Sears Tower | :askeered:

I have a serious fear of heights, so it may not be surprising to find out that this is the first time I’ve been to the Sears Tower. Ever.

Matt also expressed some concern, but we both wanted to check it out.

I’m serious about this height thing. I avoid sewer grates. I have a strong dislike of elevators, to boot. Seriously – I wrote a poem about this whole elevator issue too. Shoot me an e-mail, and I’ll show it to you if you want to see it.

My friend Jim once asked me about my fear of heights, and I thought I came up with a fairly good response. I told him that I trusted engineers. I trusted architects. I trusted city planners and construction workers, welders and bricklayers.

I just happen to trust gravity more.

This was outside the small movie theater, which was the actual "start" of the journey, I guess. Before they let you loose, you sit through a brief movie that gets you up to speed on a little Chicago history.

Despite its rather abrupt and jarring ending, it was pretty good. What was great was that we all were making snide comments the whole time, and I felt like I was in eight grade again. Fantastic.

Inside the theater, I got this weird notion. I felt like we were at Disneyland and had these weird Haunted House flashbacks. I was convinced that the movie theater was actually the elevator and, at the movie’s end, we’d find ourselves on the top of the Sears Tower.

And this would be the express elevator. :|

Tried getting some shots, but most of them came out blurrier than this. Pretty incredible view, despite my distaste for heights. I was perfectly fine on the skydeck, until I got about 2 feet away from the window… then I suddenly turned into an old man who could only walk 3 inches at a step.

I’m tempted to say that it’s almost better to come here at night, than during the day. The view was quite spectacular. We even got a good glimpse of Mars, although the bars along the windows blocked every single telescope along the south side.

Am I this fucking short? Impossible. It’s the building’s fault – fucking up all the perspective. Let’s move on… next picture.

I said, NEXT PICTURE!

Outside, we decided to part ways and I called it a night. There was a slight chance for more debauchery, but I chose to take the boring route instead. I hopped in a cab and asked the cabbie to slow down a bit as I snagged this shot. As we pulled away, someone yelled "Damn papparazi!"

I had an incredible cab driver. The man literally had some sort of compulsion that made him try to go 50 mph the whole way? Stop light coming up? Didn’t matter. He kept gunning it as much as he could, and we sped through most of downtown. The instant the light turned green, he was either screeching his tires or honking at the guy in front of him to hurry up: within two seconds of it turning green! He pulled numerous right-lane passes at every chance, and honked like most people breathe.

When he dropped me off at my house, I tipped him really well, and told him he drove "like a fucking rockstar." He laughed and thanked me, but I swear there was something in his laugh that seemed to say "Yeah. I get that a lot."