Grace and Liz, setting up to play “Mindball.” For this exhibit, each person straps monitors to their foreheads… which measures stress levels. The lower your stress level… the more the ball goes towards your opponent.
Got some free tickets to the Chicago Artisan Market, courtesy of Alex and Linda (they were planning on being a vendor there). Unfortunately, they didn’t end up making it… but despite missing the chance to catch up with Linda/Johanna… we did get to browse around a pretty great event.
Driving around downtown, I spotted some large sprinklers and assumed they were positioned for the upcoming Chicago Marathon. On passing by them, Liz corrected me and told me they were part of the demolition process – the sprinklers being there to hold down the amount of dust generated.
I can’t imagine the placement of this sign was an act of laziness. It must have taken some serious work to get it positioned so high. And then the thought again: why?
After nearly 85 years, it appears that the Blommer’s Chocolate Factory is closing down.
Came across some chatter in Slack, around an upcoming move for Grubhub – over to the Merchandise Mart.
Or, for some of us… a move BACK to the Merchandise Mart.
It’s an odd thing, but I feel like I lost a skill. Not that my photos were ever that skillful. I’m talking about a way of looking at the world. I’m out of practice.
I felt this way about writing poetry, in particular. I did it a lot when I was younger, in grad school, and during my early years in Chicago. But as I slowly replaced writing poetry with writing code, I feel like I lost a certain point of view. I feel like I lost a way of looking at the world.
Paige, undaunted and ready to continue on to the finish.
I can’t remember the last time we went in to work together. Definitely surreal. So much of our lives since the pandemic started has been working remotely, it’s difficult to even process being downtown together for work.
I got a random message (through Instagram) from my friend Jamie, letting me know she would be in Chicago for a few days. “Friend” is an interesting word here. Jamie and I have known one another for a very, very long time. “Know” is also an interesting word here, as we met over two decades ago… back when we were both Flash animators and the Internet was just this very fledgling, shiny new thing we were all trying to figure out.
Liz and I had a second day today, with the Ford kids. Our plan was another “Day in Chicago,” but this time a bit more reserved. A bit lower key.
We blew most of our energy last week on a pretty event-filled day. So today had fewer events, fewer things to do. But we still ended up filling the day, and then some.
The big day is here! We’ve got the Ford kids for another Day in Chicago, with a lot of big plans this time around.
We had a blast last year (and in all honesty probably tried to pack too much in). This year, we didn’t quite learn our lesson, as we also had a pretty busy day in mind.
I was downtown today, and as I was walking to pick up my lunch… I spotted a group of people on the corner of Washington and Dearborn.
It took me a minute, but I realized it was writers protesting, as part of the WGA strike.
And then, to the side, I noticed the rats.
Now that I’m actually commuting in to work a few times each week, I’ve been on the lookout more for stickers, graffiti – the small things that I really didn’t get to see, when we were working remotely all the time.
A fun thing about being downtown in the “early” morning (this was circa 8:30 AM)… you get to see all manner of folks setting up for the day.