Sure enough, just as I leave the el station and turn the corner towards the Vic, Mike walks right by me arm in arm with his wife.  It happened so fast, but I managed to get out a "Hey Mike" as he was passing me.  He even turned slightly (as he had passed me by this point) to say "What's up." 

Well, while I was right there in front of the Vic, I decided to get a ticket for the show that night.  The whole time I'm standing at the ticket window, I'm watching Mike who is stuck at a crosswalk waiting for the signal.  Much to my surprise, not a single person approached him as he was standing there.  So, just as I complete my transaction at the window, the light changes and he starts to cross the street.  I, not being completely satisfied with my brief encounter, decided to follow him for a second. 

So, I start to follow him down Belmont.  Well, I didn't want to just tap him on the shoulder, so I decided that it would be better to walk past him.  So, I hurry up and get in front of him, but now it's just as freaky to stop right in my tracks and turn around.  So, I keep walking fast and get a good distance in front of him.  I stop a the next intersection and I decide that a good way to allow him to catch up would be to act like I was lost.  So, I did.  I sat there for a good twenty or thirty seconds waiting for him to catch up and pretend to be lost, looking up at street signs, down streets, back at where I came from (looking lost, but actually seeing if he was catching up).

So, FINALLY, Mike catches up to me and in my "lost state" I look at him and give that surprise jump-back as if to say "What are YOU doing here".  So, I say "Hey Mike.  Good to see you", and he stopped, took his arm from around his wife and shook my hand and said hi.  And we both went our separate ways. 

So, that's my very long story about how I got to shake Mike Gordon's hand in the middle of Belmont, in the middle of Chicago, in the middle of the day, in the middle of fall.  Hope you enjoyed it. 

- Ryan O.