The salad is a lie
While driving to my grandfather's place yesterday, we took the Kennedy to Lawrence. Even though we have to get to the apartment from Montrose--hooray for one-way streets--we have to get off at Lawrence because there's no exit at Montrose due to the merge. We then figured out why mom has said not to take Lawrence: It's terrible. Chicago is known for its potholes. Lawrence stands out even among regular streets there. On the plus side, I did get to see where the Brown Line ends; it's at Lawrence and Kimball. You can see the train go by a couple blocks away from my grandfather's, which is super weird to suddenly see train gates go down on a residential street, since it's an at-grade crossing. Bizarre. Oh Chicago.
When we left, we went down Montrose for a while; while peering at the Kennedy and the beginning of the Edens, we saw a sea of brake lights. Yeah, not getting on there. We'd been debating about stopping at Rich's Fresh Market in River Grove, so seeing the traffic made us go, okay, guess we'll go down that way. Montrose has been under construction for months, as they're replacing a sewer line or something, and there's been a shifting detour that gradually has made its way west. It's now at Narragansett, so we turned south as soon as we got to Austin. However, traffic on Irving was really heavy. As we made our way west, we found out why. Not only was there the detour on Narragansett because of the construction on Montrose, but there was also a detour going south on Narragansett. Had we still lived there, we probably could have gone that way to get to our old house south of the park, but otherwise we'd have had to go out to Oak Park. And, when we reached Oak Park--and my goodness, the southbound traffic was packed--we saw a sign about *another* detour, this time for Addison. My word. What all is going on?
We eventually reached Rich's, which is funny, because we've passed it several weeks in a row without stopping there. When we take the Eisenhower instead of 294, we get off at First, which turns into Thatcher and then Cumberland; these get us close to the cemetery and therefore the funeral home. Otherwise, it makes more sense to go north on 294 to 90 if we're just going to my grandfather's. Anyway. We hadn't really eaten before we spent all that time there, and we were both thirsty, so dad and I went to the little cafe area for a coffee (dad) and fruit drink (me). I was so thirsty I downed my drink before we'd finished walking through the store, and I'd even had the water I'd brought with me while I was working. This store has a heavily Polish influence, so naturally we had to pick up pierogi and dumplings and potato pancakes and some other items. We also spotted some salads to bring home--egg salad, tuna salad, and something called vegetable salad. Dad was intrigued by that last one and had to try it.
I tried the vegetable salad today, but before I ate any of it, I looked at the ingredients. I was surprised to see apple as one of them. But apples are fruit! This is *vegetable* salad! There were also eggs in it, too. I mean, there were carrots, and maybe peas and corn, but aside from the mayonnaise holding it together and some spices, I would've expected it to be vegetables otherwise. Oh well. It was okay. Of course, this is the same place that had a sign asking for help with their sushi, and the phone number on the sign made me pause. You know how some people--generally the young and/or misinformed--will actually say the one when they're giving out their number? Like, we're in an area where you *have* to dial the area code before you dial a number, even if it's local, because we have overlay area codes. Most people would go, my number is (773) 555-1212. Not-terribly-with-it people would say the one before the area code. And then, you have this sign...which read (WON) 773-555-1212. Except the area code wasn't even one for the Chicago area; it was like 586 or something. So all that really made me stare at the sign for a minute before I realized what was going on. You have to understand that, given the nature of the employees (again, it has a heavy Polish influence), the spelling on the items they've packaged themselves is not entirely correct. (We actually bought "veggetable" salad, for instance.) It's more amusing than anything, really, but the "won"...that took the cake.
When we left, we went down Montrose for a while; while peering at the Kennedy and the beginning of the Edens, we saw a sea of brake lights. Yeah, not getting on there. We'd been debating about stopping at Rich's Fresh Market in River Grove, so seeing the traffic made us go, okay, guess we'll go down that way. Montrose has been under construction for months, as they're replacing a sewer line or something, and there's been a shifting detour that gradually has made its way west. It's now at Narragansett, so we turned south as soon as we got to Austin. However, traffic on Irving was really heavy. As we made our way west, we found out why. Not only was there the detour on Narragansett because of the construction on Montrose, but there was also a detour going south on Narragansett. Had we still lived there, we probably could have gone that way to get to our old house south of the park, but otherwise we'd have had to go out to Oak Park. And, when we reached Oak Park--and my goodness, the southbound traffic was packed--we saw a sign about *another* detour, this time for Addison. My word. What all is going on?
We eventually reached Rich's, which is funny, because we've passed it several weeks in a row without stopping there. When we take the Eisenhower instead of 294, we get off at First, which turns into Thatcher and then Cumberland; these get us close to the cemetery and therefore the funeral home. Otherwise, it makes more sense to go north on 294 to 90 if we're just going to my grandfather's. Anyway. We hadn't really eaten before we spent all that time there, and we were both thirsty, so dad and I went to the little cafe area for a coffee (dad) and fruit drink (me). I was so thirsty I downed my drink before we'd finished walking through the store, and I'd even had the water I'd brought with me while I was working. This store has a heavily Polish influence, so naturally we had to pick up pierogi and dumplings and potato pancakes and some other items. We also spotted some salads to bring home--egg salad, tuna salad, and something called vegetable salad. Dad was intrigued by that last one and had to try it.
I tried the vegetable salad today, but before I ate any of it, I looked at the ingredients. I was surprised to see apple as one of them. But apples are fruit! This is *vegetable* salad! There were also eggs in it, too. I mean, there were carrots, and maybe peas and corn, but aside from the mayonnaise holding it together and some spices, I would've expected it to be vegetables otherwise. Oh well. It was okay. Of course, this is the same place that had a sign asking for help with their sushi, and the phone number on the sign made me pause. You know how some people--generally the young and/or misinformed--will actually say the one when they're giving out their number? Like, we're in an area where you *have* to dial the area code before you dial a number, even if it's local, because we have overlay area codes. Most people would go, my number is (773) 555-1212. Not-terribly-with-it people would say the one before the area code. And then, you have this sign...which read (WON) 773-555-1212. Except the area code wasn't even one for the Chicago area; it was like 586 or something. So all that really made me stare at the sign for a minute before I realized what was going on. You have to understand that, given the nature of the employees (again, it has a heavy Polish influence), the spelling on the items they've packaged themselves is not entirely correct. (We actually bought "veggetable" salad, for instance.) It's more amusing than anything, really, but the "won"...that took the cake.