Day 62 - Talking out the side of my head

Throughout the course of the day, I had fabulous conversations with all of my favorite people. Thank goodness for free weekend minutes!

I have to add to this entry, because I was stuck in conversation with Lauren last night until 12:30, our trio is officially no more. Here is the scoop:

Rachna has decided to take evening strolls around Hyde Park to clear her mind and figure out what her next move will be. She invited me to join her last night, and I (probably not using the best judgment) invited Lauren and Simba. It seemed harmless at the time. Rachna is talking about how she is probably going to have to go back to India and she is not sure of what to do with her stuff. Apparently, she bought all kinds of household supplies from Wal-Mart and Target, that are unopened and she wants to return them and get her money back. Lauren suggested that she should get storage for all of her things, since she might want to come back to Chicago. Rachna says that storage makes no sense because she doesn't know when or if she will be back.

Here is where my dramatic irony comes in, because I know that Lauren doesn't want to drive Rachna to any store to return anything, but Lauren is trying to get Rachna to think that renting a truck and a storage unit is the best option. Rachna doesn't know why, but she senses Lauren's persistence and is not happy about it. We have been walking for about 20 minutes, and when we get to a corner, Rachna says I'll walk you guys home, and go back by myself, and we are like, no, there are two of us, we will make sure you get home, and we can walk back. Rachna keeps beating around the bush, saying that she wants to walk by herself, then she blurts out, I have something that I need to talk to Chaitra about in private. I was looking at her, like "what?" and Lauren is like "oh I see, BYE!"

I felt like a first grader, with all of these superficial friend alliances. I walked with Rachna, and she told me that Lauren's negativity was too much for her, she has enough stress in her life without that. Our conversation was not of much consequence, but of course I had to go home eventually and deal with Lauren. Lauren said that she doesn't care and I told her Rachna just wanted to talk about this guy she was seeing. I guess when they were at dinner last week, Lauren was not as supportive of that pursuit as she would have liked. Lauren seems glad to be off the Rachna hook, so the issue wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Then Lauren proceeded to talk about her latest revelations about dating and how its depressing that she doesn't have love or babies in her life, when it feels like everyone around her does, a lot of woe is me....poor thing.

Side note, even with my umbrella evening dew/mist/rain devastated my hair do, :( Lauren used her super hot flat iron to try to flattened it out. It is no use, it has puffed up. I am really considering locs, if I get a better job that will allow me to go to the salon to maintain them, I'm going to do it!!

Sometimes I wonder if I am two faced, clearly I say things to Rachna about Lauren, that I would not want Lauren to know, and vice versa. I feel like they are two very self-involved people and I don't mind being a sounding board, and its my natural inclination to empathize, so it feels pretty harmless. I have plenty of time and opportunities with my real friends and family to re-charge my batteries, preventing myself from wallowing in a puddle of insecurities and disappointments.

Day 33 - Redemption of Auntie Cleo

This morning I had a volunteer meeting at the DuSable Museum. All I could do was listen because these women spent the majority of the time giving "feedback" also known as complaining about the last few events that they had volunteered for. Bless the heart of the volunteer coordinator, Arlene. She is stuck in the middle of a frustrated group of volunteers and an apathetic staff, but Arlene takes it like a champ. One highlight was my introduction to Blair, she shared her bagel with me and we will both be volunteering for the next movie in the park. I joined the historical committee, which as far as I can tell is about the chronicling the exhibits and programs so that we have something to show prospective volunteers. I think that everyone should volunteer to the causes that he or she is interested on a regular basis. It really is a reciprocal source of joy.

Afterwards I drove down the street to my hair appointment at Christian Fields. I get there 10 minutes early expecting to wait 30-40 minutes to get into the chair. Oh no, I check in and before my butt hits the chair in the waiting area, Lorenzo invites me over to the shampoo bowl. Lorenzo is good looking, at about five foot nine, muscular, tattooed and dreadlocks tied up in a headband. He's the shampoo boy! I'm looking around and 5 out of the 9 stylists in the salon are men, it looked like something out of a Zane novel. Lorenzo or as the people on the block call him, Renzo, washed my hair and talked all about playing basketball and being a role model, it was a little preachy but bearable. This salon specializes in working with "natural" also know as the coarse, untreated hair that most Black people are born with. The place was clean and the staff was professional and welcoming. Since most people are getting braids, twists and locs, the smell of hot curling irons and smoke coming from high voltage blow dryers was absent. Instead, there was a trendy little cafe in the salon, serving fresh fruit and smoothies, I could get used to this. It took Dana about 3 hours to twist my hair. The salon conversations and the classic R&B music was pretty standard. The funny thing about locs is that all kinds of people have them, the salon was full of thuggish men as well as sophisticated professionals, very diverse topics of conversation. On my way out, everyone commented on how nice my hair looked, Christian Fields himself asked if he could touch it. They were so sweet, and it could be just a hustle but I don't care, what girl doesn't want to be told that she's pretty? I will definitely be back.

The final activity was meeting up with my aunt Cleo at her hotel near the airport. She called me while I was at the museum and I told her that I was not happy about what went down last night. She said that her and her friends were at Michael Jackson's house in Gary, Indiana yesterday and she thought that my texts were in reference to today. Really?!?! She reminds me of my brother because they both operate without regard for other people, when you tell them that they hurt your feelings, they say oops (maybe you'll get a sorry, but don't hold your breath), and keep moving on. If you press them, trying to get some sort of reasoning or remorse, then in their eyes you are the obstinate one, you have to either a) swallow really hard and admit that staying mad is not going to help or b) stay mad and do without their company until you succumb to option a, because they have no problem cutting you off. The sick part is when you are on good terms with either of them they are kind, generous and funny, the type of person that you would want to be around.

