Chicago Nov. 2009
(Well it's technically 24th-but night of 23rd)
It's a foggy and chilled evening. London-esque (not that I've ever been there-but I've heard). The dampness is fall trying to hold on before winter hits us head on. Thanksgiving is around the corner, and whereas the leaves have mostly fallen and the trees mostly bare, the bitter cold has yet to present itself. But back to the foggy night on the streets of the Windy City...
The streetlamp casts an eerie yellow glow on a vacant street that is all but abandoned due to construction. Filled with orange cones, huge cememt cylinders that will eventually be sewers, and silent bulldozers and dumptrucks we here the steps of someone walking. It's a confident and steady step. Not in a hurry, not dallying, deeper than a woman's high heel click clap, but not the sound of a rubber sole. As the sound gets closer a shadow starts to appear on the ground. A long shadow of a man, a tall man, a tall well toned man, the sound was obviously his cowboy boots, as his shadow showed a man with a stetson on his head. As he stepped directly under the light, it was like watching a cowboy from an old movie western walk right off the screen directly onto the Chicago street. The stetson shadowed his face but she could just make out the dark tresses that brushed his shoulders. His very wide shoulders, that were very clear in his long cowboy trench coat (did this guy just get off a cattle run or something?), which hung on his 6'2" body and stopped right around his knees, opened at the front-clearly the cold and wind of the city didn't bother him. He turned away from her, responding to a sound from behind him that he didn't like. She could see his shoulders tense and tighten the fit of his coat on his upper body as he turned around. He scanned the block and the mounds of dirt and gravel until he was certain no one was there and turned back around to look right at her. He was staring right at her. How could he see her, how had he known? But he saw her, she was dressed all in black and tucked into the shadows, behind one of the giant wheels of a dump truck. He tried to hide a smirk as he walked towards her. There was no hiding now. She looked for a route of escape; she could crawl under the truck to the other side and try and make a run for it, but it was up against a fence and she knew that of the 2 directions she could run once on the other side, one was blocked with cememt cylinders and the other would just point her toward him. She had no choice but to come out of the shadows and face the music. As she stepped out of her hiding spot and into the light she gave her fiercest glare and braced herself for the assault.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Saturday, November 21, 2009
And I wish unto all a good night
So, now that I have a bed, chronicles from the floor can't really happen. A new witty name for the scrawlings of my random boring life in Chicago. I'll have to figure that out. But I am trying to slow down a bit, enjoy things, enjoy life.
Chicago has the parade of lights the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and last year I went and I was freezing and was so far down Michigan Ave-I couldnt' see anything. This year the weather was great, and technically we were in a good spot-but it was so flippin crowded that even on my tippy toes, I couldn't quite see a whole lot. But there were a couple balloons, and there were a couple higher floats, and there were pine twigs in the big blocks that hold the bushes. And yes, I took one of those branches, that smelled so gloriously of pine trees/christmas trees/nature. It now adorns the fire place and pine permeates the air. It's such a glorious smell. I love it.
Which leads me to my present predicament. Where to buy my Christmas Tree? I'm a little afraid of these city lots with the trees brought in from who knows where. I mean, I like to know that when you go to the lot, the tree was cut down from the field next to the lot the day before. These trees are from somewhere far away, are possibly already so dried out that there's no salvaging them. Clearly research or a roadtrip is needed. Because I don't want a dead tree come Christmas morning. I'm sure that's some sort of bad omen. It's a dilemma. I could go into Ohio-Toledo-one of the several farms around my parents house, I'm sure sells Christmas trees. Or do I road trip it up north and see something I haven't seen before and find a farm. It's more rural in Wisconsin right? They have farms? Or hills? Are there any hills between here and the Rocky Mountains? Yes this will take some homework-I don't want a crappy tree.
Goodnight.
Oh and by the way-I'm on chapter 35 of Pioneer Woman's Love story with Marlboro Man-it's great! They just got engaged!
Chicago has the parade of lights the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and last year I went and I was freezing and was so far down Michigan Ave-I couldnt' see anything. This year the weather was great, and technically we were in a good spot-but it was so flippin crowded that even on my tippy toes, I couldn't quite see a whole lot. But there were a couple balloons, and there were a couple higher floats, and there were pine twigs in the big blocks that hold the bushes. And yes, I took one of those branches, that smelled so gloriously of pine trees/christmas trees/nature. It now adorns the fire place and pine permeates the air. It's such a glorious smell. I love it.
