Got invited out to help celebrate not one, but three birthdays. Tracy, her husband Matt, and their friend Nuanda all have birthdays near the same time – so they decided to celebrate together.
En route to Tuman’s, I passed by this building on Damen. I’ve seen it several times now, and decided to snap a photo today. The entire, entire side of this building is completely covered in brick save this one, tiny bathroom window. Given some of the patchwork and discolored brick, there may have been other windows before now. Seeing it… it made me a little sad. If you could ever deem a building as shy, I think this one would take the prize.
Finding the birthday trio outside, I pull up a chair and order a drink. Not 20 minutes go by before we see this odd truck pull up the street. Of course, I whip out the camera and catch this shot right as this thing passes by.
Following close behind the large elephant, a woman on a bicycle said “Oh! Oh! Here! Take this!” as she rode by. This was the slip of paper she gave us, announcing a group called “The Heroes of Wicker Park.” As luck would have it, on my way over, I did end up seeing some folks set up an impromptu movie screen (two sticks and a white sheet) in the park as I walked by. Should’ve taken a picure.
After a bit, Chelsea and Theresa join us (after having spent part of the day in some city-wide scavengenr hunt). L to R it’s Chelsea, Amy and Nuanda.
You know what? I’m not even sure of Nuanda’s real name (I think it’s Matt). I’m not sure of the origins of his nickname, but honestly… Nuanda is a great nickname. I believe that Chelsea, Tracy, Matt and Nuanda all grew up in Massillon together. When I first met Nuanda, he was visiting town… and now he’s a full-fledged Chicagoan. His girlfriend Amy I met tonight for the first time.
To add to the celebrations, Theresa was visiting this weekend, and joined in the festivites. I know her from our time at OSU together (we were both in school at the time, me for an MFA and her for a PhD). She and Chelsea were roommates way back when, and I remember Theresa mostly from around the English Department and a few parties they threw at their pad.
Had a blast chatting with everyone. The topics were all over the place, really. At turns, people were discussing the Origami Boulder Website, how various footstuffs can change the color of baby poop, how to make your own crap sparkle, the difference between “B” movies and “cult” movies, and postmodern theory in both art and american literature. It’s pretty great when your friends can be as high or low brow as they wanna be. 
Editorial aside: I first met Matt and Tracy through Chelsea, some five years ago I think. Since then, I’ve always enjoyed their company, and always laugh my ass off when I’m around them. In addition to being awesome people, these two are quite possibly the best Simpsons-quoting friends that I know (with the exception of my friend Ann). It’s been an extremely, embarassingly long time since I’ve hung out with the two of them, and I’m kicking myself for letting this much time go by since our last get-together.In my mind, I felt that I had seen Matt recently. Turns out, what I was thinking about was seeing him at Lobby Gallery, which was OVER A YEAR AGO. It seems the most recent time we’ve hung out was at Chelsea’s birthday party, some five plus months ago. And the last time I saw Tracy or Malachai… was in freaking 2002? I cannot believe it’s been that long – I feel like such the ass. Given how close we are neighborhood-wise, it’s inexcuseable that we don’t hang out together more.
We secretly order up some birthday (cheese) cake, to serve to the lucky three. Unfortunately, they only had two pieces left, so it got served up family-style.
