotel doesn't give free parking with your room; you need to buy that car a place to sleep too.
