This is in downtown Naperville.

This looked beautiful

The first time I came to downtown Naperville was exactly 20 years ago – in 2006. Main Street had cobblestones, and there was a lot of construction going on. I have come back here a few more times, but this was the first time I brought Sharmila here. She was not disappointed. One of the best downtown suburbs we have enjoyed.

In a related note, we also visited the Museum of Illusions in Chicago!

Back in the 70s and 80s, I grew up in India being taught that Sears Tower was the tallest building in the world. This was true until the turn of the century. In my world then, seeing a 5-story building was rare and thrilling. Let alone one with 103 floors.

Later, that building was renamed Willis Tower. The name – as well as the original retailing company whose name it bore – is barely in vogue today. The building still stands tall. Taller, in fact, because of two humongous antennae that were put on the roof later. In the last 10 years, I must have made over 100 trips to Chicago (I worked here for 5 years), but never made it to the erstwhile tallest tower.

So, you would think I would be very excited when Sharmila declared that we were going to the Skydeck this morning. This Skydeck has a glass-covered Ledge that sticks out from the tower’s 103rd floor, where you can literally stand over the city.

Except that I am deeply acrophobic. If a hotel elevator has glass walls, I will stare at the door as if it owes me money – only to avoid seeing down. I just freeze at the knowledge that there is a precipice under my feet. You may recollect the climb once I did up the dirt sides of the volcano in El Salvador without turning to take in the views.

The elevator started shooting up. I could see the floor display inside the elevator rapidly changing. Almost as rapidly as my blood pressure! After what seemed like an excruciatingly long time (in reality, less than a minute), the said elevator disgorged us on the top floor.

While standing in the short queue, I tried calming my mind by reasoning that millions of people had done this before me. I even tried to distract myself by calculating how long it would take me to hit the ground if I fell off. Sixty seconds later, I finished my math. So did my wait.

It didn’t exactly help that they had put a sign there that said: “1.5 inches of glass separates you from the city”. And, to make matters worse, they had a picture of how much 1.5 inches is. Unfortunately, for me, drawn accurately to scale!

And my stupid mind was going, “Well, then, how much weight will that add to the ledge?” 🙂

Eventually, I could not get myself to walk straight into the ledge. To my lizard brain, I was walking into thin air. So, I tricked myself by turning around and backing into the ledge while looking at the people in the queue. All of them were bewildered, no doubt, at my predicament and the stupid, nervous grin plastered on my face.

Finally, when the picture came out, I could not help but laugh out loud! I was holding on to Sharmila. And she was BEHIND me!! In any physically realistic scenario, she would have gone over the edge first!

My amygdala is an idiot!