mojosmom

A Chicago cab driver declined a tip. Truly. As I was getting tip money from my purse, he said, "Forget about it." Weird. This was my second interesting cabbie of the day. Earlier, I'd managed to snag a cab as he was depositing an earlier fare. Turns out it was his first day on the job, so we were giving him tips on the best way to get places. Like most Chicago cabbies, he was an immigrant, but I've never had an Uzbekistani cabbie before!

I went to see Luis Alfaro's Oedipus El Rey at Victory Gardens Theatre last Friday, because I know some of the cast members. It got rave reviews, though some friends thought it mediocre. I fall somewhere in between on the play itself (an updating of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, set in South Central L.A.), but my friends absolutely deserved the accolades they got.

I was planning on going to the DuSable Museum's Art Fair on Saturday, but just as I was getting ready to get in the car and go, the heavens opened and it poured. Not enough to vitiate the drought, but enough to stop me. I went the next day instead. The event always falls on or just before my birthday, so if I see something I really want , I can use the "It's my birthday present to myself" excuse. It's usually jewelry, but this year it was a coat:


Before going there, I'd been to the home of a friend whose garden is always part of a neighborhood garden walk. On that weekend, she invites people over for cookies and cold drinks, and it's always nice to see her. She'd recently been on an opera tour of Italy, and so I admired her photos and was jealous (she had tried to get me to go with her, but the timing was bad).

It's ridiculously hot today (100º again), and our forthcoming "relief" will be either mid- to upper 80s or mid-to upper 90s, depending on which forecast you believe. Either is too hot to get my walks in, and I'm getting to the point where I think I'll take the bus to Block 37 or Water Tower Place (vertical shopping malls) and walk there. I miss my exercise. Now there's something I never thought I'd be saying!

We had a derecho here yesterday morning. It came on really fast. I was up at 7:30 and went out to water the plants on the back porch. It was already 80º and very sunny. Within about an hour, the skies darkened, and the winds were blowing furiously, and it was pouring rain. It only lasted a couple of hours, but here's what my neighborhood looked like later in the day:



(No, that's not my car!)

There were some very unhappy birds:


After it was over, I went downtown and did a bit of necessary shopping (shoes, underwear) and along the way found a great pair of sunglasses that double as readers.

I've been doing a lot the past few days. On Wednesday, I met up with a couple of people from Texas who are on LibraryThing. They'd "done" Hyde Park, and we met at a local joint to eat, and then visited some used bookstores.

On Thursday, I saw David Henry Hwang's Chinglish, which I liked better than Yellow Face. Met Betty C. afterwards for a drink and to talk about the TV board.

Friday, I went to Summerdance for the first time this season - it was Cajun and zydeco music - and during the break I walked down the block to the Fine Arts Building's Second Friday, where I checked out the used bookstore and found one of the books I need for my class, and a couple of others, and said "hi" to Hodge the cat.

Saturday was gorgeous and busy. I hauled about five bags of clothes and household stuff to the Brown Elephant, and, as always, found a few things while there. Then I went to my friend Kate's. Her garden, as it is every year, was part of a neighborhood Garden Walk, but we sat inside and enjoyed some iced tea and conversation. I haven't seen as much of her as I'd like, but now that I will have more time, we are planning outings. I headed home to put together a picnic dinner, and then went to Millennium Park for a Grant Park Symphony concert.

Sunday was the DuSable Museum art & craft fair. It was very, very hot, so I didn't stay too long (it's all outside, and very little shade), but long enough to find a lovely necklace.

I am finding that one of the things I like best about retirement is the fact that I have much more flexibility to get things done. I don't have to worry about cramming in all my errands after work, or on Saturday, and if I'd rather spend an hour or so reading on the back porch than grocery shopping, I can do that. It's very nice, indeed.

The weather was (is) absolutely gorgeous. Sunny, with a bit of a breeze, not too hot (probably 75º or so). I hopped a bus over to the DuSable Museum of African-American History for their annual Arts and Crafts show, which is held on the grounds. I had figured on just wandering about a bit, but, as I wandered, I saw a stunning necklace of silver, chalcedony and pearls. I tried it on. Nice fit - not too big, not too long. Yes, reader, I bought myself an only slightly premature 60th birthday present:


There was a talk about investing in art in the Museum's auditorium which I went to for about 15 minutes. But as it was conducted by a couple of folks from Merrill Lynch, they were spending too much time on "investment" and not much on "art". I appreciate that there are people who need to know about saving for retirement (though, frankly, most of the people in the room looked like if they hadn't already started, it was too late!), but I'm already familiar with risk tolerance and asset allocation and all that. I figured the pitch to work with ML was not far off, and I'm happy with my financial advisor, thank you very much. So I went back out into the sunlight.

I had a gift certificate for the Museum and Science and Industry gift shop burning a hole in my pocket (I won it when I went to the Smart Home reception there a few weeks ago), so I hopped a bus over there. I bought a couple of books on sale (you're so shocked, I know!), including a children's book that I have been drooling over, Peter Sís' Starry Messenger, about Galileo. I also bought a bag of chocolate-covered cocoa nibs (talk about overkill!). I walked home via Istria Café's 57th Street location, where I paused to enjoy a mango and peach gelato while sitting at a table outside in the sun and reading Maureen Corrigan's Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading. Nobody bothered me, so they must have seen the title.