Vote Early, Vote Often

So, we went down and early voted today. I have such mixed feelings about this, about how much it really matters. And also some very strong frustrations about the lack of transparency and voter education that goes into this. Sure, we've all heard about two of the seven people running for president. But beyond that? At least here in Illinois, not only was information not shared, it was downright hard to find.

I did actually look too, I thought I'd found names of judges who weren't qualified to stay in their positions. However none of those names were on my ballot. I went to a forum discussing the constitutional convention we're supposed to vote on, and left feeling just as confused as when I went in. I had assumed that everything would be paper ballots, with touch screen voting only for people who needed it. Where we went today, every voting box was electronic.

If I'm finding it this complicated, what does that say about the state of voting here in Chicago? Is this common to cities, voting in general, or just here where corruption is rampant and expected?

As someone who grew up with neighbors and teachers who were in the state legislature, I knew everyone running before I was old enough to vote. Occasionally candidates would stop by our house to chat in the evening about their positions. Candidate comparisons seemed common and easy to find. I even heard that in Portland, people received position statements in the mail, all in one easy to browse pamphlet. It's very disengaging to feel that not only does my vote not matter on a federal level, but my vote even doesn't matter on a local level to those that are running for it.

And yet even feeling that way, I still had a sense of obligation to go and check all the little boxes. By the time I got to the end of was it twelve electronic pages? I'd pretty much checked out myself.

weekend widow

I got called a weekend widow yesterday, and this weekend it's even more true. ehs has been out of town for every Saturday except one starting September 20th (I did go for one of those weekends. He'll be gone again next weekend, and then we'll both be gone for two weekends. yikes!). He's enjoying what he's doing, but we've definitely put some things on hold because we know that the time just isn't there right now.

This time he's gone the whole weekend, he left right after work on Friday to fly to Boston for my brother's bachelor party, and he'll be back at the end of the day on Sunday. Yesterday I saw a friend during the day, then I went out with friends to one of my favorite bars in the city. It's a Scottish bar with great beer, amazing fish and chips, and a real pub feel. Also you can order half-pints, which is a wonderful concept. For an after-dinner drink, the waitress suggested port lemonade. I had never heard of this concept, and was not expecting it to contain ice cubes, but it was great and I would definitely get it again. Basically a version of sangria.

Today I'm having just a quiet me day. I'm intending to take myself to a movie this morning (box of popcorn and Javier Bardem, here I come!). Then my goal is to lose myself in some deep organization. We do a pretty good job of stuffing things in closets and closing the doors, but I've decided I want the closet back. We'll see who wins at the end of the day.

Tomorrow I'm going to a friend's house for what was described as "expirimental cooking." Apparently this will be the third attempt at making homemade pizza rolls. Plus some guitar hero, which I fully expect to be terrible at. It's nice to have your expectations low going in, that way it won't be a surprise.

forgot to put a title on

Last night we went to Navy Pier to see Amadeus at Chicago Shakespeare. It's pretty strange to sit in the audience there, five years after having worked there as a freelance electrician. It feels like some other lifetime that I was climbing ladders, lifting lights, and living that lifestyle. And yet five years is not really all that long of a time.

The show was very good, more humorous than I remembered it being (is it scary that I tried to spell "humorous" as in funny as "humerus" as in "the arm bone"?) . The acting was very good, and it brought up a lot more to think about than I had expected. Much more discussion of good and evil, and the role of God in human lives.

In other news, ehs has gotten trapped in two different labyrinth/journey books at once. He was reading "House of Leaves," but decided to start "Kafka on the Shore" before we saw it at Steppenwolf. Well, we saw it on Tuesday, so now he's partway through both of them. It's an interesting juxtaposition to make with those two, but what I mostly notice is that even still I can't discuss "House of Leaves" before bedtime without getting a cold shiver down my spine.

Finishing the Small Cat Story

So I realized that in my hiatus from posting I never finished the cat acne story. We left off with the part where I was going to try to give Benedryl to the Small Cat. Now this guy is squirmy and hard to pill anyway, we've had major problems in the past. For some reason I decided to attempt it by myself anyway. I got the pill in his mouth, but he immediately spit it out and began foaming at the mouth. Apparently he didn't like the taste of it and was trying to create as much saliva as possible to clear it out. I didn't at first realize what was going on, so I let him walk away. Then I realized he was dripping on the floor. Blech. I grabbed him and threw him in the bathroom (wiping down the floors of course), and then sat in there with him. I figured since I had him in there anyway, I might as well try the pill a second time. Bad idea. This time he got even more of a taste of it, and some of the pink coating came off in his mouth. Now he's foaming serious amounts of pink froth out of his mouth, and I have a deeper-than-it-looks gash in my finger from an escape attempt. We sat in the bathroom glaring at each other while I put pressure on my wound and he dripped pink drops. Eventually we both dried up a little and I let him go.

