singin in the rain...

apparently i live in a lake.

no really, i'm not joking.

it rained today. poured for about an hour. and my neighborhood is kind of flooded. i think i missed the worst of it cause i was at work, but my friend down the street called to tell me what a mess it was. cars just south of us were up to their windshields in water. a bus got stuck in the dip under the metra tracks. (it was still stuck when i got home, though the water had gone down).

i answered this phone call while at "work" (meaning i was sitting in a cafe with my co-managers half talking about ordering quantities and half talking about things like fraggle rock and the muppet show). one of these ladies recalled that the area south of Lawrence and west of Uptown (about 3 or 4 blocks south of me) used to be a lake. Uptown is named not for it's location in the city but because the elevation was higher than the surrounding area which was mostly pond until the late 1800's. crazy.

at any rate, my street seemed fine, but the north/south streets were covered in water and even the east/west ones south of me had nice puddles on the sides of the road. i got lucky. but i think the downpour killed some of my porch flowers. :(

hot

i'm just sitting here, and literally i can feel beads of sweat dripping down my skin. how did i ever survive 2 months of 110 degree heat in vienna without a/c?? to anyone i ever told that i'd survive summer without it, i am sorry. i was wrong. it's cooled down outside, but in my 3rd floor chicago apartment it's a sauna. i'm a little tempted to sleep on the porch.

if anyone still even reads this, don't be disuayed by the lack of intriguing topics in my posts as of late (is disuayed even a word? i think i'm spelling it wrong...) i know all i've been writing about is packing, unpacking, and the incessant heat. what can i say? major life changes take alot out of me. all my profound thoughts occur when i'm far from my computer. in an effort to pump up my writing habits, i'm going to try to blog more. honest. and maybe write a poem or two. (i wrote my first poem since the fall just a few days ago. nice metaphor about the blocking pattern we're experiencing in the weather. i don't think i've got it quite right yet, but it's a start.)

meanwhile, i'm going to fashion a stand for my fan so it can point directly at me all night to keep me from dying of heat stroke in my sleep (assuming i can get to sleep in this heat...) oh summer, i heart you...

gravity

the yard behind my new place is huge. i think it's shared with the whole building, but i see/hear the same woman and her husband and dog out there everyday. they have a patio set. hammock. flowers and garden. etc.

i've been sitting on the porch reading for about an hour, and my first floor pothead neighbors have been yakking it up with these people. a few others arrived in the yard with beer a bit ago. i can't see them when sitting in my porch chair, but man they're loud.

just now the woman who lives there was singing something that vaguely resembled john mayer's "gravity", though i think she mixed up the lyrics. anyway, i heard "gravityyyyyy wants to bring me down..." and a rattle/crash that sounded like a group of schoolkids running too fast and bashing into the metal fence around the playground. of course, this was followed by "owwwwww."

i stood up to peek and see what had happened as the others in the yard began chuckling and asking the woman if she was ok. seems in the midst of her singing and swinging the hammock came loose from the stand and landed her flat on her back in the lawn.

irony.

and unpacking?.... only slightly more fun than moving....

moving is not fun. pretty sure i'd rather not do it again, ever. good thing i love my new apartment because i'm going to be there awhile.

the last of the boxes are packed. what a mess. i need to sleep so i can get up and try to vacuum this nasty place before i leave it for good.

unfortunately, i won't have internet in the new place for about a week. but when i come back to the cyber world, there will be photos involved, i'm sure. get excited. tomorrow the UNpacking begins...