Only strong drink could be the culprit for me missing my blog entry last night.
I went to the volunteer meeting at DuSable at 10 AM. It was basically a call to sign up for more hours. I had been looking at the schedule for the past week and a half, and not really seen anything that piqued my interest. I have all these "maybe" activities in the works, I'm having hard time committing, thinking that something better will come along. The twist to this meeting is that we had a tour of the museum from one of the docents, my history committee homie, Evelyn. Evelyn's tour was fabulous, she told us all kinds of information about the artifacts that could not be gleaned from just reading the descriptions. For instance, did you know that the Yoruba people in Nigeria have the highest incidence of twin births in the whole world. This may because they believe that twins have magical powers and worship idols of twin babies. The tour ended with the docent staff imploring the volunteers to become docents and gallery guides. I know that I could do it, but one more thing on my plate does not sound like fun. I'll be thinking about it.
Next, I drove to the Carter G. Woodson regional library to check out the Vivian Harsh Collection. I explained to Beverly (the archivist here) how Mrs. Julian from DuSable wanted me to have a stronger background in Chicago history to be competitive for the BMRC paid intern position. Mrs. Julian wanted me to focus on the Black judiciary, architects and broadcasting history. Beverly knows Mrs. Julian and is familiar with the DuSable collection. She said that I should start with some books and I could look over the collection list to see if anything popped out to me. After she took my ID, set me up with a table and those books, she sat down and talked to me for a little bit. Beverly talked about the future of the profession, the help that she could use in her collection and the benefit of an archival certification from Dominican University. I'm glad that I met her, she gave me some things to think about and some leads on resources that will help me familiarize myself with the city. Two notable discoveries are unpublished manuscripts from Langston Hughes and Richard Wright that are available for viewing in the Harsh Collection.
When I got home I called Rachna, she is doing better. We were supposed to get together for dinner, and when I invited Lauren, the situation became complicated and the plan fell through. The issue was Rachna wanted to get something quick in our neighborhood and go home to apply for more jobs. Lauren wanted to get dressed up and drive downtown for dinner. When given the choice between a night out in the bright lights or a night laying up in my sweat pants, it was buh-bye to Rachna. Lauren and I went to Cafe Iberica in the Gold Coast neighborhood. It took us a minute to find parking but we got lucky when we found a free spot, 2 blocks from the restaurant. We ordered a pitcher of sangria while waiting at the bar for our table. We shared patatas bravas, grilled chorizo, seafood soup, and some seafood paella. It was all pretty good. The more I drink, the better company I become, I think. Lauren and I were laughing and I refused to let her dwell on her sad man problems, I kept directing her toward any other topic of conversation. The place was very diverse and hip, I think that I fit in quite nicely in my asymmetrical top and skinny jeans. After dinner, I was ready to check out some more places in the area but Lauren wanted to drive to another club that she had been to before. When we did the drive-by she decided that she didn't want to party with "those" people, after driving around aimlessly for 30 minutes, we decided to go home. It was 2:00 AM, and I went straight to bed.
There is so much social potential here, the hunt for the down to earth people who can be comfortable and have a good time wherever we go, is still on. My Arizona friends spoiled me with their wonderful personalities....
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