LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

 LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION  
Chicago, Chicago, that toddlin' town . Chicago, Chicago, I'll show you around! I’m Band-Aid Palowski, I’m the retired closing pitcher for the Chicago Cubs and I want to take you to my favorite places in Chi-Town. Now the Windy City is known for many things, the Blues, crooked politicians, and Chicago style hot dogs, but I want to take you on a personal walk down memory lane to the places where significant things happened betweenLibby and I.
#1 Gutheries Bar

This is a local tavern in Wrigleyville where Libby dropped the bomb on me that I had a son, a son who desperately needed me. Corner bars are a dime a dozen in Chicago, but I smile every time I pass this place going to the ballpark now, because it’s not often in life you can identify the exact spot where an unexpected journey started in your life, but this little hole in the wall is where the most exciting and heartbreaking journey of my life began.
#2  737 Restaurant  I met Libby here to tell her what I wanted in exchange for helping her, well at least that’s what I told her to lure her there. Once I got her on my turf and she started lipping off with the legal ease of a killer barracuda, all I could think about was ripping off her geek chic glasses and doing something completely illegal with her smart mouth. I was able to control myself, until I got in the elevator with her, but then all hell broke loose.

#3 Lincoln Park  On a dirt baseball field, with no lights, no fans and just a grumpy umpire for back-up I fell in love with a little boy. He looked like me, but at six years old he had the wisdom of the man I should have been.  Cass had a crooked smile and a wicked pitching arm and dimples that matched mine.  He taught me what was important in life, with every word he spoke and every game we played. He was my son and I fell utterly and completely in love with him.
#4  Italian Village
This a Chicago landmark is where my family has been dinning upstairs alongside the miniature Ferris wheel for as long as I can remember. It’s where my parents met Cass and Libby for the first time, it’s where I faced that fact that all those years ago in college, I hadn’t given Libby or my parents enough credit. I thought they wouldn’t think that she was good enough for me, but I realized over a plate of linguine that I was terrified that I couldn’t be enough for her and the game.
#5  Art Institute of Chicago  I’m a jock and I’m not supposed to love art, but I do and it’s because of Libby. There’s one particular painting that reminds me of her, so I took her here and poured my soul out to her in front of that painting. I knew it was risky, because she was in a fragile state, but I wasn’t going to let her slip through my fingers again without telling her how much she meant to me. From the first moment I laid eyes on her I knew she was the one, and even if she never forgave me for all the mistakes I’d made, I owed her the words, I love you.

#7  Wrigley Field
After everything we’d been through, this is where I started to fear that I’d lost her forever.  I stood on a mound, at the top of my career, and realized that every single statistic in every single record book, no longer meant a thing because I didn’t have her waiting in the stands for me. That I had gained the world and lost the only thing that truly mattered.    
#8   Dunkin Donuts Parking lot  This is where I made the best catch in my life. One was named Duncan and the other one we call Donut. But you’ll have to read BINDING ARBITRATION to find out what exactly happened during a blizzard in October in Chicago. Maybe you should all …                                      http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006423DPW
 Thanks for stopping by. Next time you’re in Chi-Town look one of my haunts up, they are all real places you can visit and maybe you can make some memories of your own.
Aidan “Band-Aid” Palowski
Thanks for joing me for the Girly Books Blog Hop and special thanks to Libby Mercer for setting it up. Make sure you stop by all the stops listed below for more chances to win the great prize package on Libby's rafflecopter! http://libby-mercer.blogspot.com/2013/01/enter-to-win-girly-books-blog-hop-grand.html

Please leave a comment about your favorite location anywhere in the world and the memory that makes it special and I'll draw one name to win an eBook copy of BINDING ARBITRATION and a $10 Starbucks giftcard. Please make sure you leave an email address so I can reach you.

HAPPY READING & REVIEWING!
Elizabeth Marx