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raybearYesterday I was riding my bike around and running errands and I texted DYA and said "I wish you were playing afternoon hooky on your bike with me" and she wrote me back a few minutes later and said "My class was cancelled, call in sick to work!" My first instinct was aw, that's sweet, but I shouldn't. Then I thought, wait, why not? Sure, I need the money, but I always need the money. But this is the last warm week of the year. And I've been working a lot in the past two weeks and feeling burnt out. And why not have a spontaneous date, especially since we might not see each other much this weekend. So I texted back: "Fck it! Ok!"
We biked to Hot Doug's for a late lunch, I had the saucisse de toulouse with anchovy aioli and frommage d'affinois. The aioli was a bit too fishy and too heavily laden on the dog, but still even a mediocre encased meat at Hot Doug's makes me happy. Then we decided to bike to Lincoln Park Zoo. I had gone for a run through the zoo early one morning earlier this year, but I haven't actually 'been to the zoo' in years and neither had DYA. Obviously the politics of zoos are sort of complicated and they can be somewhat depressing, but there are still the elements of awe and wonder at seeing the variety of creatures that exist and that's mostly the place we stayed in while walking around. The two moments that were most significant to me involved lions and gorillas, as in both instances one of them was right up against the glass where you could stand. I don't think I've ever been so close to a lion, and she was just sleeping with her head right up against the window. Then she woke up and yawned a couple times, so we got a good look at the bite capacity and the teeth.
After a couple hours, we biked back towards home but stopped off at Margie's Candies, where I got fudge brownie a la mode with chocolate ice cream and a gravy dish of homemade hot fudge. As a kid, I always felt compelled to not mix chocolate with chocolate, because of the voice of parental figures saying that is "too much". And by compel, I should say, I was directly told I flat out couldn't order those things together. But really, why? I mean its ice cream, and exchanging flavors isn't really making something more or less healthy or well-balanced. I am glad I can be an unreasonable adult who can order whatever I want. Even if afterwards my belly was a little achey from nearly finishing the damn thing. It ended up being my dinner, really. Then we came home and watched some more Heroes. Which, for the most part I am digging, but I just have one big complaint. "The Haitian"? "The Haitian"?! For real? Give the man a damn name, people.
A few weeks ago, some co-worker was talking about travelling to Italy and learning that there's a significant population of northern Italians who was to split off from southern Italy, who detest it. I wasn't sure about the veracity of this claim, as I know nothing about Italian politics, or about this person who was being an observer of them. I mean, maybe she just happened to be sitting at a bar next to someone with a personal vendetta. Today in the New York Times was an article on Belgium and how they want to split into two, dividing the north and south, basically because the north is a bunch of right wing xenophobic rich Flemish folks who hate French and thinks the south is bringing them down. I tried googling the Italy thing too, and a few things came up, including statistics that say there's a disparity of wealth between the two halves. While the reality of this is sad, as any news about rich people continuing the oppression of the poor (though 'news' is perhaps a misnomer), this is also interesting to me as an American who often encounters leftist and left-leaning people who always idealize Europe as this wonderland of which to escape from the decline of the Holy American Empire. And hell, I've had those thoughts myself. Except its usually Sweden because they are a socialist democracy. But then I think about living among all those blond giants and it doesn't seem worth it at all.
On Monday I went to the NU library to do some copy work and I stopped at a vending machine and it ate my card and wouldn't give it back. I left my card in the slot with a note asking that I be contacted when its retrieved, as it had nearly $12 on it. But I mostly figured it was dead to me. Today I got an e-mail saying my card was at the lost and found to be picked up. Sometimes, there are still nice things being done in the world.
