summer!

muggy chicago, full of adventures as always! i've been here for a week now, and i think i've had enough coffee to last me the whole summer. my mission for this trip has involved investigating a coffee shop every day - analyzing (riiiight) the coffee, people watching, looking for human humor. it's been a blast, but i think i need to shift my coffee drinking habits to something a little less destructive. hehe perhaps tomorrow i'll look for the best wheatgrass in chicago :-)

aah yes so summer. i'm sitting here listening to gershwin's american in paris, sipping (so as not to get a sore throat) oodles of ice water, and contemplating yet another shower. eek wasteful? today i finished a long-ish letter to annie, with the sad realization that the reason it was so long-ish being that i haven't written-written her in a YEAR! baaad friend. anywho, i've also come to the realization that i eat too many bananas in chicago. i think it has been an alternative to my usual carrot addiction, but for some strange reason carrots haven't sounded too appealing during this trip. hmm. odd.

thinking how best to sum up my visit, i remembered lima/manj's phrase from paris... "we made tourism." fitting, i feel. luckly i think i fit in alright here in chicago, in fact i was asked today if i was just coming from work. (or maybe i looked sweaty, disheveled, and tired? oooh that's just my inability to handle heat.) anywho, that was actually a funny story... i was coming homeish and the clouds were very threatening (ooh more about the clouds in a minute!)anywho the only other dude at the bus stop was an old-ish man named henry, dressed in full security man attire replete WITH gun (eek!) anywho he started talking, and obvi i wasn't going to make him feel like he was talking to himself. he told me i'd be safe in chicago because he would protect me, and that next time he saw me he'd take me out to dinner. hmm. awfuly nice of henry. he also assured me that the sky would hold until i got home. he's friends with the weather god, from what i gather... anywho, he was right. ooh ps he was the one who asked if i'd just gotten off work. right right.

so clouds... AMAZING! i lovelove storms! lots of lightning here. luckly today was cooler than yesterday's absurd 95 or whatever. not for me. i'm a polar bear at heart :-) speaking of polar bears, gravling will be here wednesday... time tbd. that should be fun hehe. i'm currently thinking up adventures... something to the extent of marching all of chicago with a little umbrella. swedish museum (obvi) and hopefully-perhaps-oh-please-oh-please turkish food with j and ivan??? that would just make my day! aaand thinking about days, time for SLEEEEEP! (hajra nyar!)