DLXXXIII. In Good Company
So Saturday was a busy day yesterday. Bennett and his younger brother traveled to Chicago via the South Shore line from South Bend. They were going to be at the Randolph station around eleven, so I had to be up early to get to the bank and on the bus in time to be at the Shedd Aquarium to meet them. Even at ten in the morning, it was already roasting outside. When I headed downstairs, I noticed a half billion ComEd workers with their trucks, equipment, and the grates pulled up off the sidewalk outside the building. My guess is that the explosion from Friday was caused by a transformer under the street. Hard to say. All I know is that I was glad not to be hanging around the apartment all day to hear them working on whatever went wrong. The bank was a quick stop, and then it was off to ride the six downtown. Haven't gotten on that bus in a long time, since my usual journey requires the X28.
Apparently, Columbus was shut down Saturday from Balboa to Jackson or such for a Puerto Rican parade. I was unware of this, but it detoured my bus, and I had a bit of a further walk to get to the aquarium. That's okay. I enjoy the walking, and the day was absolutely beautiful. What I did NOT enjoy, however, was the blackbird incident. I was coming up the walkway to Shedd, and on top of a lamppost sat a red-winged blackbird. Not unusual. Then it flew down to the ground as I approached, to pick around in the grass. As I came level with it, the bird hopped up to the back of the bench, and I looked over at it, amused. I was not amused, however, when just as I passed by the bird....the bloody thing attacked me. That's right. Attacked me. The thing flew at my head and all I can remember is the sound of beating wings around my ears and the sensation of its little feet skittering around in my hair. I dropped my sunglasses and almost dropped my purse in my efforts to shoe the damned thing away. Some elderly lady was walking in my direction and saw the whole thing. I think part of her was amused at the spectacle, but I can't be completely sure. I know I wasn't amused. My guess is that the bird has a nest near there with babies, and it was protecting them from anything that invaded its territory. I wish I could have told it I don't give a damned about it's birdies.
The attack-bird theme didn't diminish, however. Since the bus had dropped me off about fifteen minutes early, I stood on the balcony overlooking the city skyline to wait for Bennett and his brother. Common photo-op point for people visiting the city because it has a great view of the docks and the skyline. Apparently, it's also the nesting place of a red-winged sparrow. And it was pretty pissed off that so many people were sitting on the railing or leaning over it. I saw at least a half dozen people attacked by this little bird. Mostly people posing for pictures. The little bird would have a routine where it would forage around in the bushes below for awhile, then randomly fly up to the railing. If no one was there, it'd chirp and complain, then fly back down again. But if someone was unlucky enough to be at the rail....attack. I was lucky that it didn't decide to come after me. Or maybe it was lucky, since I was already irritated from my last encounter. But not long after arriving, Bennett and his brother arrived to go inside.
I'm glad we were there so early in the day, because it took a good three hours or so to see the whole of the aquarium. I'd seen it once before with mom when she was here a few months ago, but we didn't get to the lower-level exhibits. Not sure if they were open at the time, but even if they had been, we wouldn't have gotten to them that day. I think we were in the aquarium until well after two pm. Likely it was almost three before we left. It was a good time wandering around and conversing. Plus, Shedd has some cool things to see. I probably won't need to go back for awhile, but it's fun to go see it every now and then. Especially with those who haven't seen it yet. From there, it was off in search of food. The first place we were going to try was the sushi restaurant I like. But it was not open. I don't have good luck with that place regarding its business hours. Whenever I want to eat there, it's closed. And so we walked onward to Giordanos. Quite the walk. I was famished by the time we arrived.
It was a good thing that we ordered an appetizer, though, since it took some time for the pizza to come to the table. I really do like their pizza. The spinach one I highly recommend. We spent about an hour and a half in there, eating and talking. My next plan was to head down to Hyde Park and show them around my neighborhood until their train left around eight. But after walking to the bus stop and waiting on the six for almost fifteen minutes, the one that pulled up was packed to the brim. The bus didn't even stop, but went straight on its way. At that point, the three of us were disinclined to wait for the next, assuming that it'd only be a repeat experience in the end. So we scrapped the plans for going to Hyde Park, and walked over to Millennium Park instead. I showed them the lovely iconic sculpture there that everyone visiting Chicago goes to see, then we ambled down to Buckingham Fountain to hang out there for awhile.
