There's so much going on in the city right now.  It's summer, and there are about five million festivals going on every day.  I've missed the Chicago Blues Festival, several free shows at either Grant or Millenium Park, and I'm not sure what else.

I like to travel because of the getting lost aspect, but there's just too many things to do.  I'm blinded by choice.  And overwhelmed.  There's too many options.  Too much social activity going on.  I'm exhausted mentally from my job and my mind going on a whirl that I can't even bring myself to go out to buy milk some times, let alone join a crowd of people.

It makes me sad, that I'm in this big city with all these opportunities to have fun but I can't.  It happens when I'm traveling too.  I know I'll never come this way again, but still can't go out.

Today we come across an individual who behaves like an automaton, who does not know or understand himself, and the only person that he knows is the person that he is supposed to be, whose meaningless chatter has replaced communicative speech, whose synthetic smile has replaced genuine laughter, and whose sense of dull despair has taken the place of genuine pain. 

Two statements may be said concerning this individual.  One is that he suffers from defects of spontaneity and individuality which may seem to be incurable.  At the same time it may be said of him he does not differ essentially from the millions of the rest of us who walk upon this earth.
-Erich Fromm

What you are shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say.
-Emerson

We must not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time.
- T. S. Elliot