Thursday, April 19, 2007

Spring Cleaning

This morning I took the El to Chicago and State, as the plan was to walk down Michigan Ave to my office in the Loop. I stopped at Starbucks for my tall soy no-whip mocha and saw one of the other volunteers who'd been at the PAWS outreach training and DAWG meeting. We walked together for a bit and chatted, and agreed that while we are both passionate about the work that's being done, the times that they need presenters really don't fit with a regular work schedule. Ah, to be a kept woman with free time...

We parted and I headed south on Michigan, enjoying the views along the Magnificent Mile, sipping my beverage, and in general being very happy. Along with some others, I stopped at a crossing and began to notice little things falling onto the pavement. My first thought was a flock of birds was passing overhead, but then I realized it wasn't anything quite so nasty.

This is of course the time of year when buildings have their windows cleaned, and the bits falling around us were drops of wet foam from this procedure falling from great heights. At each crossing, people stood, nervously darting looks up at the scaffolds made tiny by their precarious height, worried about catching a sudsy blob on their clothing or heads. I found it entertaining, waiting for that plop on my head that meant I hadn't beaten the odds. (I don't think I was tagged.)

It was fun and playful, in a way, and far better than the spitting and other general nastiness one sees every day in the city.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

See, when I was living there, Chicago used to be more fun. In my time, we had to worry about actual parts of buildings falling on our heads or, failing that, the scaffolding itself.

JC said...

Yes, when you lived in the mean streets of Lake Forest. Those wilding au pairs can be lethal.