This is where I must go on a side rant. Pan-handling. Again...sorry folks, that seems to be the theme of this week. I can't tell you how many times we were approached by pan-handlers on Saturday. And the Buckingham Fountain experience was the utter worst. This guy was walking the perimeter of the fountain with a bag of leaflet newspapers called "The Onion" and postcards of the city. He approached people, and handed them the paper/postcard before you could even get a word in, then started rambling on almost incoherently about something. But then once you had the paper in your hand, that's when he'd start asking for money. I knew that was the game when we first walked up to the fountain and I saw him hanging around. But when he came over to our little group, he handed off a paper to Bennett first, and he didn't ignore the guy as I tried to do from the start. That spelled doom for all of us. In the end, the guy suckered Bennett for three bucks before he'd go away. He refused to take the paper and postcards back. Once you had them in hand, they weren't going back in his possession. Or at least he wouldn't let me turn mine back to him. Bennett's younger brother managed to return his- and Bennett, too. But for some reason, this guy wasn't taking mine back. I think he was absolutely stuck on making a solid sale on this one. And Bennett fell for it. But I wasn't having any part of paying that guy one red cent. He knew it, too. I got the dirtiest look from him and a 'where are you from- not around here, huh?'. I told him I wasn't because I didn't want to deal with him anymore.
But that wasn't the end of this guy. Oh no. When we sat for awhile to rest on one of the benches, this guy came over to us another five or six times during the course of a half hour. Trying to solicit us again and again. Then on top of that, three other people were there doing the same damned thing. I wanted to scream. It's all a racket. They claim that they're trying to raise money for the homeless, but it's a tiered scam. Someone else buys the papers, then these people buy them from those people, and then scam money off of unsuspecting idiots in public places by demanding three or four times the price the paper cost in the first place. Outrageous. I swear, if I'm ever at Buckingham Fountain again alone and one of these guys comes up to me....hell to pay. I'll go on a tear about it at them. Because it just....fries my temper. These people aren't at all like the guy on the bus. They have all their mental capacities. It's not like they don't know that they just asked me for money and shouldn't bother me again- or shouldn't have bothered me in the first place. They do. But they keep wheedling because they're hoping that we'll break down and give them more money. I just....rawr.
Not long after that, we decided to walk back up to the station so that Bennett and his brother wouldn't miss it by accident. Whilst standing outside the station, a group of really really drunk young men strolled by us. They all had insane amounts of Butterfinger candy bars on their persons. Odd. But they were all definitely very drunk. Very very drunk. And they all went down into the trainstation entrance. I turned to Bennett and said to him that I hoped they weren't getting on their train...but likely as not, they probably were. Sure enough, Bennett emailed me after they'd gotten back to South Bend and these guys had been on their train. The drunken groom- who was the worst off of the lot- definitely did not have a fun trip back to South Bend in that train. He was sick over half the time from the motion. Naturally. Ah the fun games that Murphy's Law plays.
Overall, had a good time, though. It was fun to get out and see the city and hang out with people. I'll be able to do that more, now that I have a source of income and unlimited public transportation access. My Chicago Card Plus came Wednesday night- just in time, because I didn't have any singles left to pay for the bus. It's been nice not to have to worry about that. One less thing to hassle with every morning. I'm glad that Bennett and his brother had fun while they were here. It didn't feel like we did much, over all, but the company was good, I think.
I stayed up later than I thought I would. Friday I was working late on my moon theory- which is almost finished in the stage of charting the various moons and creating the lunar year. Ran into a few snags, so I took a break Saturday night and tonight. I switched back to making 'Manda's birthday gift for when I go home here in July for a weekend. Still not sure which one I'll go for, but I was thinking of trying for the weekend of the fourth, since that's 'Manda's birthday weekend. We'll see. I'm hoping her gift is finished in time. It should be, but that depends on what I can finish with it this week after work. All I know is that if I do have it finished, she'd better have my gift that she still owes me from my last birthday ready when I get home. I'm holding hers ransom until it is ready. Anyways, Saturday night was the first time this year I've left all the apartment windows open all night long. Felt good to do it. I hate closed windows. Of course, if my windows had been closed, I probably wouldn't have been awoken around four-thirty in the morning by a fight between some guy and a taxi-driver last night. That's right. I'm in this nebulous state of sleep-awake, and I'm hearing shouting.
