Skokie

I went on a Skokie adventure today and here is what I learned:

• Some CTA bus drivers need personality adjustments. Just because I'm riding public transportation doesn't mean I know where bus 97 actually goes.
• Russian people typically live with their parents until they get married.
• Jewish people are buried in "Kosher coffins," meaning they are coffins made out of wood.
• Jewish people are not typically embalmed because it is against their religion.
• McDonald's has pretty decent tasting Iced Mochas.
• Subways should have restrooms on the actual train.

I do this to avoid physical geography. . .

spitters

I was walking down Congress Parkway tonight. There was a guy in front of me that we'll say was meaty, and he walked like he had a hitch in his giddy up. I'm not sure if he was trying to look like a badass or if he was trying to keep his pants up. Whatever it was, he looked like he was escaping a hot stove. Every few feet or so this boy would spit. I'm not talking just like a little Leo DiCaprio spit on Titanic. I'm talking the type of spit where I could hear it splattering onto the ground, despite the city moving about me. And it was like a puddle when I passed it.

Do boys produce more spit that girls and therefore, find that they need to dispose of it on the city sidewalks? Why can't they just swallow it like the normal people? I understand why smokers do it, but why do the non smoker boys do it? Especially when it could possibly fly back and hit me in the face?

People need to think before spitting.

agua

Note to self: drink 4 bottles of water in 5 hours, be prepared to pee a lot.

being digital

I'm currently reading this book called "Being Digital" because I have to. Not because I want to. (Oddly enough, the South Bend Tribune is quoted as a paper that reviewed it when it came out, which I think was like '92. WEEEIRD) Technology is way over my head and I don't really like it. I don't like thinking about bits and electrons and whatever else technology runs on. My mind doesn't comprehend any of it anyways.

I finally have cable again. Which means I finally am watching Ellen. Good days.

new semesta'

Journalism can feel like the absolute death of me, while at the same time feel like my saving grace. I love the feeling I get when I finish a story or interview someone successfully. I love knowing the "AP style rules" and feeling like I know what I'm talking about. But at the beginning of the semester, when we have to come up with potential story ideas and sources, I freak out. My mind goes numb and blank. Last semester in news reporting, my "beat" worked out spectacularly and I got all stressed about it for no reason. This semester I have literary journalism and I have to find 3 different topics to write a narrative on. So far, my only idea is to follow around a funeral director and talk about what they do on a daily basis. Let's face it, that's a very awkward job to have. I enjoy knowing why someone would want to be so involved in death as a career. That's all I've got though and the ideas are slim to none. I need assistance to get my mind going on potential ideas. And that makes me feel somewhat like a failure. My other class will be doing an entire semester focusing on homelessness in Chicago. I've always wanted to have a homeless friend, like the guy that sits by Dunkin' Donuts on Michigan Ave and once called me his girlfriend. But how do I convince someone starving and freezing on the street to talk to me about how hard it is to be starving and freezing on the street? I'm excited about the subject, but wondering how stories will present themselves or HOW I'll find the stories.

I feel like I could change the world. I just don't know how or where to find my mojo.

redneck appliances

That appliance within the red circle is a dryer. While touring Niles, one may find this sort of thing in a variety of backyards. Thank God we fit in better now.

ellen

I'd pimp out my dog in exchange for tickets to the Ellen show. If I would've just kept my hair blonde like it was last winter/spring and grew a couple of inches, I could've passed as Ellen's stage double and hosted the show myself. I've conducted interviews and I can dance just as well, if not better than her. I wanted to intern for her show. Lucky for her I go to school in Chicago and not L.A. I could intern for Oprah but I don't think I'm fierce enough for that job. For me, Ellen is Chicago and Oprah is New York, the big leagues. Not only that, but Ellen is funnier.

I have a really bad cowlick today. How'd I end up with boy hair?