When ehs came home that night, we tried again, only to create a spectacular repetition of the previous performance. Twice actually. The three of us sat in the bathroom for a while, Small Cat banished to the tub while he frothed.

The next day I tried grinding up a Benedryl and putting it on a treat. He got within smelling range of the treat and began to foam. We've created a Pavlovian foaming effect.

So, we're currently ignoring the allergies. We're going to see how much of a problem it really is, possibly try switching the food. We can also pay to have a topical antihistamine created. We noticed some chin acne on the Monster Cat as well, so now they both get to have their faces washed (although as you may guess, I don't lock myself in the bathroom with the Monster Cat and attempt to wash his face. I let ehs take that job).

And the final note (for the moment) is that one night I decided to take a Benedryl for my potential allergies. I don't know what's wrong with those pills, but Small Cat was right. Those are some of the worst tasting pills I have ever had to ingest.

Cat Acne

Today is feel sorry for Small Cat day. First of all, he was forced to go to the vet, which he didn't expect at all and was very disgruntled about. Then it turns out he's actually GAINED weight since the last visit, a solid 16lbs at the moment. Even though he's eating out of the yogurt containers, and some of what he's eating is diet food. Oops.

And most tragic of all, the cat has been diagnosed with chin acne. Very embarrassing, I would imagine. The big pustule kind too. Maybe we should change his name to "Pizza Face." Also, he has allergies. Our house is not as bright as the vet's office, and it wasn't until we were there that I realized he's pretty much pink. His ears, nose, eyes all have a bright pink color to them, but additionally the back of one leg and his tummy are noticeably pink. So he's allergic to something. The dust kicked up on the outside of the building from all this work? The diet food? Fleas we could have gotten from other people's dogs? Who knows? He's got a dose of Frontline on him now, and he does not yet know this but we now own something called a "Pill Gun" which we will hopefully be using to successfully feed him Benedryl. Also, I have to go to the drugstore and buy him some acne cream to wash his face. Seriously.

I also have a dose of Frontline to put on the Monster, but I'm not sure that's a job I'm willing to tackle by myself.

jury duty

Today I went to criminal court, to serve jury duty. I had never been before, and I wasn't sure what to expect. I kept trying to convince myself it would just be some traffic violation, or breaking and entering of some sort. But the case I got called to was a murder case, the defendant was charged with two counts of 1st degree murder and one case of 1st degree attempted murder, I think. I don't know exactly, as soon as she started talking about a medical examiner being a potential witness I knew I was in trouble, and had a hard time listening closely after that.

I was one of 28 people pulled to sit in the jury box and answer questions about whether or not we knew people in law enforcement, or had been victims of crimes. I realized I've been really lucky, there's a lot of terrible things people can go through. And they also asked if anyone had been charged with a crime, which a surprising number of people said yes to. Then they all had to say what it was and how long ago, which has to feel strange to do in front of so many people. There was quite a variety listed: a DUI, possession of controlled substances, someone was charged with assault when they were 11, hitting a police officer 35 years ago, passing a bad check, handgun possession. Nothing major, but still a number of secrets aired out among strangers.

Obviously I wouldn't be able to talk about this if I had been chosen. They sent us on break, and when we came back they read a list of names of people who were dismissed, and thankfully I was one of them. I do think being on a jury could be interesting in the future, but I will still keep hoping for a basic traffic violation. If the defendant really didn't do it, then I hope that's what the jury finds. I'm glad I don't have to spend the rest of the week listening to people trying to convince me that he did.

inspirations

Look, it's Ian, on the front page of Edge Magazine!!

And then there's Alec, a fellow at the Center for Cartoon Studies, self-publishing, teaching, working on his graphic novel.

Kristen and Joe with beautiful baby Maddie, who laughs and smiles and is a joy.

Lindsey's at grad school studying bats. Living in New Jersey for pete's sake!

My parents are busier than ever in their retirements. They are doing things for themselves and volunteering to help others.

All these things help me stay focused and moving forward. Look at the great things all these great people are doing. I have to keep motivated so I can be on this list too!

