The Mysterious Gold Key

Tonight Jerry, our niece Lauren, and my friend Katja were on our way home from dinner and I was in the back seat of my car trying to clean up a bit (empty pop cans, water bottles, receipts, wrappers, etc...). I looked in the seat pocket on the back of the passenger seat and found something mysterious inside. It was a gold key. A big gold key. I mean this is no average key. The "handle" part is at least 1" x 1" and has the inscription L 21 on it.

This is not my key. I have no clue where it came from or how long it's been there. It's freaking me out. Not really freaking me out, just really making me wish I was a CSI person and had the brains to figure out where it's from. A part of me thinks that this might actually be MY key... but I think I would remember if I had a ginormous key like this. It's not my safety deposit box key, not a work or home key, not the key to my chastity belt--uh I mean my diary... The fact that it says "L 21" on it makes me think it's to something like an apartment or a mailbox or safety deposit box. Who knows?!?!

Chicago has been great so far. We've shopped and dined and entertained. Yesterday Jerry, Susan and I went to the movie Gran Torino. Other than some crappy acting at times (Clint Eastwood was, of course, great), the movie was pretty good. I thought it was supposed to be an action movie but it's actually a kindhearted story about a war veteran who goes through a racially-based change of heart. He lives in a neighborhood that has become a mostly Hmong area in his town and struggles to find any way to relate to these people. I don't want to give away any part of the movie, but it's definitely a tear-jerker that will really make you think about immigrants and refugees differently. I would recommend that everyone see this movie -- even if you wait to rent it.

Today Lauren came into the city and we had lunch and saw Jess from the first season of Rock of Love with Bret Michaels. I've never watched the show but Lauren knew her and got really excited. I guess this Jess lady won the whole thing... but Rock of Love is now in the 3rd season so I guess her love with Bret is over... what a shocker! After lunch we decided to go see some puppies so we went to a place called Pocket Puppies. They specialize in little dogs and little dog accessories. They had about 15 puppies there that were all so tiny and cute! One dog was a teacup chihuahua that was about the size of, well, a teacup. It was so little and cute from a distance but one we got close it was kind of ugly. It's eyes were bulging and on the sides of its head. Ew. They had a bigger chihuahua that we got to play with for a while and was really cute and sweet. But then Jerry started feeling itchy so we had to leave. Next we went to the Anti-Cruelty Society downtown and looked at the dogs and cats. There really weren't a lot of dogs... and I think that's good because maybe it means not a lot of dogs are being abused/neglected/dumped in Chicago? Or maybe they don't have enough funding to keep all the cages full.

Tonight we picked up Katja at her office and ate at the Melting Pot... yummy!! Then on the way to drop Katja off, Jerry ran a red light and got pulled over... scary!! And he got a big ticket... crappy!!

Tomorrow Fred's grandson Steven is coming into town from Boston and is staying in the Hancock condo so we must say goodbye to our sweet diggs here. I'm staying with Katja tomorrow night and Jerry's staying with Joe and Josette (and the kids). Then on Thursday Jerry will start setting up for the show, which starts on Friday.

Anyway, it's late and we've got an early morning tomorrow, so I'm calling this a night. Sleep tight, Internet!