spring and what-not

...yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day--sunny AND warm! my favorite combo. i went for a long walk in the neighborhood and took some pictures. actually, now that i think about it, according to the border maps connolly & i saw thursday night, i technically live in bucktown but i was walking in wicker park yesterday. that's cuz i live like RIGHT on the border, like one block away i think.

...so anyways, i saw a robin goofing around in my neighbor's tree, and with the sun, the warmth and april just around the corner it made me FEEL like spring had arrived and gave me real hope that winter was actually over. but this is chicago, and i remember staying home from school in may due to a blizzard. nevertheless, it's always good to see a nice fat robin eating berries in a tree.

...i walked down damen over to wicker park, which was bustling of course due to the favorable weather conditions. i saw a group of 6 or 7 adults gathered in a circle playing a game of good old hackeysack. made me nostalgic for california. i hung out at the park for a long time, taking pictures, watching boys skateboard by the fountain, groups of adults standing around shooting the breeze in a really good mood like they were getting over the wintertime blues, neighborhood teens playing basketball, owners of all kinds of dogs walking their happy pets.

...i was feeling a bit dazed soaking it all in. it wasn't a bad kind of dazed--just a carefree contented sunstruck warmthkissed dreamlike kind of daze.

wicker park has an enclosed dog park where the dogs can run around without a leash. it's a pretty popular local spot since this neighborhood seems to have a LOT of dogs. i love watching the dogs play with each other. they each have such personalities which really come out in a social setting, which i suppose is true for humans as well. you can tell the shy ones from the outgoing ones from the sweet gentle ones from the rambunctious ones from the casanovas from the wallflowers, etc etc etc.

...i walked over to reckless records and browsed for a bit. well, okay, i bought a few cds. i got an innocence mission cd & an over the rhine cd both for $10, so that was a good deal, i'd say. i also bought a cd by the phantom planet, whom i'd heard of only because the kid from rushmore is the drummer, and being the huge rushmore fan that i am, i thought i'd check it out. he's grown up somewhat since that movie, which is good i suppose. oh, and as i was checking out, i saw a poster for a special instore performance by neil halstead the day before his scheduled concert in a couple of weeks. i'm definitely going to that--free record store concerts rock! they're free, intimate and just plain cool.

...by the time i got out of the record store, it was already past 6:30pm, much later than i was expecting. i was supposed to be hooking up with connolly, olarn and oscar, so i scurried home and made some calls. i picked up connolly and oscar later that night and we went over to the old town school of folk music for their annual all night party. connolly and oscar had never gone there before, and i forgot how chaotic and crazy and overwhelming that whole experience can be, with different events going on everywhere, people just swarming every nook and cranny, and live music music music all around, even in the elevator. robbie fulks was supposed to play but apparrently didn't make it, but i did hear some good stuff by a local named aerin tedesco--girl and a guitar with an incredible voice and a band called covered in honey. the beatles room was packed, and i didn't slowly migrate my way through this time. oscar was "happy" on medication, so he was just going along for the ride, but i think a little more organization would have been more comfortable for connolly.

...i forget sometimes my high tolerance for chaos and confusion as long as no action is required on my part. i just like the whole atmosphere of people jamming in the hallways and music going on in just about every classroom and concert space. and the people who show up for these things--the regulars treat it like mardi gras and get all decked out in costumes and make up and everything.

we caught up with olarn around 11pm drove over to zephyrs for a latenight snack. olarn was "on" tonight, and we were just cracking up the whole time. after we got out of zephyrs we drove around and decided to go see the chicago skyline from the adler planeterium. i wasn't driving for once, and i had some fun taking slowspeed night shots in motion.

...unfortunately, we weren't aware that they had closed off lake shore drive over by navy pier, and we got stuck in a major traffic jam near downtown. sitting motionless in traffic is no fun on a saturday nite, and after a LONG time, we were finally able to exit, and we just got back on lsd going north again. the boys dropped me off at my car and we called it an early night.

...that's about it except that on the way home down damen, i finally got a shot of the bridge that i so love crossing over the chicago river. it reminds me of a rollercoaster, the way it's arched and so red.

ok. it's easter. gotta go meet the family...