5 years

Tonight we're going to Tsunami, the sushi restaurant where we had our first official date. We go every year to celebrate the day we actually met in person. Unlike our new anniversary (the first wedding date), I think that we hold onto this one for nostalgia rather than celebration. When we first went there, ehs didn't eat sushi. He knew I liked it, so he wanted to take me to a really good sushi restaurant, where he proceeded to order the chicken teriyaki. Now that he has learned to love sushi, we get to order things to share. And a sake flight. ^_^

I don't know that we have to keep this anniversary tradition, but I think that we would both miss it. Our new anniversary is a celebration of the commitment we've made to each other and how that relationship is growing. But our first anniversary reminds us that there was a time when we each felt our hearts racing just to see the other one. When everything was a surprise, when he would drive to the airport to pick me up, and when doing his laundry for him seemed like a gift instead of a given. Those moments still have their place in our relationship, but it's nice to have a specific event to remember and honor them. Plus there's sushi!

lazy sunday

Yesterday was the perfect lazy rainy Sunday. We lounged around in our pajamas until about 2, managed to watch three different movies, had a great dinner. And yet still accomplished some of the tasks on our to do lists.

Now if only I didn't have a sneezy cat, I could say that it's going to be a great cool fall Monday as well...

mail

I always wish for exciting mail. Yesterday was exciting in a disappointing way: a credit card bill and a jury summons. I might stop wishing for it to be exciting...

weekend

So, this was a busy weekend. We think we've found buyers for our car, Saturday was spent learning what you need to do when you find a buyer for your car. We turned out to be very unprepared for the part where they said, "OK, we want it, and we'll give you a great offer for it."

Sunday we went to the Field Museum to see the Mythic Creatures exhibit, which was really interesting. It wasn't necessarily a lot of new information for me, but I really liked seeing how myths are still present in a lot of cultures, even though we may not rely on ours as much anymore. There's a Japanese creature called a kappa, they used to be thought to lure children and travelers close to water and then pull them in and eat them. Like the Grimm's fairy tales the stories have gotten less scary, and now they're sort of silly critters who love cucumbers. They get their power out of water from a depression in their skulls that holds water. All you have to do is bow to them, and they feel obliged to bow back, dumping their water and then having to scurry back to the pond. There was a list of common Japanese phrases still used today. The only one I can remember is "kappa no he," which was "no more than a kappa fart," to say that something turned out to be not a very big deal. We do still use a lot of cliches in our language, but I can't think of very many that come directly from fairy tales.

home again home again, jiggity jig

It was great to see so much family in Georgia this past weekend: our new niece, an aunt and uncle we hadn't seen since our wedding (!), and all the other wonderful family down there. The weather wasn't as stifling as we had expected either, which was a welcome surprise.

Last night we managed to see The Dark Knight. I missed all the commercials and all but two of the previews (stupid 151 bus), but I made it. It was good, definitely scary, and somehow knowing that Heath Ledger is dead made his performance even creepier. It's really neat to see all the Chicago places in the movie. A lot of the action was on a street very close to where ehs works, and it was exciting to see those familiar buildings and streets.

ehs has borrowed a bike to see if he likes biking to work, which it turns out he does. The bike itself is not the right one for him, but he's enjoying the exercise and the breeze I guess. It's fun to send him out on errands, although the first night I told him I felt like I was sending a toddler to play in traffic. Which he reassuringly responded, "You are." But he's fine, wears his helmet and is cautious.

We've talked in the past about Working Bikes, which is an organization that refurbishes bikes and also uses the proceeds of selling bikes to bring bikes to other places in the world. So maybe we'll try to check them out at some point. We're still in the process of selling our car, and he may be taking it around for people to test drive this weekend.

Meanwhile, this will be my only Sunday at home in the month of August, so I intend to spend it thoroughly. We'll be going to the Mythical Creatures exhibit at the Field Museum, and then ehs's first annual work picnic.

today happened

I'm not sure even what to say about today. It was accomplished. I got the car washed, did laundry. We're finishing packing to fly to Georgia, which is tomorrow. I'm very happy that we're flying out of Midway, they have yummy things like Ben and Jerry's and greek-style yogurt. In addition to not taking an hour and a half to get to.

The Radio Said It

90% humidity at 6 in the morning? That's amazing. Gross and amazing.

Chicago Noises

I woke myself up at 4 this morning because of a bad dream. I managed to talk the dream into having a different outcome than it originally did, but it still took me a while to go back to sleep. As I was lying there trying to sleep I heard a group of people on the street yelling/singing at the top of their lungs the "Part of Your World" song from the Little Mermaid. It's always amazing to me how loud people are willing to be in a residential area at that time of night. After finishing that song they moved into other songs from musicals, but I had a harder time recognizing them. Eventually they dispersed, and I fell asleep and had a better dream. Another dream with a parade. This one had stilts, people on stilts, and also horses on stilts drawing carriages way up in the air.

