Brown Line

I took some pics from the Brown Line today on my way home from the Cubs game. Stupid Cubs.

I put them in with my regular "Chicago" set of pictures, but these are the ones I just took today:

But you gotta have friends

An old friend of mine recently had a baby. A week before she found out she was preggers, she broke up with the baby's father.

The baby daddy is manipulative, negligent, irresponsible and a big fan of reeling my friend in just to cast her back out again.

I went through this with my best friend in high school, I went through this with my big sister. Women staying in abusive relationships because they think either think that the really, really loves her, or she thinks she'll die an old maid if she loses him.

Folks, if this sounds like a friend that you know, let me give you a piece of advice: don't try to convince this friend that she should leave this guy for good. She won't. And on the off chance that she does, it's highly likely that she'll just latch on to another assbag. Don't bother trying to convince her, threaten her, walk away from her. It will only make her want him more.

Instead, try this: "Didn't you already tell me this story? Oh. Well, anyway, I'm pretty sure I know how this turns out. Did you see [insert a show you both like] last night?" Change the fucking subject. Let them know that their melodrama has no effect on you. Quit rewarding this fucking behavior.

If you are in a relationship where you are constantly fighting and you think your friends might be sick of hearing about it, try this: shut the fuck up. Everybody is absolutely fucking disgustingly sick of hearing how stupid you are. Why, you ask? Because it's stupid for you to stay in that situation. Just fucking stupid. There are shelters all over the fucking place. Unless you're in Sudan or someplace where they perform female gential mutilation or something, where women don't have any rights at all, then you can get out. GET OUT.

Do not stay together for the kids. Do not let this fucking moron keep treating you like shit because he is the kid's father. You are giving your child a horrid example of what love looks like, and what a real man is.

If you are afraid that your man will follow you and kill you and/or your children, and you're pretty sure he won't be stopped by some stupid restraining order, then you need to seriously look into getting help. Try http://www.womenscrisisline.com/ for starters.

My friend isn't that bad off. I don't think her jackass baby daddy can get his shit together enough to beat up on her, on the kid. It likely just sounds like too much work for him.

My point here is, if you're that drama loving friend and you can't understand why your friends don't come by...try shutting the fuck up. That might work.

Uke Fest

Most of the videos are up from the uke fest. See them here.

Here are some pictures that I'm putting here because I know you lazy people like to have pretty and/or interesting things to look at.

The fest was held at Legal Grounds Coffee House in Maywood. If you've ever heard of Legal Grounds, likely you've been over to that courthouse on First Avenue, which means that you and I should probably party some time. Or not, depending on whether you left a free person or all shackled up. I digress:



And two pretty shots of the river:





I had more to say, but it's time to go drink at Ed's so I'll babble at you later.

Pride Parade

I went to the Pride Parade Sunday, along with a couple thousand other people. The place was too crowded to get really good artsy shots, so I just went for things that caught my eye.

Before you start to tell me how dumb it is to take (and post) pictures of hot gay guys that I can never have because they're gay, I should point out that I can't have hot straight guys either, but I doubt any of you would berate me for posting a picture of, say, Luke Wilson.

Favorite pic:



More can be found here.

Slide show (the small pics are actually videos. Click to view)

Miscellaneous

Your Mazda is covered in the blood of Jesus? That is fucking nasty. There is a car wash two miles up the road, on the right. You might want to get that taken care of before it bakes into your finish.

~-----~



Spotted this as we were driving back into the city from Wisconsin. I'm pretty sure it's the same one we saw back in Wisconsin, but there's no way of telling. I don't know what part of what kind of vehicle this is, but it was weird to see it being toted down I-94 like it was no big thing.

Ukulele festival

There is a ukulele festival this weekend. There is a ukulele festival and people giggle when I tell them I'm going, and that I'm looking forward to it.

There are clothes strewn all over the apartment because I cannot afford to do laundry. All this week I am having cereal for dinner, reusing the milk from one bowl to the next because I can't afford $2.03 for a half gallon of 1% at the store.

The idea of a ukulele festival calms me, it is a goal. I can't fix my mother's problems, I can't be the friend my friends need me to be. I can't make my fucking cell phone work.