So, I chose option A this afternoon. We had dinner in Rosemont and then we drove to the south side, so that she could take a look at my place. I was so nervous, because I knew that whatever she saw would be reported to my aunts, uncles, cousins and grandma. I can attest to their, in some cases my, scathing judgments on the lives of our relatives. I got turned around on the freeway three times, had problems with the windshield wipers and parallel parked in a crumby fashion, we made jokes through it but when we were about to leave she wanted me to ask Lauren to come so that I didn't have to drive back alone. Lauren and Cleo were very cordial, the one deal breaker was Misty the cat, who has free range on the kitchen counters. My aunt would not even drink the water that I gave her, assuming that it was unsanitary. Our place is very clean and it doesn't smell like animals, but I guess that everyone is entitled to their opinion. I was concerned that my aunt would say something offensive but she held her tongue for the most part. On the car ride back to Rosemont, I told her all of Lauren's relationship woes, and she agrees that this woman is ridiculous and needs to spend more time working on herself before trying to get a man to commit to her, AMEN!

Day 31 - Peter Pan

Today was my day off, and I decided to take Ayisha's advice and enjoy it. I have been trying to visit vintage stores, looking for my 4th Avenue (Tucson) equivalent out here. I keep hitting dead ends, today was no exception. I went to the "back of the yards" neighborhood, it's named after it's former glory as a meat packing district. If you read Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle", you could have a better idea of what that might have looked like. Of course, it doesn't look like that now, but there is an industrial area that gives of a rather pungent odor. The main street with stores looked more like Nogales than Chicago to me. The signs were in Spanish and items in all of the stores looked like something from K-Momo or the Tanque Verde Swap Meet. I looked but I couldn't even pay 5.00 for somthing that would shrivel up on the first wash. I went back to the Marshall's in my neighborhood and found a few items. I also made it to Christian Fields, which is the hair salon that was recommended to me. I had a party foul moment when I pulled really hard on the door and it didn't open. All these people are looking at me, and I mouth, are you open? They guy is like yes, just push. I felt so stupid! I spoke to Dana about different styles and prices, and I have an appointment for Saturday at 1:00.

I spent the afternoon relaxing and getting ready for the main event, I had bought a ticket to the Peter Pan show at the 360 Entertainment Theatre. When I was in London in 2009, this play debuted in Kensington Gardens but I chose to see "Avenue Q" and the "Lion King" instead. My classmates raved about the acrobatics and costumes and I was sorry that I missed it. The show is only in Chicago for one more week, so I made plans to catch it. I didn't think that I would make it in time because traffic was so bad, but I arrived 30 minutes before the show started. I was concerned about parking all afternoon, thinking that I would have to pay an arm and a leg for garage parking, but there was a lot right next to the theatre. However, they only accepted cash, and I was cashless. When I asked the attendant about another option, he was like "why don't you just park here?" I explained how I didn't want to be late and he assured me that a quick stop at CVS returning to the lot wouldn't take much time, then he directed traffic so that I could back out of the turn in. He was right, I made it to my seat with 10 minutes to spare.

I must admit that I thought "Hook" with Robin Williams was the same as the original story of Peter Pan, it's actually more of a sequel. Instead of Tiger Lily, I think we have Rufi-Oooo. At any rate, the play stuck to the original story and made use of very simplistic props but extraordinarily advanced technology. The stage was round, and theater was small enough so that there were no bad seats. The theatre seemed constructed just for this show, on a lot across for the Chicago Tribune building and alongside the Chicago River. The lobby had souvenir stands, children's activities and giant posters illustrating the history of the story from the novel to the stage and film. The whole production took place within a large tent, on the ceiling animated CGI images were projected. When Wendy and the others were flying to Neverland, images of London and the ocean sailed by all around them and above the audience. My favorite part was when Tinkerbell almost died, and the whole audience had to say, "I believe in fairies" to bring her back to life, too cute. I also liked the mermaids, they came down from the ceiling in giant turquoise "drapes" they twisted and turned in them until they were sliding around the floor.  The pirates were funny and the Lost Boys were endearing. It was a very engaging performance.

After the play I had a great conversation with my friend Joseph, he may visit before the year is over. Instead of paying for the overpriced theatre food, I decided to pick something up on my way home. I thought it would be a great opportunity to try out an East Coast favorite, White Castle. At 10:00 at night, I waited in line at the drive through behind four other cars. I ordered the number 1, 4 burger sliders with cheese, fries and a drink. When I got home and bit into the the first burger, I almost gagged. The burgers are gooey like baby food, I felt like I could squish it up into a ball. The ingredients are indiscriminate, it looks like someone squeezed a "cheese, onion, pickle" liquid on a 1/8 of an inch burger patty and slapped it in between two pieces of white bread. No bueno. I scraped off the "topping and got through 2 of them, but I had to throw the others away, yuck! At least now I know for myself, west coast wins the burger battle, give me In-n-Out anyday.

I saw the sign which indicated the street in front of my place is being cleaned tomorrow, so I had to park on the next block. City living can be such a burden, :)