Roscoe Village People

Some spring not-so-wild-flowers I stumbled by today. Their blue was brilliant, and I loved how they were escaping and taking over the sidewalk and surroundings.

Things are going well at my new job. Yesterday was another first day; I finished training last week and was assigned back for good to the branch where I worked a couple of weeks ago. The branch manager, in his welcoming, here's-the-rules rant, told me that if it was up to him I would have to shave every day, but since his boss "looks like me" (meaning doesn't shave for a week, also? or is a white guy?) he can't expect any different from me. I was impressed with his relative open-mindedness and flexibility, since he's from a country where "men like me" are probably either persecuted or executed. I got the 19 year-old Mexican-American wife and mother who is my supervisor to warm up to me a little, too. Personality-wise, she should be good for some sparks. She ended a phone call with her husband yesterday by saying, "Ok, I love you, goodbye, you fuckin' Puerto Rican." Ah, teenagers trapped in a loveless, crisis pregnancy-induced marriage. So romantic.

We had a fun security scare yesterday, too. An emergency call came in for our manager, who for future reference shares a name with the Great Prophet (may his name be ever praised), at just before noon saying that the branch of our bank nearest our location, actually just six blocks up the street, had just been robbed. It caused quite the scramble, and a little bit of whimpering from one of the other bank employees. Oh, who am I kidding? That was me hiding under the counter and crying softly.



This was - hopefully - the last snowman of winter. I snapped this one while walking to Target on March 22. I call it, "Frosty had bitch tits." Don't be offended; rent Fight Club again, commit it to memory, and become a better person, like me! We've had more than enough late-season snow and cold temperatures this winter. Hopefully it is over now for good.

Did you hear about the cougar that was shot and killed here in Chicago yesterday evening? Such a crazy thing. On my way home from work last night I was waiting for my second bus, and noticed a couple of news and police helicopters hovering a few blocks away. I guess this wild cat had been stalking and gallivanting around the neighborhood of Roscoe Village for most of the day yesterday, and police finally cornered it and had to kill it.

Not coincidentally, I think - the bank that was robbed yesterday? Also in Roscoe Village. Did the cougar rob the bank? Did the bank robber loose the cougar after the robbery to cover his tracks? Did the bank robber transmogrify into a cougar? Regardless, it was certainly the most exciting day ever in Roscoe Village.

My computer died a horrible death last night. I had just settled down to catch up on blogs and emails and was listening to a little Mindy Smith in the background. When I went to click on an email from my dad, a ridiculously fear-mongering Fox News-type email as it turns out, just as Ms. Smith reached for a high note, the old boy rebelled. Everything locked up, and you know how sometimes a digital music file will get stuck and repeat a little clip? Well, Mindy Smith's voice turned into a fire alarm we-re-we-re-we-re-we-re, so I reached for the power button pretty quickly. After I gave it a few seconds of rest, I tried to reboot, but the darn thing wouldn't load up Windows, just trapped in some kind of endless rebooting loop. Anyway, long story short, I had to do one of those desperate system salvage thingys and completely start over from scratch. My last external hard drive backup was more than a month ago, so I lost more than I want to think about right now. It is frustrating to start over again, downloading programs and plug-ins and making new bookmarks and all those million little inconvenient things. I am glad, though, that it was able to be resuscitated, since this is not a good time for another major expense.

Hope you are doing well! Spring. Ah.

Currently Reading:
The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman