Oh, I Think So

I don't leave for another six days but I need to do some crap in order to leave in six days.  I am off to do that and you can think about what cool things I will see that I may or may  not share with you. Wish me a good time!

Yesterday I went to the Rogers Park Glenwood Avenue Art Fair.  I went to see Harriet's Hides whom they'd moved to the center of the festival but right by a drum circle.  Actually, they were more like a drum semi-circle and they were very devoted to their art.  Not overturned plastic buckets, ladies and gentlemen, but real African or Middle Eastern drums and the drummers played and played and played and played.  And it was loud.  I'd gone to where I thought she'd be as she'd always been in this spot before and that spot's artist did not show up leaving an empty booth.  When I got to the info booth and the drummers -- under the El tracks at the Morse stop which made the sound bounce all around and echo to and fro and be amplified -- were so loud that I had to scream, "CAN YOU PLEASE TELL ME WHERE I CAN FIND HARRIET'S HIDES?" at the booth person who tried to scream directions but said, "OH LET ME SHOW YOU," and came around the table and poin...

As I am going on vacation in three weeks, when I was downtown today I took a few minutes to get practice in taking pictures of people taking pictures of themselves, of other people.  Where better than "Cloud Gate"?  Anish Kapoor's so-called Bean is a tourist and local (and gulls who sit on top) magnet.  I snapped off only two but I was smack next to these people and they didn't notice.  Good!  That's always the goal. Nice day, nice couple, nice memory for them (and me) "Hi, Mom!  I'm at the BEAN!"

I had all sorts of idea for this, my lovely blog, during the week and all of fled from my head as soon as I sat at the computer.  So, instead, I looked at the internet to figure out some of the things I'd do on my upcoming vacation. What I decided: 1.   A boat cruise is in order! 2.  Hard-boiled eggs and a banana from 7-11 for breakfast! 3.  Tokyo Skytree may be visited!  They let foreigners go to the front of the line -- really? why? -- but only if the foreigners bring their passports and pay over $40 -- that's why.  I'm still thinking and it is very, very tall and there is a glass floor and I can get twitchy when up high.  Glass floor?  It's making my palms and feet sweat thinking about it!  But I will suck it up, shut up, and enjoy it if I go.  Who am I kidding?  This is something I really do want to do and, yeah, if I don't have to wait in line, I am for it. 4.  Noodles?  More, please.  My fave place (s...

Bla.  Woke up feeling awful.  Under the weather.  Mysteriously icky.  Still feel meh but managed to go downtown and do errands that needed attention. Then I watched "The Favourite."  It did not improve my general health nor did it make me feel like people have ever been anything other than just ghastly.  But what great acting!  They all must have had the best time playing whack jobs and self-serving, power-mad beyotches.  No one was nice or pleasant or even possible to identify with. Dancing in those days was weird.  Lady Marlborough stood in for the queen for a dance and as part of this dance -- dances were very complicated in those days -- her partner picks her up behind his back and she is straight and still and he spins her around like she is lumber among other weird moves. Not the thing to watch to feel better and about 3/4 of the way through, I got up and took my vitamins and then used the restroom and then installed toilet roll a...

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/authors/lesley-nneka-arimah The story above, "Skinned," by Lesley Nneka Arimah is one of the most frightening, brilliant, skeevy tales I've read in a long time.  It's a tale of a nonexistant place where any woman's life is a chore, a test, an almost-daily humiliation. This story won Lesley Nneka Arimah Africa's leading literary award, the 2019 Caine Prize for African writing.  It scared the living stuff about of me.  It made my skin crawl.  Not reading it is your loss.

This sale is so insane, so popular, so desired that by the time the Anniversary Sale is open to public, there is no sale merchandise left.  I went to Nordstrom after work on Friday.  It was 6pm.  There were already no shoes in my size.  I bought a very nice and very economical pair of attractive booties but had to jam my foot into a size too small and limp about in order to determine they might work in the actual size. I happened to need to visit the burbs today and went to a suburban Nordstrom where there were no shoes in my size, "but we can order them."  I said the official Early Sale had been going on just since Friday at 11:30am Central time and there was already no merchandise.  The salesman just nodded. Such is the bloodlust.