Here it is, my friends: the beginning of the concise journey.

Tomorrow morning, bright and early, I make a quick trip down the Brown Line of the L (The El? No idea. In Boston it was the T, not the Tee.) to the classroom at Goose Island Brewpub and start to cram information into my head.

I don’t intend this to be a critique or for there to be any sort of large scale information sharing; I want to share what the experience is like. Imbibing mimes want to know.

I started this weekend in Washington DC at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. I got to have some incredible beer and beer/food tastings at the Churchkey and Birch and Barley (I can recommend their beer dinner menu – the one I had? The honey glazed duck with Aventinus alone… holy moly).

This morning, I left Alexandria (where I was staying with great friends) and hopped a plane to Chicago… on Halloween… with no costume. These are the sacrifices we make. An hour and a half after landing (hooray public transit!), I arrived at my place of stay.

One of the places to stay that Siebel suggests is a nearby hostel. I opted for it. Normally, I’m a fan of a good hotel room, but 10 days stay anywhere is pretty damn pricey, so I went for the cheap. Even then, I’m still springing for the private room here. I feel like I want a place that I can go to and escape at the end of the day.

This is my first time ever staying in a hostel, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I like it. It’s sparse and utilitarian, but I kinda enjoy it. There are always people buzzing around; always someone Skyping in the lobby or computer area. There are bicycles to rent and, thankfully, free Wi-Fi. I have a full 4-person bunk room all to myself and it’s kinda awesome. I can sleep on any one of the beds that I want. Now THAT is luxury.

My only real complaint so far is that it is fairly noisy around my room. It’s not a deal-breaker, just a fact. I have a room just off of the elevators so I can hear the groan of the cable as the elevator goes up and down and the shrill schmeep as it stops at each floor. I can hear people tromping up and down the hallway to the public bathrooms. I can hear doors opening and closing and people talking and in general pretty much everything.

I assume they can hear everything I do, as well. My room is echoey. It has great acoustics. I should rent one of the hostel guitars and try it out.

This evening I went down to Goose Island and had a quick beer and some food to make sure I knew my way there without thinking – I’m not 100% in the mornings – and on the way I noted two Starbucks, so that’ll be the bulk of the money that I’m spending this week.

On the way out of Goose Island I ran across Keith Lemcke (the Vice-President of Siebel) as he was getting the classroom ready for everything. He mentioned that I should probably get there early to stake out my place in the classroom. For my entire life, I have sat at the back of classrooms. I wonder if I should change this up and sit up front. I just might do that.

Everything gets going at 8:30 AM tomorrow. More after that… much after that.

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