Joseph Alotta wrote:
> I'd like to hire a ruby programmer for a few hours of private tutoring.
>  I would like help getting a good environment set up for development.
> I would also like to have a friend that I can talk ruby with. You can
> come here, or I can go there as I have a laptop.  Please email me at
> jalotta at earthlink dot net.

Hey Joseph, I'm not in Chicago, but I'm good with the google:

http://ruby.meetup.com/cities/us/il/oak_brook/?chapter=closed

Hope that helps!