End of an Era

On Friday I realized that I've been wearing the same pair of Dansko sandals for the last four summers, every day. If anyone else told me they'd been wearing the same pair of shoes every day for the last four years, I'd yell at them. I decided my birthday present to myself would be a brand new pair of Dansko sandals, which would be much better for my feet and my back than what I'm wearing. On Saturday I found a pair at Marshalls that were more than 1/2 off the price of a normal pair. They're not exactly the same style, but they're still in black, and incredibly comfortable. I didn't want to set them down again once I'd found them.

So today I had to face the task of throwing away what have been my favorite shoes for the last four years. I put it off all weekend because I felt sad about it, but when I picked them up today I noticed that the foot bed is sort of peeling up. From a distance they look pretty good, but up close or wearing them you certainly notice their age. So goodbye favorite shoes, and on to the new sandals. Hopefully these ones won't develop a squeak too...

p.s. if you do check out the Dansko site, be sure to notice their "may we also suggest" icons at the bottom of the screen. Usually these are for other items to purchase similar to what you're looking for, but they seem to be making lifestyle suggestions.

Wall-E

Yesterday we took a trip up to Evanston. It only took about an hour to get there on the train. We first went to a great Indian restaurant called Mt. Everest, which had a buffet. Restaurants with a buffet are really the best way to eat Indian food, because you get to have a little bit of a lot of different things and all the different flavors work together so well. I had papadum, daal, palak paneer, cabbage and peas, veggie pakora. Also a salty lassi, and gulab jamin and rice pudding for dessert. Wonderful.

Then we went to see Wall-E, which was very good. It is a bit dark and sad for the future, but also had some hope in it for humanity's sense of responsibility toward the planet. It was also very funny, I especially enjoyed the robots in the sort of psych ward, and also the little cleaning robot "Mo."

With a Little Help From My Friends

Well, today's the last day of being an eating martyr, I finally get to share meals with my friends again starting tomorrow. I have noticed no change in my symptoms, either better or worse, which to me says that food is probably not the issue.

Here is the list of items I've been allowed to eat for the last 10 days: almond milk, edamame, quinoa, sweet potato, asparagus, cauliflower, string beans, spinach, tomatoes, zucchini, bananas, grapefruit, blueberries, oranges, pistachios, whey protein, cayenne, honey, sesame, maple, turmeric, cumin, and oregano. Also tuna, but I only had it two days.

What you'll notice from this list is the striking question: Where's the carbs? There's also a distinct lack of calories. Which is great and all, if you're trying to lose weight. That wasn't one of my goals with this little project, call it an unintended side effect.

I don't know how I would have gotten through this week without the insight and generousity of my friends. Mary sailed right by my "but, what about olive oil? cheese? vinegar?" conundrum, and emailed me a wonderful list of options. She instantly transformed my options by pointing out the possibilities of orange and grapefruit juice and zest to add an acid flavor to foods. She also had clever options like making pretend pasta out of julienned zucchini, making a tahini sauce for sweet potatoes, and a recipe for a delicious edamame salad.

As mentioned, ehs made me delicious popsicles using only items from the list (bananas, almond milk, and maple syrup) that have made every hot day (every day) more bearable.

And after seeing Cirque, Ian and Maria volunteered to come get take-out at our house so that I could eat in but we could still hang out.

I have learned that I love roasted cauliflower, that watered-down grapefruit juice is a little bit like lemonade, and that you can always make substitutions with what you have on hand (or are allowed to eat). I have finally put to rest my fears of having a food intolerance. Starting tomorrow it'll once again be everything in moderation. Maybe I'll get to stop dreaming about donuts...

Donuts: Recommended

Last night we saw Superior Donuts at Steppenwolf. It's written by Tracy Letts, who recently won a Pulitzer and a Tony for his amazing show August: Osage County. I am impressed that this script feels as strong as that one. In it's funniest moments, I think it's funnier. Superior Donuts is set now in Chicago. It's filled with Chicago references, many were so current we got them, and many that only the older sections of the audience chuckled for. It felt like a hometown audience, we laughed at all the right places, and gasped together just where we were supposed to. The acting was superb and the story was engaging and moving.

