The Big City Adventure

My sister lives in a suburb outside Chicago. She has been wanting me to visit for some time, but I was nervous about making the drive up all by myself, and nervous about navigating around the big city. Having put if off for about 2 years, I finally decided it was time to visit. The plan was to drive up Saturday morning, spend the day, and drive back that night. 

Things started off well enough. I had my handy-dandy GPS, and only made one wrong turn. The GPS got me back on track and I made it safely to my sister's home. After eating breakfast, we drove to a nearby train station. This is where the trouble started, although it didn't seem like a big deal at the time. There was an announcement that the train was running 30-45 minutes late due to mechanical problems. We were a little annoyed, but didn't think it was a big deal. We heard the exact same announcement in regular increments for the next hour or so. At one point, we discussed driving into the city ourselves, but I was concerned about the cost of parking. Finally we got fed up and decided to drive after all.

We got in the car and were just starting to pull out when the train showed up. There was no way we would be able to make it, so off we went. Our planned destination was Union Station. When we were almost there, I missed my turn and crossed the river. I was going to turn around, but Abby said it doesn't really matter because there would be plenty of parking elsewhere. So I pulled into the first garage we found. I checked the GPS before we got out to see where we were and left the ticket in the car. We took note that we were on Level 4 Purple and we took off on foot to explore Chicago.

We had a great day! I got to go to the Chicago Macy's (very impressive), see Harpo Studios, shop at the Oprah  Store, and had dinner at Flat Top Grill. After that, we had a taxi take us back to the general area of where we remembered parking.

We stepped out of the taxi, and had no clue which way to turn.We were a little annoyed, but figured we would walk up and down a few streets and would surely stumble upon it. So, we started walking. And we walked. And walked. And walked. There was no sign of a garage that matched  what we remembered. At this point we started to panic, and become very frustrated. We passed by several places where we knew we had walked, and tried to trace our steps back. We continued this for hours. We were quickly running out of ideas, and my feet were killing me.  We kept on looking, sure it was just around the corner though. It felt like the solution must be right in front of us, and we just couldn't see it.

We tried calling the non-emergency police number. The response we got was rude and useless. They told us if we didn't know the street, then they couldn't help us, even with a description. Clearly, if we knew the street, we wouldn't be calling them. At one point, we sat down, exhausted and frazzled and called Aaron to tell him what was going on. I had to use my sister's phone because mine had died earlier.

My sister called her friends (ex-boyfriend's parents to be accurate) to help us. We waited for them to drive into the city at the Lyric Opera because it was nearby. While we were there in the lobby, I approached the woman working at the front desk. I described the garage and asked her if she knew anything at all about a garage like that, and she didn't, but was kind enough to try to research it online. She didn't have any luck, so she printed off a list of all the garages in the area. What seemed like an hour later, my sister's friends arrived and drove us around the city, in search of the elusive garage. We drove around, and around, and around. We checked every garage for the right kind of opening, exit, and level. We couldn't even find a garage that just had color-coded levels.

At this point I was shaking out of frustration. I was panicked and frustrated. I was without my husband, who is the one person in the world I know I can depend on, my phone had died, so I had to borrow my sister's to let him know what was going on, I was in a strange city and lost. I felt completely vulnerable.

For no obvious reason, I hate staying the night in other people's homes, and I hate basements.  Because it was getting late,  I ended up having to stay the night with my sister and her friends...in the basement. I sucked it up and slept for about three hours. I woke up and tried to research Chicago parking garages online. I didn't really make any progress. My sister's friends were generous enough to drive us back into the city to continue our search. We tried driving around, hoping we would find it quickly in daylight. Eventually we switched to walking, because we were just burning gas. We walked for an hour with zero progress. Eventually, Aaron decided to make the drive from Lafayette to help me look. He sounded optimistic, but we were doubtful that there was anything he could do that we hadn't. My sister and I waited for him at Union Station where he was supposed to meet us.

111 S. Wacker Dr.
The drive-in entrance is around the left corner, and
the walk-in entrance is right around that curve on the
right.

When Aaron got to Chicago, he missed his turn to Union Station. He continued on and parked IN THE FIRST GARAGE HE SAW. Sound familiar? He realized quickly that the garage seemed to match some of the description I gave him. Sure enough, he reached Level 4 Purple, and drove right past my car. My sister and I were stunned. As we walked from the station to where Aaron said he was, I realized that it was directly across the street from where I had sat down and called him from the night before. My knight in shining armor rode in and saved his damsel in distress. It felt a little pathetic, I'm not going to lie.

A couple days later, I related this whole tale to my therapist. She pointed out how it was a real life metaphor for my past, and perhaps something more. When I was being abused, I felt cut off from the world. I felt lost, desperate for a solution, and vulnerable. I felt all of the things I felt while searching for a way out over the weekend. I was finally able to do so when I had Aaron's support and encouragement.

I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason AND that God works in mysterious ways. That being said, I can't help but feel that God will use/is using this past weekend to tell me something, although I'm not quite sure what it is. Perhaps it is that the solution to one of my "issues" is right in front of my face, and I'm just not seeing it from the right angle. (The walk-in entrance to the garage was around a corner and back between two restaurants). The one thing I do know, is that time will tell, as it always does.

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