I dunno when it crossed the line from me being asleep to being awake, but at some point, I realized that people outside were shouting and that I might as well see what was going on. All I'm hearing is the phrase: "Do you want to fisticuffs? Do you want to fisticuffs?" First off, I can't even tell you when I heard someone use that word. I think the only time I've heard it is on an episode of M*A*S*H. I've never heard a person use it in regular speech currently. But this young guy was screaming it at a taxi driver. They were causing all kinds of racket and for ten minutes, I worried that I'd have to call the police to get them the fuck away from my apartment so I could sleep. But after the taxi guy played around with this angry asshole for awhile, he finally decided to drive off and be done with him. Too much excitement for me at that hour, thanks. Go fight somewhere else if you're going to, but not outside my window.
I baked pies today. Cheated and used premade crusts. I'm not impressed with them by a longshot. The butternut squash pies, however, are good as a whole. They'll be a nice change of pace for the next few days. And I know people will think I'm crazy, but I made chili tonight as my meal of the week. That's the last of my ground beef in the freezer, unfortunately. Either I'll have to restock when I go home to visit 'Manda, or steel myself to buying it here in Chicago. (Ouch.) Either way, a terrible thought. I'll miss eating meat when this is gone. But at least for the week I'll have food made up and won't have to cook. I find I eat better that way.
And lastly, a rundown for those who don't go back to read the entries I posted earlier tonight and back-dated:
-Wednesday: Soaked by the rain and a miserable bus ride home due to a forgotten umbrella
-Thursday: Flooded bathroom courtesy of my tub not draining properly
-Friday: Monsoon weather in Chicago, panhandling on the bus home, and an explosion outside my building that evening
If you're interested in reading them, you'll have to actually go to my page, because they won't show up on friends' pages if they're backdated. LJ is just weird like that. No idea why. Anyways, I think that does it for the evening. MI-5 and Doctor Who are over and I should be in bed to get ready for work again tomorrow. Another long week ahead.
Rage more, Mary Brave, rage more.
Apparently, Columbus was shut down Saturday from Balboa to Jackson or such for a Puerto Rican parade. I was unware of this, but it detoured my bus, and I had a bit of a further walk to get to the aquarium. That's okay. I enjoy the walking, and the day was absolutely beautiful. What I did NOT enjoy, however, was the blackbird incident. I was coming up the walkway to Shedd, and on top of a lamppost sat a red-winged blackbird. Not unusual. Then it flew down to the ground as I approached, to pick around in the grass. As I came level with it, the bird hopped up to the back of the bench, and I looked over at it, amused. I was not amused, however, when just as I passed by the bird....the bloody thing attacked me. That's right. Attacked me. The thing flew at my head and all I can remember is the sound of beating wings around my ears and the sensation of its little feet skittering around in my hair. I dropped my sunglasses and almost dropped my purse in my efforts to shoe the damned thing away. Some elderly lady was walking in my direction and saw the whole thing. I think part of her was amused at the spectacle, but I can't be completely sure. I know I wasn't amused. My guess is that the bird has a nest near there with babies, and it was protecting them from anything that invaded its territory. I wish I could have told it I don't give a damned about it's birdies.
The attack-bird theme didn't diminish, however. Since the bus had dropped me off about fifteen minutes early, I stood on the balcony overlooking the city skyline to wait for Bennett and his brother. Common photo-op point for people visiting the city because it has a great view of the docks and the skyline. Apparently, it's also the nesting place of a red-winged sparrow. And it was pretty pissed off that so many people were sitting on the railing or leaning over it. I saw at least a half dozen people attacked by this little bird. Mostly people posing for pictures. The little bird would have a routine where it would forage around in the bushes below for awhile, then randomly fly up to the railing. If no one was there, it'd chirp and complain, then fly back down again. But if someone was unlucky enough to be at the rail....attack. I was lucky that it didn't decide to come after me. Or maybe it was lucky, since I was already irritated from my last encounter. But not long after arriving, Bennett and his brother arrived to go inside.
