When we were saying goodbye, him turning to jump on the train and me going back to my stuffy hotel, he reached out his hand to give a shake goodbye and I immediately grabbed him to give him a big ol’ hug.

What a wonderful person!! There was absolutely no awkwardness except for maybe the first initial moment when I said, “Um, Michael?” cause I wanted to make sure it was really him.

We went out to eat where I had some fantastic gumbo and we talked about internet identity and what we actually do at our jobs and we talked about strange opportunities that randomly appear in our lives.

We walked. We looked at a lot of art, ranging from ridiculously ornate settees to hairy sound suits.

Michael became an instant friend and made my first day in Chicago absolutely perfect. I’ll totally jump at the opportunity to go to Chicago again just to hang out with him and hope that one day he can make it down to North Cack so I can be his tour guide for a day. I can’t take him to Heaven on 7 in Raleigh, but I bet we can find some angry chickens somewhere.