I wish this brownie was a pint of fresh blueberries. Maybe.

During my lunch break I went to the farmers' market by my work. I ended up purchasing green onions and garlic. The blueberries and peaches and flowers smelled so wonderful that I didn't want to leave. I wanted to make a lunch out of fruit and sit and sniff the good smells all day. Instead I went and picked up a salad for myself and went back to work.

My whole trek was a bit odd, though, as within about 2 or 3 blocks I saw 3 ambulances that were pulled over to deal with sick or injured people. I only actually saw one person being put into an ambulance, but there were at least three people who must have needed help.

Be careful out there!

Like an episode of Cops

Saturday morning I found myself on the sidewalk at the same time as a man who was trying to get away from the police. At least I think he was trying to get away from the police. I'm wondering if deep down he knew he didn't have a chance in hell of not being arrested because his flight was really half-assed.

I knew something was up when I saw a police car pulled over perpendicular to the curb and it wasn't blocking an automobile accident. There were two people standing on the sidewalk near the police car, a woman and flight guy. All of a sudden he took off. "Took off" might not be the best word as he was just sort of jogging away, not really running. I would have thought if he wanted to get away he would have sprinted away down the alley or something, but no, he was just trotting down the sidewalk. The police turn around and started following him. Because he was just trotting they caught up to him rather quickly, so he turned around and started running back the other way. Toward me.

This was when I got a bit scared. I wasn't too scared because the police were right there so I figured that, outside of half-assedly trying to run away, this guy wasn't going to do anything too stupid. But I wasn't sure. So I sort of moved over into a parking lot to clear the sidewalk. He went right past me, and I saw nothing in his face. He looked vacant. I think that was the scariest part. Anyway, I just kept walking toward the coffee shop I was going to, and when I turned around I saw that the police had caught up with him again, and that he was caught.

Juxtaposition

It isn't every day that one sees a group of Amish people walking down Huron, or anywhere else in Chicago for that matter. I had to fight off the urge to stare at them.

Staring definitely is perceived as a negative thing. One doesn't want to be caught staring at someone else. It's considered rude. I know that when I'm looking at a stranger, say on the train, and they make eye contact with me I quickly look away. This is a common occurence in urban life.

But why is staring rude? I understand that it makes people uncomfortable. It's made me feel uncomfortable. And it can feel threatening. But at the same time, how are we to learn about people, about human nature, about people who are different from oneself, if we are afraid to be caught looking at them?

I see all kinds of interesting people every day. I like looking at people. Perhaps it's the social psychologist in me. I like just enjoy observing people. Some day that's probably going to get me in trouble.

It's lonely at third base

Taken May 8, 2007.

You just can't believe me/When I show you what you mean to me

On Friday night Tim and I sat down in front of his computer with one window open to the Lollapalooza schedule and another window open to this year's map. Our mission was to plot out who we wanted to see. Some of that involves making our way from one side to the other, stopping by 2 or 3 stages for a few songs per band along the way.

Before we sat down I thought our plan was pretty set, anyway. There were a couple of times where the above situation was going to occur, where there were a few bands playing at once that we wouldn't mind seeing, but don't prefer one over the other. There were other bands set in stone.

Going into our little session we were pretty set on seeing LCD Soundsystem. I like them. Tim likes them. We weren't familiar with Femi Kuti and the Positive Force. No brainer, right? Not so fast. As we were doing our plotting I played a podcast from NPR's All Songs Considered. It was Femi Kuti and the Positive Force live at the 9:30 Club. Now I'm familiar with them. I was quite impressed.

Crap! Who do I see now? I think for right now we're going to start by seeing Femi Kuti and the Positive Force, then midway through make our way over to LCD Soundsystem. That makes sense, since we want to see Daft Punk after that. But oh how I wish I could see full sets of both!

ole, ole ole ole

After an unusually long drought, I finally went to see live music tonight. Maxïmo Park was worth the wait. To the left see the one crappy camera phone photo I took. How cool is the beginning of "Our Velocity" live? Very cool.

It's been several years since I've been to the Double Door, so I must ask: Is it always that hot in there? Holy crap I thought I was going to melt before Maxïmo Park took to the stage!