I can get lost a ukulele festival. I can mingle in the crowd, be a flaneur among ukulele enthusiasts, forget for a moment about having to wash my underwear in the sink and dry it on the shower curtain rod (because using a washing machine costs $1.50). I can just stop and listen to and learn about ukuleles.

I can forget how my mother has been shipped from one couch to another all these years, the same way I was shipped around all those years ago. Back then, I had my youth around me to protect me and keep me from falling down. Her youth is behind her. I cannot fix her problems.

I can go to a ukulele festival. I can attain one goal this week, I can say for the rest of my days "Oh, that sounds like a ukulele. I was at a ukulele festival once. It was fun." It will be fun. It must be fun. It is my Friday night salvation and I will not be swayed from my meager, fetid goals.

Blues Fest

I went to the Blues Fest yesterday and walked around a bit. I didn't get any good shots of the musicians, so I had to make do with the people, architecture, skyline, sculptures and street performers. Poor me, eh?

My neighbor and I headed up to the 95th after the fest, barged in on uppity people so we could ooo and aaaah over the view from up there. Quite nice, actually. I got three (fuzzy) shots of the view from the ladies' room, which is rumored to have a much better view than that from the gents'.

Favorite shot of the day:



More here.

The what song is your life Test

Your Score: We Danced Anyway

You scored 0 suffering, 75 happiness, 75 contentness, and 8 loneliness!

Your song is We Danced Anyway by Deana Carter! Congratulations! You can be happy and content! Content in the moment, your partner, or your current situation! Be happy! Some people are happy but never satisfied! You just happen to be both!

Link: The what song is your life Test written by arexandria on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Cicadas!

I went to the forest preserve on River Road near Ivanhoe (between Belmont and Irving Park Road) with my neighbor Dave to go looking for cicadas. On Friday I happened to be driving by this area and heard the cicadas give a mighty roar as I cursed the traffic and my car's recent stalling habit.

Besides the cicadas (which were very cool), we found a small creek coming off the Des Plaines river, into which some beavers had built a dam, which involved a traffic cone. I climbed down to get a better shot and lost my footing on the muddy bank, went in up to my calves. But it was fun! I'd forgotten how much I miss the woods and creeks and the things that creep and crawl in the wild.

The shots of the trees, etc, aren't very inspired, but the shots I really wanted were hard to get at. It's fine to slip into a little creek for a shot of a dam, but slipping into the Des Plaines for a shot of a fallen tree seemed a bit much.

Click here for the gallery


The dam:



Favorite shot:



Slideshow:

Illegal Parkers

Dear illegal parkers,

Now that summer is here and the regular TV season is over, I spend a lot of time sitting by my front windows and reading. There's a small grocery store across the street, in front of which is a spot for handicapped parking.

Every dang day I see at least five cars pull up in that spot. Out leap one or more passengers who are getting out of the car with no assistance. They run down to the coffee shop, into the store, or across the street to the cigar shop.

You people are a bunch of bastards.

Yesterday, one car full of women pulled up. It was parked half in the handicapped spot, half in front of a fire hydrant. Perhaps the theory was that because the car wasn't completely parked in either illegal spot, it was okay to be assholes.

An older car drove by with a little old man at the wheel and a little old lady pointing at the spot. You know where this story is going. He slowed down, saw he couldn't get into the spot, and drove on. Five or six minutes later, he came quivering down the street, resting every few steps. During these rests, his wife adjusted her purse on her forearm, which kept slipping because she was using a walker.

Oh, but those bitches in the car got their damn lattes! They came back two or three minutes after the elderly couple had gone into the store, laughing and giggling like they hadn't a care in the world.

Maybe that old couple, in their youth, had taken up handicapped spaces in parking lots. I doubt it, since there probably weren't handicapped spaces when they were in their 20's, but maybe they did and this is karma. At any rate, I hope that carload of bitches gets sideswiped by a hit and run driver.

In the future please park in front of the hydrant instead. The likelihood of a fire is far less than that of someone needing that spot.

Oh, and fair warning to all of you illegal parkers - starting this weekend, I'm taking pictures of you and your illegally parked car, and I'm sending 'em to the cops so they can do that whole ticket by mail thing.

Jerks.

Sincerely,
~m