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I love days like this. I slept in until nine, lazed about for another few hours, then set out with the intention of returning my library books and getting concert tickets. I returned the books and then remembered (noticed, really, since it was obvious) that the St. Patrick's Day parade and things were going on, so I wandered over to see the giant crowd... which was just as full of obnoxious people as I thought it would be. I reaaaaaally don't like drunk midwesterners. Like, at all. So I'm not entirely sure why I thought wandering through the crowd would be fun, except that I like crowds, and I apparently like making bad decisions so...
After that I decided that I should make sure the river was properly green and then go to the grocery store. It was, and there were some pirate-flagged canoes paddling along with the police behind them. I'm hoping it was a boat-chase, and even if it wasn't, I'm going to pretend anyway. From here, I decided I should go up to Wicker Park instead and get the tickets to the Dr. Dog show at the Double Door. This will make it three concerts for me in April and May (Mountain Goats/John Vanderslice and the Bowerbirds as well), and I must say, though the Dr. Dog tickets were impulsive based completely on my lunch Friday, during which they came up on my iPod and I went "Gosh, they're not the best thing ever but I bet it'd be really fun to see them live," I'm really looking forward to this spring now. Each one of the three concerts is also at a venue I've never been to, which makes it even more fun. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I've been anywhere more than twice... and the only place I've been to twice is the Beat Kitchen. I'm not counting the Millennium Park amphitheater, since I eat lunch there and so it totally doesn't count as a venue. Even if two of the best concerts I've ever seen were there. The only thing that would make my spring better, concert-wise, would be if Sufjan Stevens decided to exist again (though I've heard rumblings of a new album? About time!)
Actually, this is also the very definition of why Ticketmaster is dead to me. I could have sat at home today and paid them 8 dollars to reserve my tickets for me, dooming myself to the Thursday show. Instead, I got to go out on a pleasantly sunny day, wander around Chicago, and get my tickets for face-value at the venue itself, nabbing some of the last Friday tickets, and figuring out where the best place to stand would be in the process. I don't know why someone who lived in the city would do it any other way (and I still hope that Ticketmaster dies because $8-12 surcharges on $12-15 tickets is just DUMB).
Somehow I ended up in Lincoln Park after the Wicker Park sojourn, and so I bought my groceries about half the city away from where I usually do. I also made the colossal mistake of wandering through Whole Foods while I was effectively starving. Everything in there looks so delicious. I'm glad it's expensive enough that my aversion to overpriced food kicks in, otherwise the $65 I spent on groceries today would've easily been $120. However, in my wandering I determined that Whole Foods actually must use the same produce supplier as Hyde Park Produce because they, too, had champagne mangoes and apples on sale. For twice as much, of course. I ♥ Hyde Park Produce... locally-owned, cheap, and no matter how hard I try to confuse google's walking directions, less than half a mile away (that was my attempt to make it understand that you can cut across some of those brown areas and go in the back way. It obviously didn't work).
Food in hand, on the half-mile walk from Trader Joe's to the North/Clybourn red line station, I realized that the reason I'd been so productive today was that I had originally intended to do my taxes. Or work on my lesson plan. I'd feel bad that I didn't accomplish either of those things, but man, today was nice. I probably walked three or four miles total, I had actual food for lunch, and I also took a nap when I got back from my adventure. The first nap I've taken in months that took place while it was still light out.
Oh, and I didn't mention it, but I saw flowers yesterday, guys. Growing out of the ground. I was so happy. There are robins around now, too. Spring makes me so happy.
After that I decided that I should make sure the river was properly green and then go to the grocery store. It was, and there were some pirate-flagged canoes paddling along with the police behind them. I'm hoping it was a boat-chase, and even if it wasn't, I'm going to pretend anyway. From here, I decided I should go up to Wicker Park instead and get the tickets to the Dr. Dog show at the Double Door. This will make it three concerts for me in April and May (Mountain Goats/John Vanderslice and the Bowerbirds as well), and I must say, though the Dr. Dog tickets were impulsive based completely on my lunch Friday, during which they came up on my iPod and I went "Gosh, they're not the best thing ever but I bet it'd be really fun to see them live," I'm really looking forward to this spring now. Each one of the three concerts is also at a venue I've never been to, which makes it even more fun. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I've been anywhere more than twice... and the only place I've been to twice is the Beat Kitchen. I'm not counting the Millennium Park amphitheater, since I eat lunch there and so it totally doesn't count as a venue. Even if two of the best concerts I've ever seen were there. The only thing that would make my spring better, concert-wise, would be if Sufjan Stevens decided to exist again (though I've heard rumblings of a new album? About time!)
Actually, this is also the very definition of why Ticketmaster is dead to me. I could have sat at home today and paid them 8 dollars to reserve my tickets for me, dooming myself to the Thursday show. Instead, I got to go out on a pleasantly sunny day, wander around Chicago, and get my tickets for face-value at the venue itself, nabbing some of the last Friday tickets, and figuring out where the best place to stand would be in the process. I don't know why someone who lived in the city would do it any other way (and I still hope that Ticketmaster dies because $8-12 surcharges on $12-15 tickets is just DUMB).
Somehow I ended up in Lincoln Park after the Wicker Park sojourn, and so I bought my groceries about half the city away from where I usually do. I also made the colossal mistake of wandering through Whole Foods while I was effectively starving. Everything in there looks so delicious. I'm glad it's expensive enough that my aversion to overpriced food kicks in, otherwise the $65 I spent on groceries today would've easily been $120. However, in my wandering I determined that Whole Foods actually must use the same produce supplier as Hyde Park Produce because they, too, had champagne mangoes and apples on sale. For twice as much, of course. I ♥ Hyde Park Produce... locally-owned, cheap, and no matter how hard I try to confuse google's walking directions, less than half a mile away (that was my attempt to make it understand that you can cut across some of those brown areas and go in the back way. It obviously didn't work).
Food in hand, on the half-mile walk from Trader Joe's to the North/Clybourn red line station, I realized that the reason I'd been so productive today was that I had originally intended to do my taxes. Or work on my lesson plan. I'd feel bad that I didn't accomplish either of those things, but man, today was nice. I probably walked three or four miles total, I had actual food for lunch, and I also took a nap when I got back from my adventure. The first nap I've taken in months that took place while it was still light out.
Oh, and I didn't mention it, but I saw flowers yesterday, guys. Growing out of the ground. I was so happy. There are robins around now, too. Spring makes me so happy.