Switching gears, something bad must have happened near my apartment. As my cab was pulling over to drop me off I heard many sirens. I saw a fire truck and two police cars, and I was constantly hearing sirens for a good 20 minutes after getting inside. And no, it wasn't from the concert.

Edit: This explains the sirens.

A very hungry caterpillar?

As I was walking to work from the train this morning I saw a plump, green caterpillar hanging out on the corner of Chicago Ave. and Wabash. He was just inching along, looking all happy and carefree. I became very worried about him. He was walking toward Chicago Ave. Was he going to cross the street? Was someone going to step on him? Where was he going? Isn't it weird that I assume it was male? I thought aobut picking him up and trying to relocate him to a place where he would be less likely to be smooshed by a car or stepped on by a pedestrian, but where would that be? So I left him, and now I sort of feel bad about it.

Converted?

After hearing several friends rave on and on about Stanley's, Tim and I decided to check it out on Saturday. We were happy with the produce selection, and even happier with the prices. Tim was happy to find some good-looking watercress and plantains.

Yesterday I read some reviews about Stanley's where people were complaining about the produce going bad quickly, and how some of it was bad already. There were also complaints about the quality of the produce. That was not our experience. We bought our produce on Saturday, and it's all still good. Nothing looked bad in the store, either. Is this a common problem? Were we just lucky? Also, the quality of the produce we bought was equal to or better than the quality of the produce we get at Dominick's.

Stanley's is rather far away from where we live, thus it's not a place we would go to on a weekly basis. But it might be a place we check out once every few weeks to see what's fresh and on sale.

Onto a completely unrelated topic: The weather. It's been scorching hot here the past couple of days, so today's cool down makes me a very happy girl. Do you know what would be awesome? If the weather during Lollapalooza is the same weather we have today. Oh, how great would that be?

A picture and some words

My misbehaving computer has kept me from being online as much as I would like. My life hasn't been overly exciting lately anyway. So, a picture and just a few words.



Taken June 25, 2007. At the lake, of course.

Odd sight of the week: Last night on the red line there was a tall dude carrying a stuffed fish. The fish was maybe 2-3 feet long. I think it was a clown fish, you know, like Nemo, but instead of being orange and white it was green and white. And it was shiny. It didn't have sequins, but it had these green shiny circles all over it. It was an odd sight, this tall dude with his green shiny fish. I kind of wanted the fish.

Happy Fourth of July, Car!!!!*

Tim and I spent last night the way we have spent the evening of July 4 over the last few years. We live on the sixth floor of our building, and all of the buidings around ours are smaller, so we open all the blinds in the living room and watch all of the fireworks we can see. We know we can see Evanston's display, as well as several individual displays, some coming from just around the block. We were able to see two or three more professional displays, but I'm not sure which suburbs they were. Skokie? Niles? Park Ridge? Norridge? I don't know. If you think you know, please tell me.

We always have music playing while watching the fireworks. Last year it was all classical music. This year we went with rock: Pearl Jam, Chris Cornell, and Velvet Revolver.

Also, we always have some food and drink, which always consists of beer and some sort of munchie food. This year we went to World Market and picked up a 6-pack of Pete's Wicked Strawberry Blonde. We liked how it just has a hint of strawberry, but still mostly tastes like beer instead of tasting link cough syrup or something. They were having a sale on Kettle Chips, so we got 3 bags. There was a Thai spice flavor, which Tim, being Thai, had to try. He really liked it. I think they might be his new favorite potato chips.

*The title of this post comes from a Fourth of July party I went to, oh, 10 years ago? There was a game of Truth or Dare. Or maybe just Dare. One of the dares was entitled "Fourth of July Around the Block". You know how, in It's a Wonderful Life, Jimmy Stewart runs around screaming things like, "Merry Christmas, Signpost!!" or something like that? (Okay, I haven't seen the movie, but I know I have seen that bit.) The person who got that dare basically had to run around the block doing that, only saying "Happy Fourth of July" instead of "Merry Christmas". He had to do it loud enough for all of us to hear it in the back yard. It was pretty funny.

Maybe you had to be there.

My homage to Chuck

Taken 6/25/07 at Lake Michigan. One can never own too many pairs of Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars.

Ride the train

Taken 6/27/07 Taken from the rear seat of a Northbound Red Line train between Sheridan and Wilson.