Which leads me to my present predicament. Where to buy my Christmas Tree? I'm a little afraid of these city lots with the trees brought in from who knows where. I mean, I like to know that when you go to the lot, the tree was cut down from the field next to the lot the day before. These trees are from somewhere far away, are possibly already so dried out that there's no salvaging them. Clearly research or a roadtrip is needed. Because I don't want a dead tree come Christmas morning. I'm sure that's some sort of bad omen. It's a dilemma. I could go into Ohio-Toledo-one of the several farms around my parents house, I'm sure sells Christmas trees. Or do I road trip it up north and see something I haven't seen before and find a farm. It's more rural in Wisconsin right? They have farms? Or hills? Are there any hills between here and the Rocky Mountains? Yes this will take some homework-I don't want a crappy tree.
Goodnight.
Oh and by the way-I'm on chapter 35 of Pioneer Woman's Love story with Marlboro Man-it's great! They just got engaged!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Romance is in the air
Surprises are usually surprises and aren't always great. But good surprises, not bad-the tire just blew out, or dog just died surprises-but the nice ones that make you giddy for hours and hours and your face hurts from smiling because you just can't help it. Well, even when it's not specifically for you it's hard to not smile too.
That's how the past couple days have been.
First of all, I have become enamored with The Pioneer Woman. She is a blogger who has a new cookbook and just came to my store. So I looked her up because people are freakish about her-they LOVE her. And I know why-she's a real person with a real love story. She did a series of blogs about how her and her husband met and fell in love and got married. And let me tell you-a cowboy is the way to go! I was shocked when I started reading this-it was just too good to be a true story. I mean he walked right out of some romance novel and seems perfect. And if you're saying-well no one's perfect-you're right. However, meeting these people, seeing their family, they are truly a love story. Their family is so cute and he is so supportive of her, and The Pioneer Woman said it herself, he's not perfect, but he's perfect for her. And she's probably right-and now I'm looking for my own cowboy. I've always had a little thing for cowboys but I thought that in reality they'd probably be a little on the chauvinistic side, perhaps a little more conservative than I'd be able to handle, but boy oh boy-I'm hooked-I don't care-I'll take 'em-faults and all!
Then seeing two people who are so happy to see eachother. One having been surprised by the other-they live in separate states. The sheer giddiness and happiness that radiates from them is intoxicating. It shows you that you really need to appreciate the time you have together. The surprise is always great, and sometimes tearful, as the one realizes that someone went so out of the way for them. Made a long trip, time, money, tear and wear, and all for them. The hands that can't separate, or when they do not for long, for fear that they'll disappear. The looking out of the corner of the eye because to look completely away would make the other disappear. The glow. The glow of love and joy that radiates from the faces of the lovers. Drunkeness!
Oh Romance-forget Valentine's Day-Fall-heading into winter-heading into the magical holiday season is when these things happen. I love the magic of the holidays. Look for those moments, those interactions between people who just enjoy eachothers' company freely and happily. Drink from that cup, share it with your friends, and block out the ugliness that may try and invade.
BTW Ree Drummond is The Pioneer Woman-check out her site-Google her and you'll find her. It's great!
That's how the past couple days have been.
First of all, I have become enamored with The Pioneer Woman. She is a blogger who has a new cookbook and just came to my store. So I looked her up because people are freakish about her-they LOVE her. And I know why-she's a real person with a real love story. She did a series of blogs about how her and her husband met and fell in love and got married. And let me tell you-a cowboy is the way to go! I was shocked when I started reading this-it was just too good to be a true story. I mean he walked right out of some romance novel and seems perfect. And if you're saying-well no one's perfect-you're right. However, meeting these people, seeing their family, they are truly a love story. Their family is so cute and he is so supportive of her, and The Pioneer Woman said it herself, he's not perfect, but he's perfect for her. And she's probably right-and now I'm looking for my own cowboy. I've always had a little thing for cowboys but I thought that in reality they'd probably be a little on the chauvinistic side, perhaps a little more conservative than I'd be able to handle, but boy oh boy-I'm hooked-I don't care-I'll take 'em-faults and all!
Then seeing two people who are so happy to see eachother. One having been surprised by the other-they live in separate states. The sheer giddiness and happiness that radiates from them is intoxicating. It shows you that you really need to appreciate the time you have together. The surprise is always great, and sometimes tearful, as the one realizes that someone went so out of the way for them. Made a long trip, time, money, tear and wear, and all for them. The hands that can't separate, or when they do not for long, for fear that they'll disappear. The looking out of the corner of the eye because to look completely away would make the other disappear. The glow. The glow of love and joy that radiates from the faces of the lovers. Drunkeness!
Oh Romance-forget Valentine's Day-Fall-heading into winter-heading into the magical holiday season is when these things happen. I love the magic of the holidays. Look for those moments, those interactions between people who just enjoy eachothers' company freely and happily. Drink from that cup, share it with your friends, and block out the ugliness that may try and invade.
BTW Ree Drummond is The Pioneer Woman-check out her site-Google her and you'll find her. It's great!
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