Diorama Delivery Adventure - Third and Final Part

Thanks to a recommendation from my friend, Kath, Sunday started with breakfast at Le Peep restaurant. But of course.

On our way into the restaurant, we passed two Chicago police officers, so we asked if they would mind taking a picture with our diorama. They did not, which was great, because as Hillary distracted them with the Peeps diorama, I hot wired a nearby car.

Cops apprehending the PEEPetrator. (ha ha ha snort). They should have apprehended me for wearing the most unflattering shirt on the face of the earth.

We had breakfast and took photos of our diorama with the entire wait staff at Le Peep (their request). Toward the end of breakfast, Hillary said that she thought Harpo Studios (Oprah's place) was near by. I used the GPS on my phone and discovered it was 171 feet (yes, feet) from the restaurant. So we immediately hailed a cab.

Not really. We walked to the end of the block and found it:

As I stood across the street taking this photo of Hillary, I saw a sporty silver Mercedes drive by and I swore Oprah herself was driving it. I would imagine that she probably has a driver during the week, but it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, so it did not seem too outlandish that it could be Oprah. That's all I had to say to Hillary to prompt her to take off running down the street after "Oprah" with the diorama in her hand. She did not catch up to the car, which is unfortunate, because we probably could have taken another round of photos with our police officer friends.

Not one to give up easily, Hillary then marched into the front door of Harpo Studios and tried to convince the security guard on duty that we needed to see Oprah. The guard listened to our diorama story, smirked and then told us that Oprah was not there that day. (Note:  Liar, liar, pants on fire.)

Dejected, we headed back to the hotel to meet up with Lauren and with Vanessa -- a professional photographer that my Oakton Patch editor hired to document everything we did on Sunday leading up to and during the diorama delivery at the Chicago Tribune. (Vanessa brought her husband, Kyle, and daughter, Violet, along for the shenanigans. Which we loved, because just like our children, Violet will now grow up with "Peeps diorama" as part of her vernacular.) Indoctrinate 'em while they're young -- that's what we say.

We strolled along the Chicago River, took photos in front of Chicago Tribune Building, pretended we were kissing the Silver Guy (we had to pay for this privilege -- awful flashbacks to high school), and slowly made our way to the Tribune.

At the Tribune, we started trying to rally people walking by to be in our "diorama delivery" photo with the lure of foam Peeps visors. We got a few people interested...and with our small group assembled, we phoned Leo upstairs at the Tribune to let him know we were there for the drop off.

Could our group of supporters look any less interested? Somehow fantastic.

Please let me set this up properly (as if the flight to Milwaukee, drive to Chicago and tour of the city with our diorama didn't already do that for you). We envisioned quite the photo opportunity here, as this was the defining moment of our trip -- what everything so far had led up to -- the denouement, if you will.

The reality? Leo came out, posed uncomfortably for one photo, then fled -- almost ran -- back into the safety of the Tribune building. This all happened so fast, we really did not have time to react, or say goodbye to our diorama. It was a downer for about three seconds, then we realized that it was kind of the perfect ending to the adventure.

For the rest of the afternoon, we hung out at our hotel for a while (with new friends Vanessa, Kyle and Violet ) and tried to get over our feeling of emptiness and going from being the focus of people's attention as we walked down the street with a diorama to barely getting a passing glance. (Now we know what it is like to be Winona Ryder post Reality Bites). (Minus the shoplifting conviction.) (At least for Kathleen...)

Now...we just wait and see who wins this thing. Though, as my friend, Amy, noted on Facebook, "Haven't you already won?"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

We mentioned that we were doing a giveaway to whoever (whomever?) left the funniest comment/question on the Oakton Patch Q&A article that ran over the weekend. And the winner of the fabulous At Home with Brutalism prize pack is...

Trucking Tumbleweed

For her comment/question:

I think y'all did a great job on the diorama. I'm a big fan of ear hair portrayed artistically, and am keeping my fingers crossed that you win. Regarding the theme of your vignette, did you consider having Enema Man on the stage also? And if so how would you have done that exactly?

that made us laugh and also showed a knowledge of the subject matter. (Bonus that the subject matter was "enema.") 

Trucking T - Please provide me with an address where you'd like this sent (you can send through FB e-mail) and I'll get that out to you.

(Aside: Will this get you off my back, Trout Almondine?)