We biked to Hot Doug's for a late lunch, I had the saucisse de toulouse with anchovy aioli and frommage d'affinois. The aioli was a bit too fishy and too heavily laden on the dog, but still even a mediocre encased meat at Hot Doug's makes me happy. Then we decided to bike to Lincoln Park Zoo. I had gone for a run through the zoo early one morning earlier this year, but I haven't actually 'been to the zoo' in years and neither had DYA. Obviously the politics of zoos are sort of complicated and they can be somewhat depressing, but there are still the elements of awe and wonder at seeing the variety of creatures that exist and that's mostly the place we stayed in while walking around. The two moments that were most significant to me involved lions and gorillas, as in both instances one of them was right up against the glass where you could stand. I don't think I've ever been so close to a lion, and she was just sleeping with her head right up against the window. Then she woke up and yawned a couple times, so we got a good look at the bite capacity and the teeth.
After a couple hours, we biked back towards home but stopped off at Margie's Candies, where I got fudge brownie a la mode with chocolate ice cream and a gravy dish of homemade hot fudge. As a kid, I always felt compelled to not mix chocolate with chocolate, because of the voice of parental figures saying that is "too much". And by compel, I should say, I was directly told I flat out couldn't order those things together. But really, why? I mean its ice cream, and exchanging flavors isn't really making something more or less healthy or well-balanced. I am glad I can be an unreasonable adult who can order whatever I want. Even if afterwards my belly was a little achey from nearly finishing the damn thing. It ended up being my dinner, really. Then we came home and watched some more Heroes. Which, for the most part I am digging, but I just have one big complaint. "The Haitian"? "The Haitian"?! For real? Give the man a damn name, people.
A few weeks ago, some co-worker was talking about travelling to Italy and learning that there's a significant population of northern Italians who was to split off from southern Italy, who detest it. I wasn't sure about the veracity of this claim, as I know nothing about Italian politics, or about this person who was being an observer of them. I mean, maybe she just happened to be sitting at a bar next to someone with a personal vendetta. Today in the New York Times was an article on Belgium and how they want to split into two, dividing the north and south, basically because the north is a bunch of right wing xenophobic rich Flemish folks who hate French and thinks the south is bringing them down. I tried googling the Italy thing too, and a few things came up, including statistics that say there's a disparity of wealth between the two halves. While the reality of this is sad, as any news about rich people continuing the oppression of the poor (though 'news' is perhaps a misnomer), this is also interesting to me as an American who often encounters leftist and left-leaning people who always idealize Europe as this wonderland of which to escape from the decline of the Holy American Empire. And hell, I've had those thoughts myself. Except its usually Sweden because they are a socialist democracy. But then I think about living among all those blond giants and it doesn't seem worth it at all.
On Monday I went to the NU library to do some copy work and I stopped at a vending machine and it ate my card and wouldn't give it back. I left my card in the slot with a note asking that I be contacted when its retrieved, as it had nearly $12 on it. But I mostly figured it was dead to me. Today I got an e-mail saying my card was at the lost and found to be picked up. Sometimes, there are still nice things being done in the world.
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no subject
Date: 2007-09-21 04:40 pm (UTC)I'm with you: My hunch would be that this person was at a dinner party where lots of people said "we hate the South!" Which means the sentiment's real, but to suggest it's so widespread as to be officially proposed in Parliament or something is a wild exaggeration.
Zoo memories
Date: 2007-09-21 10:09 pm (UTC)More than twenty years ago, I was in a zoo in Baltimore, perhaps? I was sitting on the edge of a sea lion enclosure, which was a huge pool, basically, with a large slide and sloped sides so the animals could frolic and play. One sea lion appeared at the top of the slide, looked around, and slid down, just torpedoing into the pool, all the way to the bottom. He sped outward and then used all the momentum to fling himself to the very top of the enclosure, where I was sitting. My guess is, he wasn't supposed to be able to do it, but there he was. A few teenage girls sitting nearby screamed in terror at his appearance, jumped up and bolted away. The sea lion, probably the size of a large dolphin, looked around, looked at me. He was within arm's reach, so I put my hand out and petted him like I would have a dog, and scratched at the tiny, nearly invisible ear flaps on his smooth, slick head. He seemed uninterested with what he saw and what I was doing, and after a few moments turned diving back into the water.