And speaking of the acting, reading the program we realized that the main character was going to be played by Michael McKean. If you're like me and struggle with names, he's a staple in Christopher Guest movies, starting with playing the lead singer in This Is Spinal Tap. As ehs pointed out, some people may be more familiar with the 144 episodes of Lavernne and Shirley he was in. Either way, it was great to see him perform in person. The set is tiny, pushed right to the front of the stage. All the action is up close. You really catch the smaller moments this way, and in a lot of ways those are what this play is all about. The small choices that look big, and the power of place and memory.

If you're in Chicago, I would recommend trying to catch this production before it closes on August 24.

And last night, instead of dreaming about any of the play's themes or plotlines, I dreamt I made donuts. Boy were they delicious!

Cirque, 2

After the Cirque show was over, we started discussing our feelings about the show on the walk to the bus. It turned out that everyone else had spent at least a little time evaluating the performers for their date-ability. The choices were interesting, from the completely sequined and sparkly juggler, to the juggler's assistant who had no real demonstrated talents except dancing around, to the contortionists (all three).

But on a mental 5-minute date, it was discovered that at least the juggler wasn't a very good date. He turned out to only want to talk about himself.

I didn't see any of the performers that way. I think if I went on a date with any of them, I'd be tempted to spend the whole time lecturing them on the damage they are doing to their bodies, or asking about their personal training habits.

Cirque

On Friday we saw a new Cirque du Soleil show, Kooza, here in Chicago. It was pretty amazing, but let me just tell you, the ability to touch your head to your bottom is a fast recipe for having arthritis by the age of 25, in my opinion. Wow.

I think that part of the reason Cirque has really thrived is that it has so many elements of what originally made circuses so capitvating to audiences. The performers make really difficult things look easy, but you're also always aware of the fact that they are often in very real danger. Sure, a lot of it is controlled, and maybe there's some staged falls to get your adrenaline going. But even a safety wire doesn't make you that much safer. The audience holds its breath with hoping, and cheers more wildly the more danger it perceives for the performers.

When the guy in the stilts came out to do a back flip, I wanted not to watch. That and other times I felt too worried for their safety to really enjoy myself. Other times it just looked like so much fun. There are so many varieties of flying involved in a circus.

The audience favorite was near the end of the show. A comparatively small man, with very toned arms came out. Everyone started whispering, "Look, he's a life guard." He was wearing a white robe and was followed by a chair up on a platform that looked like one you'd see on the beach. There were more chairs (of the regular height) following him. He took off his robe and stood in basically a loin cloth. He was a strong man, holding his own body weight on his arms with no wobbling, shaking, or apparent difficulty. He did sweat a lot though. When he reached the first chair, he reached down for more. He began stacking and climbing the chairs, stopping every so often to show us more scary and impressive balancing acts. I have no idea how many chairs he finally stacked, maybe 8 or 10. The whole tent was so quiet and tense. There was no magic or surprise, the suspense was present in every move he made.

First Birthday Present of the Year

Hooray!

Today after work I was sitting on the couch with ehs. I'm doing well with the eating thing, but I do feel tired a little more than usual. He said that he had an early birthday present for me. Of course, then I had to try to find it right away. I looked in the closet downstairs, all the kitchen cabinets, and the fridge. I thought I'd looked everywhere, but he said there was still a place. I couldn't imagine what could be a present in the freezer, especially since I'm not eating a whole lot right now (sad about no ice cream).

He got me popsicle forms!! When I was a kid my mom would make popsicles out of juice, and as an adult I find popsicles the best and fastest way to cool down when I'm overheated. I've wanted to get my own popsicle forms for a while now, but I haven't sat down and looked for them, and he bought them today.

Even better, he brought them home, washed them, and MADE ME POPSICLES! He made banana, almond milk, and maple syrup popsicles, all items that are on the list. He used Mark Bittman's recipe from The Minimalist (the video is pretty funny). What a wonderful birthday present, popsicles now and popsicles for the future.

And also, the popsicles he made are wonderful. I would make them again, even when I can eat more items!

City Life

One of the fun things about living in a city is seeing crazy things on the street that it wouldn't even occur to me to make up.

Yesterday I saw a guy biking down the street. He was holding the handlebar with one hand, and his other arm was stretched to the side and holding a parrot. A giant green and blue pirate's buddy parrot. It was impressive.

Also yesterday I accidentally shut the monster cat in my closet for 2 1/2 hours when I was out of the house... Oops. He didn't seem mad at me when I figured out where he was, although he did exit the closet quite quickly. It's always the other cat that I worry about shutting in closets, I didn't even check to see where this one was when I left.

