Hell No.
Last weekend, my oldest and dearest friend Lena came into Chicago for a day. It was like Christmas morning when I woke up I swear. Even Eddie notices my bouncy demeanor, noting that "you are really excited to see your friend, hmm?" How could you tell? Perhaps it was the 845 am on a Saturday phone call that indicated she was on her way...normally if someone calls at that hour on a weekend I not only don't answer but refuse to call them at all due to their blatant disregard to my need to sleep (emergencies pending, of course).
We had a great time. We ate breakfast at Orange and she loved it (such good food), wandered around downtown and hung out in my apartment, had drinks and appetizers at Coobahs, and wandered around Southport, finally ending up at a newly opened desserts shop which had amazingly lip smacking good eclairs, ganache covered choclate bundts...yum.
And now to top that ridiculously indulgent paragraph about how well we ate, onto what we talked about. With Lena, its possible to just chat and hit a variety of topics, whereas some of my friends a)its forced and I am always fishing for things to get them talking or b) its completely damage control and I sit andl isten to them drone on and on about one topic. This is one of the things that I love most about our friendship and she even noted that fact before I did. We talked about children (one of my friends from college is set to give birth any day) and how incredibly demanding and sorta disgusting the entire process is - pregnancy that is....I still feel like women are judged poorly or seen as selfish if they don't want to have children for whatever the hell reason they choose not to. Its not like any of the human race is in danger of dying out... I love that she identifies with me. I feel like I am surrounded by people who I don't identify with at all lately; they're getting married; they're having babies; they're cheating on their loved ones. Its like, where do I fit? How do I continue to relate? And its also nice to be around someone who understands how it feels to be objectified as a woman and also, even though Lena is white, as a minority (a man drove by on his bike and yelled out something in some asian language at me and she was really shocked and it felt good that someone actually realized how offensive and hard that is for me to deal with every single fucking day as opposed to most of my friends who just laugh or somehow rationalize it). I miss her so much; her view points; her undestanding of me; her compassion; and her strengths.
So I am feeling a little sad today but thats life, right?
Sunday Eddie and I volunteered at 4th Church for their sunday suppers for the homeless. He got to work with this GREAT woman named Gabrielle who had really thick, I think German or Austrian accent, and she made these little jokes about how the measuring cup reminded her of a...Mintch or something from Chemistry--but Wait! This isn't chemistry, its cooking, haha (she really did make that joke to herself and then laughed) and also, she kept asking Eddie if he had "tasted" what they were making. Awesome. I wish I had picked her. Instead I made salad for four hours. Oh well. I think hearing her personality through him was the better.*
Last weekend, my oldest and dearest friend Lena came into Chicago for a day. It was like Christmas morning when I woke up I swear. Even Eddie notices my bouncy demeanor, noting that "you are really excited to see your friend, hmm?" How could you tell? Perhaps it was the 845 am on a Saturday phone call that indicated she was on her way...normally if someone calls at that hour on a weekend I not only don't answer but refuse to call them at all due to their blatant disregard to my need to sleep (emergencies pending, of course).
We had a great time. We ate breakfast at Orange and she loved it (such good food), wandered around downtown and hung out in my apartment, had drinks and appetizers at Coobahs, and wandered around Southport, finally ending up at a newly opened desserts shop which had amazingly lip smacking good eclairs, ganache covered choclate bundts...yum.
And now to top that ridiculously indulgent paragraph about how well we ate, onto what we talked about. With Lena, its possible to just chat and hit a variety of topics, whereas some of my friends a)its forced and I am always fishing for things to get them talking or b) its completely damage control and I sit andl isten to them drone on and on about one topic. This is one of the things that I love most about our friendship and she even noted that fact before I did. We talked about children (one of my friends from college is set to give birth any day) and how incredibly demanding and sorta disgusting the entire process is - pregnancy that is....I still feel like women are judged poorly or seen as selfish if they don't want to have children for whatever the hell reason they choose not to. Its not like any of the human race is in danger of dying out... I love that she identifies with me. I feel like I am surrounded by people who I don't identify with at all lately; they're getting married; they're having babies; they're cheating on their loved ones. Its like, where do I fit? How do I continue to relate? And its also nice to be around someone who understands how it feels to be objectified as a woman and also, even though Lena is white, as a minority (a man drove by on his bike and yelled out something in some asian language at me and she was really shocked and it felt good that someone actually realized how offensive and hard that is for me to deal with every single fucking day as opposed to most of my friends who just laugh or somehow rationalize it). I miss her so much; her view points; her undestanding of me; her compassion; and her strengths.
So I am feeling a little sad today but thats life, right?
Sunday Eddie and I volunteered at 4th Church for their sunday suppers for the homeless. He got to work with this GREAT woman named Gabrielle who had really thick, I think German or Austrian accent, and she made these little jokes about how the measuring cup reminded her of a...Mintch or something from Chemistry--but Wait! This isn't chemistry, its cooking, haha (she really did make that joke to herself and then laughed) and also, she kept asking Eddie if he had "tasted" what they were making. Awesome. I wish I had picked her. Instead I made salad for four hours. Oh well. I think hearing her personality through him was the better.*