Andrew / March 31, 2005 10:28 AM

I walk to the convenience store up the block. One of the owners and I talk about places to eat on Devon Ave. (he's Pakistani, so he's got more of an inside view than I do).

emily / March 31, 2005 10:47 AM

I walk up 6 flights of stairs in my building. 100 steps up and 100 steps down. It really clears my mind and lets out stress.

When the weather is nice I will walk around my building once, or walk the 1/2 block to the lake for a quick moment of meditation.

anne / March 31, 2005 10:58 AM

When I worked in a little 4-story building, I'd go up on the roof, which was easily accessable from the fire escape/smoker's lounge out back. Great views of Lakeview and a good stiff breeze to clear the head. Now, that I'm in a big office building, I'll head out and windowshop around the block. By the time I've looked at possible cute new shoes, I'm ready to go back to work.

Michael O'Malley / March 31, 2005 11:08 AM

A happy place, where no one ever grows old and no one ever dies.

The Chad / March 31, 2005 11:37 AM

I jump in the lake and come back refreshed!

Benjy / March 31, 2005 11:38 AM

I'll ususally go to Target or Best Buy and wander during my lunchhour when I need to get away from the office for a bit.

wackpuma / March 31, 2005 11:40 AM

I crawl under my desk and start moaning to myself.

Overwrought Mind / March 31, 2005 11:55 AM

I walk to the cafeteria, Au Bon Pain, or pharmacy.

Or into my co-worker's offices to bug them.

Tim / March 31, 2005 11:55 AM

64° 8' N
21° 56' E

steven / March 31, 2005 12:17 PM

we actually have a small lake outside, so i walk out there and visit with the birds and the chipmunks for a while.

jen*nee / March 31, 2005 12:19 PM

A quick walk to the local smithy for help removing the shackles.

Mac / March 31, 2005 12:47 PM

We can never leave. Must stay till end of shift; no one here gets out alive.

amyc / March 31, 2005 1:06 PM

I just walked over to Nordstrom and bought half a dozen pairs of black tights.

Tracey / March 31, 2005 1:11 PM

If I can't physically leave the office, i let my mind venture to a lovely land of Bejewelled.

mark / March 31, 2005 1:52 PM

Wait.... you mean we're actually allowed to leave here? Dammit i believed my supervisor when she said I had to sleep here. God i'm so gullible.

Craig / March 31, 2005 1:55 PM

Market Street Tavern Inn for a round of Ms. Pac Man and surly looks from the clientele.

jen / March 31, 2005 2:18 PM

i'm actually able to go home at lunch everyday for the sole purpose of walking my boxer pup.

Cinnamon / March 31, 2005 2:31 PM

I'm not divulging my secret spot cause too many of co-workers read this and I'm not willing to share. It's mine! Mine I tell you!

eep / March 31, 2005 2:38 PM

There's nowhere to go, and we're only allowed out during our scheduled breaks. For a while we used to escape out back and sit in the shade under the trees, but then they had the trees torn up.

*sigh*

Yet Another Jen / March 31, 2005 3:26 PM

Once around the big, ugly Thompson center for a quick break.
Over to Millenium Park if I've got a little more time.

Naz / March 31, 2005 3:47 PM

Since I have a home office, I can pretty much step into the living room and watch a DVD for a bit or to the bedroom for a bit of a nap or outside, glorious outside for some fresh air, usually with camera for a few shots of anything that catches my eye. Clears things out.

jima / March 31, 2005 4:38 PM

There is no escape.

lenny / March 31, 2005 4:48 PM

To my other cubicle down the hall... the with the throne...

Thurston / March 31, 2005 5:00 PM

I work right in front of Millenium park, so I often go there, check out the face waterfall things, look at myself in the bean or slyly perv out on women by the fountain. Sometimes I head over to Tower Records in the South Loop and indulge in a new CD. There is always of course my second cubicle, as Lenny puts it, where I go to do serious thinking.

fred / March 31, 2005 6:05 PM

I escape to work from school.

Leelah / March 31, 2005 7:48 PM

Does the internet count?

I get no escape. My office is a classroom and it is ALWAYS filled with kids, even on my free periods. Of course it pays off on days like today when one of the babies gets into Yale (one of only 6 in the entire CPS system)! I don't need no escape today! The eleven hours I spent there today were worth it!

Anthony / March 31, 2005 9:52 PM

To the Intelligentsia at Dearborn and Jackson. Love that place.

Pete / April 1, 2005 9:14 AM

These days, online.

Joey / April 1, 2005 9:34 AM

I use the secret trapdoor under my desk that leads to a deserted beach in the South Pacific waters. Don't tell my boss.

Drunkie / April 1, 2005 10:12 AM

Hmmm, When I need to escape, I go tanning, to the bookstore, to chipotle....or I hide in my coat closet.

Erica / April 1, 2005 10:24 AM

I work in no man's land aka new East Side over here on Wacker and Columbus. There is only one place to escape in the winter: UNDERGROUND in the pedway, yo.
The pedway depresses me, so I try to avoid it.

In the summer, we eat lunch by the river. Summer rules.

Brenda / April 1, 2005 10:42 AM

Me, I go to O'Dougan's for a Boston-style hot dog.

chris / April 1, 2005 10:42 AM

Office!!?? We don't need no stinking office! Actually, I am an unemployed (going back to school for the second time) loser. Ack

Matthew / April 1, 2005 11:26 AM

Well, i work pretty much next door to the Virgin Megastore on Michigan Ave., so i'll swoop over there to check out some of the "hot new releases" on their 8,000 listening stations. keeps me up on the current trends....

Steve / April 1, 2005 12:26 PM

Getting my slack butt out of the office more needs to be factored into my MBOs, as I tend to get so locked in to completing my TPS reports that I forget that there's even a world outside.

Seriously, though -- a few weeks ago I did a nice cross-Loop walk from the office (Franklin and Adams) to Rock Records (where they had already sold out of the disc I wanted) to Tower Records and then back here. This would've been totally routine over lunch hour six or seven years ago, but in my dotage it felt like the greatest escape since my week and a half off over the Xmas hols.

My quality of life/work-life balance is completely shot to shite. My city's a sucker.

Emerson Dameron / April 1, 2005 12:59 PM

http://milov.nl/iambald

Erica / April 1, 2005 1:18 PM

Today's Fuel is really getting me to wonder: What do all of you do for a living? Can that be tomorrow's Fuel? Please Andrew!!