Popsicle Weather

It's a typical humid, hot, sunny, cloudy, planning to storm, popsicle-requiring day here in Chicago.

Dubious Distinction

The radio says that starting today Chicago (Cook County) claims the honor of having the highest sales tax rates in the country: 10.25%

Normal Crazy Weekend

It seems like summer weekends have the inherent ability to spiral wildly out of control. Much like the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, all the parties are being squeezed into the same finite amount of time. I intended to post about Sunday before it happened, but then it just sort of happened anyway.

Sunday morning: pouring rain. Then sunshine and blue skies. 10am Pride Parade Pre-Party at Dave's house. 12:30ish, go try to find a place to stand along the parade route. Which was crazy. We usually watch the parade towards the end of the route, where there's a lot less people. This year we were fairly close to the beginning. But we were able to find a nice place in the shade that wasn't too crowded and we could see some things. We saw two ROTC (is that right? they have fake guns and dance. the second one had flags too) groups, and the line dancers, all of which I like. I like the coordinated dancing while walking, it's always impressive.

At 1:30 it was time to skeedaddle. We walked to the red line at Addison, switched to the brown line at Belmont, and were on our way. It started pouring when we got on the brown line, but we didn't mind. The train stopped at Sedgwick, our stop, and then continued on to Chicago. Without opening the doors to our car. Kidnapped by CTA! We called the conductor to tell him the doors didn't open, but they opened at Chicago. We had to run down the stairs, across the street, and back up the stairs, but we made a northbound train and went back to Sedgwick.

There's a new pizza place across from the Sedgwick stop, so we went there for lunch. Two pieces of greasy pizza with a nice crispy crust later, we walked out in the damp. The rain had stopped and the blue skies were back. We went home, got in the car, and drove to the Empty Bottle, where Mary was having an accordian recital. She's been taking beginning accordian lessons. The recital was very fun, our only regret was not knowing how to polka. We stood on the corner and chatted for a while but the sky to the north suddenly turned ominously dark and we all zipped off to our cars.

We drove home through a major rainstorm and decided the day could go no further without a nap. The cats thankfully left us alone and we woke up 20 minutes later. It was raining again in our neighborhood, but there was a report of blue skies at our next destination, so we finished preparing a salad and headed out.

Traffic, as we should have guessed, was terrible. We got off of Lakeshore at Montrose and had to get right back on. We got off at the next exit (Wilson), and parked in an apparently little known parking lot, as it had quite a lot of empty spaces. We walked across the wet soccer fields to Ben's birthday BBQ. It was very fun to see everyone, and we would have liked to stay longer, but the big dark clouds came back and the party decided to disband to a local bar. At that point we thought it was time to call it a day and go back home for good.

Cart Test Run

Yesterday was a test run of what it's like to go grocery shopping without a car. We still have the car, but we are planning to sell it. We thought it might be a good idea to try shopping without a car, to see how it much trouble it might be, and if we need to plan for it differently.

I leave the house with one big new collapsible shopping cart we bought a couple of weeks ago, five cloth grocery bags, a soft-sided cooler with two freezy packs in it, a bottle of water, an umbrella, and my purse. Getting down the street is pretty easy, the cart doesn't stay locked closed, but it isn't a problem. The bus comes right away, getting on is easy. The bus drops me off in a great place, close to the store. Ok, I'm going great!

It then takes me five or maybe ten minutes to figure out how in the world I am going to drag this giant cart around the store and also a grocery cart. Do I just use my cart? Can I put my cart under theirs? (No) Is it dumb to have my cart inside of their cart? (Yes) Isn't there just a little clip on the front of their cart I can use? (No) I finally figure out that I can put my cart upside down in the handle of the regular cart. Problem solved. I have to walk a little funny in the store, but it works.

Grocery shopping happens. I do pretty well, mostly sticking to the list. Notable off-list exceptions being queso fresco which just seems too exciting not to try, apple juice which should have been on the list and just wasn't, and filling in the blank space labeled "fruits and veggies" on my list: red peppers, avocados, grapes, jalapenos, celery, carrots, apples, bananas, and onions.

I go through checkout. The cashier and bagger are super helpful after I explain the situation. Basically I need them to forget the basic concept of creating a bag, and create a cart instead. So they make heavy bags to go on the bottom, and lighter bags to go on the top. Everything cold fits perfectly in the cooler. It's brilliant. It's also really heavy. And now that it's heavy, my cart does not enjoy the concept of cornering.

