My Day: A Picu-mentary

I had the idea of documenting my day in pictures and decided that today was the day. It started when Furio woke me at ten minutes to seven this morning. He has taken to meowing at weird hours of the day. I suspect that he's meowing out the window at our neighbor Carlos' cats who are allowed to roam free. He has a little kitty door fixed in his window and they come and go as they please. I've never bothered to get out of bed to check out this theory, however. I usually just wake up long enough to say something like, "Come to bed, Furball."

This morning, though, I said, "Papi (A left over nickname for him from the days when we lived deep in the Puerto Rican area of Chicago), come lay on the bed with me." Apparently "Come lay on the bed with me" sounds a lot like, "Come lay on me" to cats and he hefted his entire bulk onto my stomach and, more notably, my bladder. Great. About 30 seconds of this and I knew we were nearing the red zone...and since I haven't wet the bed in, gee....at least six months, I knew I was going to have to get up. (sigh).

So I rolled out of bed before Mikey-o (Ha! I rule you!). I meandered out to the living room (I'm never in any sort of a hurry that early in the morning) and it was time for breakfast. It was Science Diet Sensitive Stomach for the furry royalty of the house.

And a Twix bar for me. Don't judge me...it was one of those mornings.

After break-y, the kits and I kissed Mike good-bye on his way to help truth and justice...ok, maybe just cleanliness...reign supreme in the restaurants of Chicago. Then, by a show of hands (paws), we took a vote and decided it was time for a nap.

But the knowledge that I was going to one of my favorite places today kept me from napping long. I woke up again about 9:00 a.m. and headed back out to the living room. I flipped on the tv and became engrossed in this new show...it's called Jury Duty. Now, those who know me will attest to the fact that I do loves me some court room shows. My current favorite being The People's Court. I love Judge Milian - she's great. What was I talking about? Oh, yeah - Jury Duty. The idea is that three "celebrities" are called in to act as jurors on the show. They're, like, C list celebrities...no huge names or anything. In fact, I only recognized two of the six people today. The whole thing is presided over by John Gotti's old attorney. I can't remember his name now, though. That kept me busy until 10, when I finally left the house.

I went into the bedroom to get ready to go and thought, "I should make the bed." It seems like a responsible adult thing to do. Mike's mom always makes the bed when we visit. I get up and head out to the kitchen to get a "wake up" drink. After sipping my soda, I'll head back to the bedroom to straighten up and get "ready to face the day" dressed as opposed to "decent to be in the kitchen" dressed. When I arrive, it's like we've had a visit from the bed making fairy! I wish I had a bad making fairy in Chicago. Anyway, I thought about how I should make the bed and somehow, thinking that I should do it fulfilled whatever responsible adult urge might have been lurking within me and I still haven't done it.

I made sure that the local neighborhood watch was protecting the apartment and I left the apartment a few minutes after 10.


I walked the three blocks to the Loyola Red Line El stop. Which I took a picture of but you can't really tell it's back there. It's the tracks that go across the street. Mike will be relieved to know that the beer man was around today to stock the neighborhood with frosty brew. Although his doctor told him to cut back on beer and Mike's become a lemonade drinking machine.

I walked down to the far end of the platform and waited for the train. The escalator wasn't working today and I walked up the stairs with an old man who complained loudly to me, "Nothing ever works around this place! There's always something out of order!" I nodded in what I hoped was a sympathetic way. Not that I didn't feel bad for him having to take the stairs if it was hard on his arthritis or something...but I haven't noticed anything wrong with the equipment there before. Anyway, the train came and as you can see (sort of), it had advertising cars on it. I don't know why, but I always want to ride in the cars that are fully painted as advertisements. It always gives me some sort of thrill to be able to say, "Today I rode the Mentos train" or the "'Visit Texas!' tourist bureau train." Seriously...so far I've seen Texas, Colorado, New Mexico and Idaho! I was surprised that there was no potato representation on the Idaho train.

It's a bit of a trek from our house downtown. I always bring a book and my iPod shuffle (aka the scuffle...a Mike-ism, naturally) but I usually find myself gazing out the window rather than entertaining myself with either item. This first picture I took because I always notice the big white sign that is straight up and down in the middle of the picture toward the right side. It's a wig store. I don't know why...but it always catches my eye as we go by.

And this second building I just noticed today. I love the windows in the middle - all different colors. Just sort of a little splash of color against the urban landscape.

The ride's not all beautiful, of course. I don't know if the city has plans for this abandoned lot or what it'll be if they do.


They're working on the red and brown line tracks. It's a long and ongoing project. Workers like these on the tracks slow the train progress and it takes us a lot longer to get downtown than it normally would. They tell us it'll be worth it when we see the improvements, though. We'll see, I guess.

Every day I go to work I pass by Wrigley Field. I was on the wrong side of the train to get a good picture of it today, but I thought that this Cubs trash bin was somehow exceptionally appropriate - given their performance against Arizona in the play-offs.

I took this picture as the Red Line tranformed from elevated train to subway as it neared downtown. It's one of my favorite parts of the trip as the landscape seems to suddenly begin to grow and all of the world fades away.

At last I arrived downtown at the Jackson stop! YaY! We prepare to re-emerge into the sunlight. My second favorite part of the trip...riding the escalator into the daylight.

And here you can see my destination! That red brick building with the green roof with all of the gargoyle-y looking things. The Harold Washington Library Center! YaY! The largest public library in the world. Now Chicago has tons and tons of public library branches - but if you want any sort of a shot to get the newer releases, your best bet is to head downtown to the main branch, where they buy multiple copies of all of the new stuff. The outer branches all get one...maybe two copies and they're impossible to lay your hands on for the first year or so.

Oh, look! The popcorn store! I almost stopped here and bought popcorn to buy for Handsome Alex and Big Boy JO-ey...but then I remembered that I haven't heard from Bob and Andrea (ahem!) as to what kind of popcorn they want! (ahem! ahem! I know you're a reader here, Bob...I'm waiting for an e-mail!) :D Actually, anybody who wants popcorn, give me a buzz - I'll definitely be back in this vicinity very, very soon. AND I'll be in Detroit in a week and a half, I'll be happy to make that delivery in person. I also ship...I'm an excellent mailer. Did I just sound a little like Rain Man there?

And what's up with the guy in the striped shirt here? He's so pinched and moody looking. I wish I'd have noticed before I got home and saw the picture. I like to wish unhappy-looking people like this a "good day" - well, when I'm feeling cheerful, as I was today. (Other times I am that guy). Sometimes a social nicety or friendly word is all it takes to break them out of their bad mood. Of course, sometimes they sneer at you as if you're some sort of hippie, crazy person.

Then I got inside the library and all was right in the world. I love this place. Floor after floor after floor of knowledge I do not yet have.

First stop - The popular library. Basically the newest of the new...I think. I have no idea exactly what the criteria is for a book to be in the popular library section rather than just the literature/fiction section upstairs. I always stop in here to see what's available but it's where most everybody goes to look, so it's often pretty picked through already.

Next, it's up to the 7th floor - Literature and Language. Below you will see part of the Fiction M-S section of the library. Yeah. It's a beauty to behold for a bibliophile such as myself. The library takes up a whole city block and this floor is almost all fiction. The building has 10 floors plus a lower level, plus some sort of a penthouse for something or other. I read that there is something like 71 miles of shelving inside.

I read all the way home (hence no pictures....sorry). But when I arrived home, I found that one of our neighbors had placed this little puppet on the lamp in the courtyard.

Doesn't he look like one of the puppets from Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood...in the style of King Friday or, my personal favorite, Daniel Striped Tiger?