Spend hours finding various places to sit.
Ponder everything that is around you.
Find appreciation for simple everyday things that are part of your daily landscape.
The color of the street sign against the color of the sky and the brick building.
How it shares the backdrop of without discrimination.
It reminds you of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
How each side of the island is so dramatically different.
On a topical map, bricks and sky would be a fairly accurate description of each “country.”
The sun shining against Eastern State Penitentiary, it’s been on this corner for almost two hundred years.
TWO HUNDRED YEARS!
The first penitentiary in the WORLD!
And you’re drinking iced tea
out of a plastic cup
across the street.
Watching people.
Admiring the street sign.
The brick building.
The sky.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
Dear Natalie,
You're feeling nostalgic today. Thinking about people from the past, the relationships you had with them. How you miss the closeness of these friendships. If you could use your five remaining vacation days to take a trip back in time, you would pack your bags today.
Not that your existing friendships aren't held in the highest regard. But there are some people you miss communicating with. And you might make vein attempts to start the fire again from scratch. But the rains came through and the wood is damp so you'll get nothing more but a few sparks. Just enough for you to glimpse into the past but not enough to build a new friendship for the present.
What a sweet deal a trip through time would be. To go back to the relentlessly care free days of your early 20's. Before bed times and a stressful job. The days of ordering take out, after parties, ability to handle booze, dancing until sunrise... you were so financially broke but boy did you have a good time.
Now you tend to be lazy. You like the idea of doing laundry and watching a movie even though it's a Friday night. Having a beer with a boyfriend that needs to go to bed early to wake up at 5, you're bound to REALLY do yourself in by looking at old pictures and writing letters that you'll never send.
Drunk letters.
That nobody should ever read until after editing.
No deal with your nostalgia, you've decided to go out this weekend. Go out and do the things you did in your early 20's. It'll be ok because everyone else there is doing the same thing on a much more regular basis. You'll dance and smile and come home sweaty. That is, of course, if you don't get lazy and declare the day perfect for staying home.
Get out, girl. Get out and enjoy while you still can.
Your friend,
Natalie of 7/16/10
You're feeling nostalgic today. Thinking about people from the past, the relationships you had with them. How you miss the closeness of these friendships. If you could use your five remaining vacation days to take a trip back in time, you would pack your bags today.
Not that your existing friendships aren't held in the highest regard. But there are some people you miss communicating with. And you might make vein attempts to start the fire again from scratch. But the rains came through and the wood is damp so you'll get nothing more but a few sparks. Just enough for you to glimpse into the past but not enough to build a new friendship for the present.
What a sweet deal a trip through time would be. To go back to the relentlessly care free days of your early 20's. Before bed times and a stressful job. The days of ordering take out, after parties, ability to handle booze, dancing until sunrise... you were so financially broke but boy did you have a good time.
Now you tend to be lazy. You like the idea of doing laundry and watching a movie even though it's a Friday night. Having a beer with a boyfriend that needs to go to bed early to wake up at 5, you're bound to REALLY do yourself in by looking at old pictures and writing letters that you'll never send.
Drunk letters.
That nobody should ever read until after editing.
No deal with your nostalgia, you've decided to go out this weekend. Go out and do the things you did in your early 20's. It'll be ok because everyone else there is doing the same thing on a much more regular basis. You'll dance and smile and come home sweaty. That is, of course, if you don't get lazy and declare the day perfect for staying home.
Get out, girl. Get out and enjoy while you still can.
Your friend,
Natalie of 7/16/10
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Landlord
Always rushing. At least that's how it seems. So I decided to sit at Logan Square and stare blankly at the fountain and let my mind wander. I figured I'd do this for 5 minutes, since there needs to be a time limit on everything.
I ended up staring at the fountain for the better part of an hour. Thinking. Picturing. Wondering. I can't even remember the last time I did that.
So my landlord almost died and/or came *this close* to having his leg amputated. This is what happens when you let a MRSA infection take over your body. He pulled a pulled some strings and is surely spending a considerable amount of money to recover at home (via medical equipment in the apartment and a nurse that comes by every day). Yesterday, when Jordan came home, he found landlord standing at the door in an effort to get some fresh air. With a large contraption stuck to his waist to drain his wound and a look of death on his face, I wonder if Jordan asked, "How's it going?"
One thing that's always amused me about my landlord is the notion that he has spent time impersonating Elvis. That was the rumor anyway. Jordan had caught a glimpse of a flyer advertising his Elvis impersonating expertise which was being used for charity. When doing laundry, I heard, what sounded like, a grown man playing piano and singing along to The King but I never knew for sure....
Needless to say, I was delighted to find a flyer for landlord's Elvis impersonating skills taped to my door at 6 AM today. My neighbor must have found it and wrote a note saying, "I thought of you..." It made my day. Partially because I got to see the proof with my own to eyes. But also because I'd been worried about landlord and his recovery. The words "almost died" and "almost lost my leg" resonated with me after getting the informative text. Both in the "because I care about my fellow man kind" and also "because I'm self centeredly thinking about what would happen if I almost die and/or lose my leg."
I ended up staring at the fountain for the better part of an hour. Thinking. Picturing. Wondering. I can't even remember the last time I did that.
So my landlord almost died and/or came *this close* to having his leg amputated. This is what happens when you let a MRSA infection take over your body. He pulled a pulled some strings and is surely spending a considerable amount of money to recover at home (via medical equipment in the apartment and a nurse that comes by every day). Yesterday, when Jordan came home, he found landlord standing at the door in an effort to get some fresh air. With a large contraption stuck to his waist to drain his wound and a look of death on his face, I wonder if Jordan asked, "How's it going?"
One thing that's always amused me about my landlord is the notion that he has spent time impersonating Elvis. That was the rumor anyway. Jordan had caught a glimpse of a flyer advertising his Elvis impersonating expertise which was being used for charity. When doing laundry, I heard, what sounded like, a grown man playing piano and singing along to The King but I never knew for sure....
Needless to say, I was delighted to find a flyer for landlord's Elvis impersonating skills taped to my door at 6 AM today. My neighbor must have found it and wrote a note saying, "I thought of you..." It made my day. Partially because I got to see the proof with my own to eyes. But also because I'd been worried about landlord and his recovery. The words "almost died" and "almost lost my leg" resonated with me after getting the informative text. Both in the "because I care about my fellow man kind" and also "because I'm self centeredly thinking about what would happen if I almost die and/or lose my leg."
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