I learn to pick up the back wheels of the cart and turn in order to corner. I make it to the bus stop, and the bus comes right away. And then the moment of truth: what if I can't lift my heavy cart onto the bus? The metal is too fragile for me to lift from the basket. The nice bus driver lowers the bus a little bit for me, and I just heave the thing up. We make it!

Now just a short, uncomfortable bus ride where the laws of physics involving inertia are demonstrated for me many times. I get off the bus, and immediately hit a bump in the sidewalk that stops me short. The people walking behind me are not impressed. But I maneuver that and some more corners, and make it home.

I don't know if I'd call it an unqualified success, but it's definitely doable. A woman who got in the elevator with me seemed impressed with my cart skills. She sold her car last week, highly recommends it, and is thinking about copying my grocery shopping style. Slightly undermining all this cheeryness, we each wished the other good luck as I got of the elevator.

Johnny Depp is Following Me!

Not that that's a problem.

A couple of weeks ago Ian had a show at a bar called Lilly's, which is on Lincoln just north of the Biograph Theater. Unfortunately for turn-out for the show, the part of Lincoln in front of the Biograph was closed down so that all these old-timey cars could drive up and down it. They were shooting the new John Dillinger movie, which has Johnny Depp and Christian Bale.

Today they're closing off Wells between Lincoln and Eugenie. Sound familiar? I can sit in the lobby of the building, and watch Johnny Depp and Christian Bale shoot a movie. Theoretically. I can at least see it from my windows.

UPDATE:

We received a memo from our building manager who says he must "with much regret inform the residents that Johnny Depp will not be on location." His character in the movie already died by the time this scene happens. We'll hope for Christian Bale, but with this rain we may not see much of anything...

Thunderstorms

Yet another thunderstorm in Chicago this morning. Which means that during breakfast the monster cat came down and asked me to open my closet so he could hide. Ok, so really he hid behind my chair and meowed at me, but it's pretty clear what that means when the weather is bad. For being so scary to strangers he's a big coward in real life. So I got up from my eggs, scallions, tomatoes, toast and green tea, walked up the stairs, and he beat me to the closet door. He prefers to sit in my laundry basket, but sometimes when it's stormy that's not quite safe enough. He's currently wedged in the back corner with the lights off. I don't expect to see him for several hours.

Meanwhile small cat here is making all his normal cooing and snoring noises, attempting to sleep on ehs's office chair. And just like yesterday, now that the rain has passed, it looks like a beautiful blue-skied day.

Game Night Group

So, every two weeks 8 or 10 of us get together for dinner and a board game. We've been doing this for almost a year now, with only a few missed dates. We are now challenging ourselves with preparing thematic dinners, based on choices we all put into a hat (technically, a coffee cup at Clarke's diner at 12am, but it works). You heard ehs talk about us hosting "The Other One in the Couple." The next time, Ian created "Formalish Appetizers," which was wonderful. We ate fried plantains, bruschetta, celery sticks, marinated and broiled tofu, I think there was more. Also ice cream.

This Thursday Maria is hosting and her theme is "South Pacific." Particularly appropriate given the Tony's, but I think she's looking at it geographically rather than theatrically. I know I'm excited, we're expecting "pineapple, peanuts, pineapple, tofu or pineapple." All my favorites.

Coming up in the next months are Mary and Dan with "Childhood," which should be interesting, and Matt with "Brinner" as in "Breakfast for Dinner."

I don't think we'll do themes every time, but I do expect we will do them again. Really the best part is getting to see good friends on a regular basis, so you don't feel like you have to catch up all over again every time you see someone. And the food's always great, whatever it is.

Accidental Tony Watching

So, I didn't intend to watch the Tony's last night, but I did after all. I forgot that what I like about the Tony's is seeing the musical performances that happen, always so much fun. And this year was especially exciting if you follow theater in Chicago. Chicago Shakespeare Theater won the Regional Theater Tony. And Steppenwolf's August: Osage County was up for 7 Tony's. They won quite a lot of them too (5), and I definitely felt very proud for them.

There were other great moments, one of the most impressive being the original cast of Rent all coming on stage and singing Seasons of Love together with the current cast. That was very impressive.

One of the things that seemed to confuse and impress the audience in the theater (and certainly me) was the acceptance speech by Mark Rylance, who won for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play.

