friends. wine. neighbors. porches.
all good things.
:)

today i'm thankful for...

memorial day, which means the beginning of summer... open windows and a nice breeze... new curtains... a clean apartment... flower boxes... new speakers for my computer... aveda hair products... flipflops... coworkers... countdowns to a cute boy... plans... time to read... green trees... ice cream... netflix... a used bike that's new to me... summer in chicago... summer... in chicago...

bleacher seats... $37.75
old style... $5.50
jumbo hot dog... $3.75
biking to and from wrigley field... priceless

i just walked home about half a mile... in the rain... in a miniskirt... and heels...

no, let's clarify. in black tights, a white miniskirt, a hot pink sports bra, an off the shoulder tshirt, bangle bracelets, giant star earrings, a side ponytail, and black high heels. (and a silver umbrella)

now i'm a city girl.

amazing how a 10 minute walk can make me feel so sarah-jessica-parker. and amazing how trotting across intersections in heels through the rain reminds me that in spite of all the confusing, incongruous, seemingly hopeless components of my life... my life is pretty damn good right about now. pretty damn good.

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...

it's summer. in case no one noticed.

yesterday i went for a 6.5 mile bike ride. there were little league baseball games. people walking dogs. kids playing the in creek. bikers. runners. bqq's. and i think i ended up with a bit of sunburn.

after my bike ride, i spent the evening in the city, which involved walking to and from the el a couple times. with no coat. short sleeves. it was fabulous. it's summer. and i'm moving to the chicago. and the anticipation of all this fabulousness makes me oh so very happy.