I'm glad we were there so early in the day, because it took a good three hours or so to see the whole of the aquarium. I'd seen it once before with mom when she was here a few months ago, but we didn't get to the lower-level exhibits. Not sure if they were open at the time, but even if they had been, we wouldn't have gotten to them that day. I think we were in the aquarium until well after two pm. Likely it was almost three before we left. It was a good time wandering around and conversing. Plus, Shedd has some cool things to see. I probably won't need to go back for awhile, but it's fun to go see it every now and then. Especially with those who haven't seen it yet. From there, it was off in search of food. The first place we were going to try was the sushi restaurant I like. But it was not open. I don't have good luck with that place regarding its business hours. Whenever I want to eat there, it's closed. And so we walked onward to Giordanos. Quite the walk. I was famished by the time we arrived.
It was a good thing that we ordered an appetizer, though, since it took some time for the pizza to come to the table. I really do like their pizza. The spinach one I highly recommend. We spent about an hour and a half in there, eating and talking. My next plan was to head down to Hyde Park and show them around my neighborhood until their train left around eight. But after walking to the bus stop and waiting on the six for almost fifteen minutes, the one that pulled up was packed to the brim. The bus didn't even stop, but went straight on its way. At that point, the three of us were disinclined to wait for the next, assuming that it'd only be a repeat experience in the end. So we scrapped the plans for going to Hyde Park, and walked over to Millennium Park instead. I showed them the lovely iconic sculpture there that everyone visiting Chicago goes to see, then we ambled down to Buckingham Fountain to hang out there for awhile.
This is where I must go on a side rant. Pan-handling. Again...sorry folks, that seems to be the theme of this week. I can't tell you how many times we were approached by pan-handlers on Saturday. And the Buckingham Fountain experience was the utter worst. This guy was walking the perimeter of the fountain with a bag of leaflet newspapers called "The Onion" and postcards of the city. He approached people, and handed them the paper/postcard before you could even get a word in, then started rambling on almost incoherently about something. But then once you had the paper in your hand, that's when he'd start asking for money. I knew that was the game when we first walked up to the fountain and I saw him hanging around. But when he came over to our little group, he handed off a paper to Bennett first, and he didn't ignore the guy as I tried to do from the start. That spelled doom for all of us. In the end, the guy suckered Bennett for three bucks before he'd go away. He refused to take the paper and postcards back. Once you had them in hand, they weren't going back in his possession. Or at least he wouldn't let me turn mine back to him. Bennett's younger brother managed to return his- and Bennett, too. But for some reason, this guy wasn't taking mine back. I think he was absolutely stuck on making a solid sale on this one. And Bennett fell for it. But I wasn't having any part of paying that guy one red cent. He knew it, too. I got the dirtiest look from him and a 'where are you from- not around here, huh?'. I told him I wasn't because I didn't want to deal with him anymore.
But that wasn't the end of this guy. Oh no. When we sat for awhile to rest on one of the benches, this guy came over to us another five or six times during the course of a half hour. Trying to solicit us again and again. Then on top of that, three other people were there doing the same damned thing. I wanted to scream. It's all a racket. They claim that they're trying to raise money for the homeless, but it's a tiered scam. Someone else buys the papers, then these people buy them from those people, and then scam money off of unsuspecting idiots in public places by demanding three or four times the price the paper cost in the first place. Outrageous. I swear, if I'm ever at Buckingham Fountain again alone and one of these guys comes up to me....hell to pay. I'll go on a tear about it at them. Because it just....fries my temper. These people aren't at all like the guy on the bus. They have all their mental capacities. It's not like they don't know that they just asked me for money and shouldn't bother me again- or shouldn't have bothered me in the first place. They do. But they keep wheedling because they're hoping that we'll break down and give them more money. I just....rawr.
