sun worshipper

Today is the first sunny day in a long time. We went for a walk in the neighborhood without jackets. It's like the sunshine is finding it's way down into my soul. Everything starts uncurling from the wintertime darkness and Chicago doesn't seem so bad.

a monster

There once was a dog named Solomon. He was big, mostly white, with a few black splotches unevenly placed, over one eye and on his back. He looked very scary, so scary that when I walked with him down the street it was common for little children to scream, "Aaah! There's a monster!" Solomon would happily wag his tail ignorant of how frightened people were of him. He already had a bad reputation. He was a Pit Bull. He was expected to be very bad, especially by his original owners who had clipped his ears. Sol never lived up to the expectations put on him. He was as sweet as can be, big jowls and wide shoulders, he always wanted to be pet. But it turns out one part of him was bad; he had a bad heart. He died a young dog, sweet til the end, from a heart attack.

keep on walking

The past few days have been busy and full of different experiences. I saw a dozen basketball players crying, a bunch of snow swirling, and hundreds of teenagers reciting poetry. And someone reminded me of an old lady I once met who had her throat slashed walking home from the theater. She had to be close to 80 years old. The fantastic thing, was that afterwards, when she recovered, she kept on walking. Walking home from the theater unafraid. In a world with so many scary things, I hope to be like that old lady and keep walking no matter what happens.

i love patriarchy

To the little man with the red beard who yelled at me for "blocking" the train door: I curse you and your beard.

love it or leave it

Chicago has the worst postal service in the country, just another thing they don't tell you when you move here. Worst post office I've ever been to: Wicker Park Post Office. Whenever I go in, which is often, there is a long long line of people and one, usually incompetent, person at the counter.

One time, I could hear a group of workers watching TV and laughing in the back, while I waited in line for just under 1 hour. It is also common to see folks turned away and told, "We can't find your package, sorry, we'll call you if we do."

While waiting in line once, a woman turned to me exasperated and said, "This runs like a Communist agency!"

And if you don't believe me, check this out....in 1994 there was a Chicago postal scandal in which "Mammoth mounds of undelivered mail were found at several stations--including one pile 800 feet long, nearly the length of three football fields."

Living in Chicago means getting used to incompetency. Next rant? Icy sidewalks.

big fat snowflakes & big fat dreams

Big fat snowflakes are falling down on Chicago right now. Last night we went to the California Clipper. The man who last time dropped his pants in front of the plate glass window was there again. But, this time a blizzard was happening, so no pants droppage. Whew.

The Oscars are on tonight. I remember the year when Matt Damon and Ben Affleck won for best screenplay. They stood up there so refreshingly sheepish and authentically awed, like two kids from my neighborhood growing up that had this big dream come true and couldn't believe it was real. Massachusetts accent and all. That was one of my favorite Oscar presentations. Yeah, I have to admit, against all common sense, I like watching the Academy Awards.

alarming

Q: What is the book I see the most people reading on the el train?


A: The Fountainhead by Ann Rynd

hello cruel world

People are crawling out of the woodwork to talk to me, the old dusty woodwork, not the new shiny woodwork. In the last two days, I've been contacted by several people from my past. Maybe there's some cosmic sign above my head that says I'm lonely and that I'm convinced that everyone has forgotten about me. Maybe.

back in the big city

Chicago looked ominous as we approached on the train. I could barely make out the silhouette of a factory spewing smoke into the air. One of the first things we see is a huge police station with hundreds of police cars against the backdrop of the skyline. And a lady coughing up a lung inside the dirty el train sounded like she was about to die. Not such easy living here. Thankfully the bitter cold seems to have passed for the time being. It is amazing how pleasant living can be elsewhere. Maybe it's best not to be protected from the ugly harshness. I have to remember that once spring comes, Chicago will seem a lot more like paradise than it does now.

portland : easy living

It is foggy this morning, but the sun is starting to peek through. We ate at this fantastic tapas restaurant last night called Colosso. We ate breaded catfish, pork empanada, clams with garlic and cheese, beet salad, and this crazy vanilla/chocolate creamy concoction for desert and of course a lot of wine.

We walked around downtown; it is pretty grungy with a lot of old buildings. Powells books is amazing. Portland is very hipster-ish, mostly all white people. We walked through China Town, which I guess is as sketchy as it gets (not sketchy at all). We had a drink in a leather bar called The Dirty Duck. Great name for a bar.

I can not believe how warm the temperature feels. Supposedly, Portland has a summer, unlike the bay area. I don't want to return to Chicago, it is so peaceful and green here. I've noticed that Anarchy: A journal of Desire Armed can readily be found around town. Not surprising, as I know that green anarchists are aplenty here. We haven't run into many, altho we walked by the Red & Black café yesterday.

Living seems easy here. It doesn't hurt that we are staying in an adorable yellow house on top of a hill.

we're in portland!

We came to Portland to escape Chicago for a few days. It is raining, but the weather is extremely mild compared to the snow storm we left behind. I had never been to Portland before; it is a very calming place. It seems very quiet. Other differences from Chicago are: motorists don't try to kill you as you cross the street and people are nice to each other in public.

Portland has a crazy coffee culture. Apparently, people move here to become famous barristas. We went to Stump Town Coffee yesterday and the guy making coffee knew everyone's name and whatever their "usual" was. It's as if Portland is enjoying a popularity like Seattle did during the "grunge" years; very Singles-style, including plaid flannel shirts, except everyone here has babies.

snowed in : cat looking at snow

funny midwestern moment

I had to laugh when I found out I was the only person in the room who has seen an exotic sport called "surfing". But to be fair, I will admit that I've never seen a gopher hunt.

yarn porn

This is my first attempt at yarn porn. You can't really see the color well enough in this photo, but it is a lemony butter egg noodle color. It is a scarf. Living in the Midwest gives a person an irrepressible urge to do crafts. This could be viewed as counter-revolutionary, except that it is the most basic animalistic instinct, it is hard to argue how it can be so wrong.

omg it's 6 degrees

Once a rat is in your house, it is hard to remember how life was without it. Even though the one particular rat is gone, I lie awake at night listening for more rats. It is horrible, so is winter. Winter was novel when it began, but now it's so not. I have thought to myself more than once in the past week 'Why do people live here? Why do i live here?'

rats get cold too

What people don't tell you about Chicago winters is that the rats get cold and they come inside for warmth. As cute as a little rat may be snuggling inside a drawer, I prefer to have a rat-free home. One visitor met his early demise in the middle of my living room yesterday. I'll spare you the gorey details. Although I will say that I was screaming and had sprinted about a mile away from my apartment during the fatal "accident" involving our rodent friend.

you know when it's cold when

you can feel icicles forming inside your nostrils.

gotta get me some of those shoes

This one is for my friend Sunny. One of the most vivacious people I've ever met. It's not sunny in Chicago right now, but I trust that somewhere it is. I'm gonna get a pair of those shoes so I can have some sunshine around here. P.S. Sunny, you better be documenting things with that camera of yours.

here it is

Okay, it's cold. The display across the street says it is fifteen degrees. This is winter in Chicago. And yes I can feel the hawk clawing at me. I only want to stay inside, imbibe hot liquids and cultivate my wintertime depression. This weekend it is supposed to drop down to 8.

argyle street

This is what Argyle Street looked like when we got there. It was cold but the Vietnamese food was hot.