“When you are in town wearing some kind of a uniform is helpful, policeman, priest, etc. Driving a tank is very impressive, or a car with official lettering on the side. If that isn’t to your taste, you could join the revolution, wear an armband, carry a homemade flag tied to a broom handle, or a placard bearing an incendiary slogan. At the very least you should wear a suit and carry a briefcase and a cell phone, or wear a team jacket and a baseball cap and carry a cell phone. If you’re in the woods, the back country, someplace past all human habitation, it is a good idea to wear orange and carry a gun and, or, depending on the season, carry a fishing pole or a camera with a big lens. Otherwise…I will wrap it up now very quickly…otherwise it might appear that you have no idea what you are doing and you are merely wandering the earth, no particular reason for being here, no particular place to go. Thanks very much for this.”

It sounded off-the-cuff, it sounded rambling, and strange, and beautiful. And it turns out to be a prose poem by Minnesota Poet Lewis Jenkins (minus, clearly, the inserts based on time and thanks). It was certainly different, and held your attention. And was a little less scary than Patti LuPone yelling at the orchestra to not cut her off...

Ah, summer...

What you will see if you're in my neighborhood this weekend:

-lots of women in little dresses and skirts, holding onto their outfits so the wind doesn't turn them into flashers
-many motorcycles, mostly in groups of four or more, with and without riders
-two competing art fairs, one of which serves alcohol and doesn't end until 10pm. Guess which one is busier?
-lots of singing and shouting and honking on the street, presumably caused by said alcohol
-too many cars on some small side streets, cars parked facing the wrong direction, and general traffic craziness

Poorly Named Naps

If it's called a "cat nap," why can't I get my cat to leave me alone when I'm doing it? "Catless naps" seem far more effective.

Could you nap if you had to worry someone was going to take your glasses and throw them down the stairs or behind the bed? Me neither.

Although you know, when I'm not trying to nap, he's really quite good at it.

Shopping Lists and the Local News

I glanced down to see a shopping list on my desk that reads:
-catfood/litter
-shopping cart
-recycling
-steering wheel

The good news is that we managed to accomplish all of those things this weekend. ehs took in the recycling when he helped Dan take in his electronic recycling. ehs came home and said, "I just want you to know, I failed you." Although he had successfully dropped off our glass and aluminum recycling, he had managed to come home with one of Dan's electronic items destined for recycling. Oh well, apparently we can use it, and it doesn't take up very much room? These things do happen.

The steering wheel mentioned is for MarioKart for the Wii, which we are having a lot of fun with. ehs got it for his birthday, and we decided to get more wheels so it's even more fun for multiple people to play. I'm usually pretty terrible at racing games, but I can be Baby Peach and drive either a stroller or a motorcycle with training wheels. They both don't have a lot of speed, but have GREAT handling. So I spend a lot less time falling off of the race course.

The shopping cart is a folding cart so I can go get groceries on the bus when we sell the car. We still have to assemble it, but we went with a less heavy model. Hopefully this is going to work really well.

On Sunday we had planned to do some of this required shopping and then there was a major rainstorm. The sky turned dark in the distance, then all the buildings on the horizon disappeared, and suddenly there was rain. The rain started by slamming sideways onto the windows and then we realized it was actually coming IN the windows. So after some excitement involving towels, we made lunch and decided to postpone our shopping. After a while the rain was gone and the sky was basically blue again so we headed out. We crossed the street behind our building to wait for the bus and saw huge tree limbs down all over the park. Then we saw an entire tree that had blown over and we realized that ABC7 news was there filming it. They asked if we'd talk to them about the weather and the damage, so we talked to them until we had to run for the bus. It was a little strange, it made me feel very shy but ehs did a good job. And they put us on the news! People at work told ehs they'd seen him on the news that night and the next morning. He says how sad it is that the tree is down and that he'll miss it, and I just look at him smiling. It's very sweet.

Fluid Geography

I see the geography of cities as fluid
maps instantly constructed and destroyed
as you learn and relearn your neighborhood
realizing proximity and distance are not
what they seemed

we all create our maps based on emotion
experiences embodying place with a place
on the page
a dot, a pin, a mark to say "I was here"
identified by where and when
we had a fight
you proposed
I saw the cutest guy
they had the best noodles there

then the relationship ends or blossoms
the noodle shop becomes a taco place
the unknown becomes familiar
and the map shrinks again
flows into a picture of home

Good Timing

Today I as walked between rains I thought the Chicago wind was simply blowing drops down from the leaves. I lingered at my building, struggling as usual to open the door. Looking behind me through the window, I saw more water than a tree could ever store on its green leaves pounding slantwise onto the sidewalk.

Navigating the Chicago weather takes a certain amount of luck.