Not long after that, we decided to walk back up to the station so that Bennett and his brother wouldn't miss it by accident. Whilst standing outside the station, a group of really really drunk young men strolled by us. They all had insane amounts of Butterfinger candy bars on their persons. Odd. But they were all definitely very drunk. Very very drunk. And they all went down into the trainstation entrance. I turned to Bennett and said to him that I hoped they weren't getting on their train...but likely as not, they probably were. Sure enough, Bennett emailed me after they'd gotten back to South Bend and these guys had been on their train. The drunken groom- who was the worst off of the lot- definitely did not have a fun trip back to South Bend in that train. He was sick over half the time from the motion. Naturally. Ah the fun games that Murphy's Law plays.
Overall, had a good time, though. It was fun to get out and see the city and hang out with people. I'll be able to do that more, now that I have a source of income and unlimited public transportation access. My Chicago Card Plus came Wednesday night- just in time, because I didn't have any singles left to pay for the bus. It's been nice not to have to worry about that. One less thing to hassle with every morning. I'm glad that Bennett and his brother had fun while they were here. It didn't feel like we did much, over all, but the company was good, I think.
I stayed up later than I thought I would. Friday I was working late on my moon theory- which is almost finished in the stage of charting the various moons and creating the lunar year. Ran into a few snags, so I took a break Saturday night and tonight. I switched back to making 'Manda's birthday gift for when I go home here in July for a weekend. Still not sure which one I'll go for, but I was thinking of trying for the weekend of the fourth, since that's 'Manda's birthday weekend. We'll see. I'm hoping her gift is finished in time. It should be, but that depends on what I can finish with it this week after work. All I know is that if I do have it finished, she'd better have my gift that she still owes me from my last birthday ready when I get home. I'm holding hers ransom until it is ready. Anyways, Saturday night was the first time this year I've left all the apartment windows open all night long. Felt good to do it. I hate closed windows. Of course, if my windows had been closed, I probably wouldn't have been awoken around four-thirty in the morning by a fight between some guy and a taxi-driver last night. That's right. I'm in this nebulous state of sleep-awake, and I'm hearing shouting.
I dunno when it crossed the line from me being asleep to being awake, but at some point, I realized that people outside were shouting and that I might as well see what was going on. All I'm hearing is the phrase: "Do you want to fisticuffs? Do you want to fisticuffs?" First off, I can't even tell you when I heard someone use that word. I think the only time I've heard it is on an episode of M*A*S*H. I've never heard a person use it in regular speech currently. But this young guy was screaming it at a taxi driver. They were causing all kinds of racket and for ten minutes, I worried that I'd have to call the police to get them the fuck away from my apartment so I could sleep. But after the taxi guy played around with this angry asshole for awhile, he finally decided to drive off and be done with him. Too much excitement for me at that hour, thanks. Go fight somewhere else if you're going to, but not outside my window.
I baked pies today. Cheated and used premade crusts. I'm not impressed with them by a longshot. The butternut squash pies, however, are good as a whole. They'll be a nice change of pace for the next few days. And I know people will think I'm crazy, but I made chili tonight as my meal of the week. That's the last of my ground beef in the freezer, unfortunately. Either I'll have to restock when I go home to visit 'Manda, or steel myself to buying it here in Chicago. (Ouch.) Either way, a terrible thought. I'll miss eating meat when this is gone. But at least for the week I'll have food made up and won't have to cook. I find I eat better that way.
And lastly, a rundown for those who don't go back to read the entries I posted earlier tonight and back-dated:
-Wednesday: Soaked by the rain and a miserable bus ride home due to a forgotten umbrella
-Thursday: Flooded bathroom courtesy of my tub not draining properly
-Friday: Monsoon weather in Chicago, panhandling on the bus home, and an explosion outside my building that evening
If you're interested in reading them, you'll have to actually go to my page, because they won't show up on friends' pages if they're backdated. LJ is just weird like that. No idea why. Anyways, I think that does it for the evening. MI-5 and Doctor Who are over and I should be in bed to get ready for work again tomorrow. Another long week ahead.
Rage more, Mary Brave, rage more.