craziness

this is a weird thing i wrote a long time ago when i was living in wicker park, i had it saved as a draft...

Now, you might think we're all a bunch of loner, isolated slacker types in Wicker Park. Let me make this very clear. Wicker Park is a tight knit friendly community. It is in a part of Chicago for people who truly like people. And that's so rare in this day and age, don't you find?

Today I took my daily 2:00 walk around the neighborhood. My first stop is always the Alliance Bakery. Cass knows I'm coming. She's got my watery single shot Americano, piping hot, ready for me.

"Havin' your walk Jer?"
"Sure am, Cass"

Cass is great. She's been working at the Alliance for about three years. She needed an extra job after her boyfriend Les knocked her up and split town. I'm not gossiping here. Everyone knows everything about everyone here in "The Park". That's just how we like it. In fact, we're all the ones who convinced Cass to forgoe the abortion and keep the baby. A group of us even went down to the clinic with her and weighed the options with the help of Dr. Casper. Everythings a joint effort. We all worked together: bought the Graco stroller, helped her out with formula, etc.

Cass slipped me a free biscotti (she always does) and sent me on my way east on Division passing the funky, specialized boutiques we're all very proud of. Eyeglass stores, vintage and recycled fashion shops, dentist and chiropractic offices with wonderful hip neon signs.

I stopped and talked to Jarud. You'll recognize Jarud when you meet him. He's the one in the hoodie with the oversized headphones and rolled up tight pants. He's very skinny. It's not that Jarud doesn't eat. Believe me I've seen Jarud finish off a whole batch of "Puppy Chow" all by himself at another one of our potlucks. No, Jarud's got a stubborn tapeworm that's proven to be a real pest this last year. We're all working through it with him, though. Dr. Casper says he's got a new medication he wants to try and we've all got our fingers crossed.

Jarud asked me if I had a chance to listen to the new mix cd he made me. I lied and said I loved it (Jarud's given me so many of these cd's and I just don't have the time to sit and listen to every single one. I'll get to it. I've just been so busy). Jarud handed me a flyer for a dance party way out in Lakeview. I laughed and said, "Lakeview Jarud? Come on. That's two bus rides away. You go and enjoy yourself." He's a great kid.

I needed to stop into the bank. Now, we're all very good with our money in Wicker Park. We have a financial workshop the first Thursday of every month at Wendy's with Janet Gamke. We sit down with a baked potato and a Frosty and hash it all out with Janet. She's a financial resource management consulting analyst and she helps us decide where to invest our monies. We all like Janet a lot. She is very direct and gives us no nonsense advice about being smart with what we earn. Her motto is "A dime in your pocket ain't gonna sprout roots and grow into a tree." We're not stupid in Wicker Park, we just need someone like Janet who's going to explain it to us in a language we can understand.

After I deposited my check for working on Mrs. Kehrblow's website (she's the oldest living resident and she created an online Wicker Park only dating/arranged marriage service that's doing really well) I ran into Ben. Ben does have an alcohol problem. He stands outside the bank and asks if you have any spare change. He knows we love him but we just can't give him money everyday so he can go by another bottle of Lime Schnapps (his favorite). You have to be tough love with Ben.

"How are you today Jeremy?"
"Doing good, Ben, yourself?"
"I'm taking it one day at a time, went to that meeting you told me about at the church."
"Great job Lionel. Listen, if you ever need someone to go with or just need someone to talk with you know who to call on."
"Sure do, Jeremy, see you later."

We all think Ben's really making progress.

I headed back home and saw that a new couple was moving in next door to me. I didn't hear anything about this at our last meeting so, I was a bit taken back. Nice looking couple. I didn't try to start a conversation, I just said hello to them. We'll get to know each other better when they're all settled in.