Tuesday, May 30, 2006

taking care

the housing situation i am in is a bit awkward, at best. it's been the source of much stress and unwanted displeasure, but, ah, such is life.

three emails, the first written to my pal dylan, the next his response to me, the last a summary of my thots so far, which may give you a sense of the situation i am in...


p.s. you will find as you get to know me better that i sometimes publish emails i send and that others send me. "it's no thang" as my friend katie would say, and please don't be sad to see them here. emails mean very much to me, you should know that. love, stephanie



thank you dylan
hey, how are things going? chicago's going great, tho no luck finding alternative living situations. and my computer got lost in the mail, which sucks.
anyway, later.
-stephanie

Things are going alllright. Don't think I'm going to make it to Chicagofor a few weeks but I think I already told you that. Do you think Haseeb is caving in? Or will he throw a 20 year old girl from Kentucky out on the streets? Was it your computer from school? Did you pay for shipping insurance? Probably got stolen... some postman's kids are looking throughyour music and photos right now..eerie. I'm not finding any alternative living situations either, and my boss is leaving town for four days so Iam excited to have a bed and a place all to my own (if only a temporary fantasy). Did you make friends with Russel yet? Or take your first ride onthe trains? You should have him go with you, he is a formidble thwarter of theives and evil-doers (in the GW sense). Take care,dylan


you mentioned not being able to make it for a while, but will you be coming eventually? i hope so. i need a friend in the city. or, one with a sense of humor anyway.
hard to say if haseeb is going to change his mind or not. it's been really awkward cuz he's kinda uptight or afraid to talk to me or something, which makes me not want to hang around, and then his girlfriend is around a lot too and i don't really like her, or she me. and anyway...
i found this other place close by but the rent is super ridiculous so i'm weighing the importance of comfort and materiality right now... is it worth it to have a place to myself and avoid the awkward situations, if i have to give up my stipend to get it? hmm, i don't know. worse comes to worse, my office is kinda comfy, tho sterile.
ha, no, i had to order a new computer (a laptop) so i could do video and sound editing for my other internship. i think fedex lost it and i'm totally pissed. as is my boss (yikes!)
as for the trains, i had my first expeirence riding them to get to the program get-together. we went to this really silly restaurant called ed debevics (or do you know about it already) where they basically yell and be mean on purpose. i could go if the mood struck me, but at the time, i was not amused. other than that, i've been avoiding the trains, and finding i don't need them as much as i would have thought. i pretty much walk every where, which can be tiring, especially yesterday, when alex visited me and we walked all the way to navy pier and back.
and regarding russell, i like him the best, i think. he certainly is a gentle individual, which i have appreciated, if only because he's dependably so. feras can be nice on occasion and then seems cold the other times i bump into him in the shared living space. and haseeb, tho absent as of late, has mostly been a mystery to me. anyway, i like russell, and think he's my favorite. and i finally met the girlfriend, who seems nice, but i suppose i understand your avoidance of them the past summer. they're loving in an old couple kinda way, and it makes me uncomfortable, but i think i am that way regardless. russ and katie were eating eclairs one day in the kitchen when i happened to be eating dinner, and i had to speed up my ingestion to flee the scene. yes, it is difficult having to watch someone try so hard to be so loving. but so it goes.

i have more stories, but at the moment, work has just ended and i don't much feel like staying in a chilly office any more. off i go now into the humid and ripe chicago outdoors.

how is your work going dylan? when do you leave columbus and return to toledo? and when are you finally going to come to chicago? i hope i am still living with the boys then, but if not, you will have to visit me in my new locale. regardless of where it may be.

no ifs ands or buts about it!
-stephanie

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

statement of intent

this will be a blog about my summer in chicago, alone and together and about and throughout about my adventures in the greater urban environment and my rxns to the city and its people, to supplement the pictures and video captures i will accumulate, which can only say so much.

it will be an attempt to remember and document a city, to make it live and breathe, to make it organic, to personify it, to animate it.

it is inspired by my having recently read italo calvino's work, invisible cities.