Not quite sure what to call it…

 

As I was finishing with the last of Walter Benjamin’s 1933 writings (the last was “Experience and Poverty”, which is about, among other things, the poverty of experience that we are/were enduring in our/his modern times), a buttered piece of raisin wheat bread from Mary’s Market and an as yet untitled Irish Coffee variation (unfortunately some bar in the Pacific Northwest has already coined another of their cocktails as Spanish Coffee, which was my first thought).  This one was made with the wonderfully sharp Empress 1908 Elderflower Rose Gin, but I imagine that any gin would sharp up your morning coffee to make for an enjoyable day of leisure.

Next week I start full-time work for the first time in some time, but today I’ll enjoy a bit of the life Ibiza… Afternoons, and coffee spoons. Maybe some T.S. Elliott...

Waiting for the Man

It's Tuesday morning, i'm enjoying a cup of coffee (well, holdup, i haven't tried it yet... - hmm, yes) enjoying a strong cup of coffee that was mailed to me by an organization i have dealings with, and waiting for the Dish Network Man to come and give me TV.

This was supposed to have happened last Thursday, but they never showed, but today is looking better already as "Jim" has just arrived and we've figured out an agreeable place to place the Dish. Our landlord was concerned when i presented the idea of the "Dish", because he didn't want his house to start looking trashy.

I didn't envision myself as the sort of person who has a dish on their house, but cable was just too crazy expensive, obscene really. To get anything more than the networks +TBS & C-SPAN, the lowest possibe price was $50 & THAT was a 6-month promotion.

I guess we don't NEED tv in our lives, but well, you know, it's nice to have something to stare at once in a while...

A review of Food

Quite the Tuesday. After getting home late from barring around last night, i slept a bit late this morning, then headed to campus, leaving Nathan & Lissa to find their way downtown to hook up with Tritle, which they did fairly successfully. I had a blueberry muffin & coffee at the Classics Café. The coffee was desperately needed & the muffin was ok, but a bit crumbly. I really shoudn't get muffins. I don't eat them very attractively, i'm afraid.

I headed downtown to meet up with everyone & got to the basement restaurant they had lunch in just as they were finishing. After stops at Millennium Park (which i now appreciate as a pretty sweet thing - previous visits have all been in foul weather & therefore tainted) and the Art Institute of Chicago, we hit the 'Park Grill' near Millennium Park for a Heinekin and some chips & salsa (my favorite food, hands down). The salsa tasted a bit barbecue-y to me & had a very thick consitency. Strange stuff.

After that we headed to U.S. Cellular Field for the White Sox Game. They won handily, in a quick game. We got in on some successfully scalped tickets & i had a brat w/ sauerkraut. It was pretty decent, but nothing too special. I had been told by several Chicagoans that U.S. Cellular Field has some of the best stadium food in the country, but i would say it doesn't hold a candle to Miller Park... Not even close. I had a Sam Adams & then discovered with my Pretzel purchase (again, no Miller Park pretzel) that they had a vendor with PBR on tap. Which makes this stadium ok in my book.

The game was fun. Lot's of homeruns & a 'loud guy' (guess which one of those people is 'loud guy') pretty close to us who yelled at Frank Thomas a lot. Once again, no actual images of the game, because Nate's camera has a crazy big memory card that fits nowhere, but here is some evidence we were at the game, and here's some more... of my watch, Lissa's soda, and me looking at the card the photographer handed me that says how to find my picture. (You can buy a Joel & Lissa at the White Sox game t-shirt - Nate was getting cash & food). Oh, speaking of photographic evidence... there was a couple in front of us, who, when the photographer came around asking if people wanted their pictures taken, to put on the website, they were like "No, we can't be shown to be here..." then laughed & were hiding from the photographer as he took other people's pictures. I think they were illicitly coupling. Cool.

Omaha & Back

"...greatly exaggerated"

This moring, Brooke & i went to the Farmer's Market in Omaha's Old Market, and, after finding it painfully understocked & not buying anything we stopped to have a coffee & sat at an outdoor table... As we were sitting there, Kate, a girl i used to work at Metro Community College with, but didn't know very well, walked by. She was smiling and said, "I'm so glad to see you. I thought you had died." This struck me as odd, but i thought it might just be an expression... something like 'it's been so long,' just weirder, but then she went on to explain that she literally thought i was dead, because she'd heard that somebody named Joel who worked at Elkhorn (the Metro campus i worked at) had died, and she thought it had been me, since she didn't know my last name. She said she'd wondered what i'd died of, and how sad that was & was oddly apologetic that she hadn't come to what she thought had been my funeral (she used her baby as an excuse).

She imparted to me that she was very happy i wasn't dead, a point we could agree on & we parted amicably, if awkwardly... See you later

Afternoons & Coffeespoons

So, i just got my picture taken by some guy who said he was from the 'publicity department'. (Don't worry, they were very tasteful.)

I was seated in an on-campus coffee shop, reading Shelley's "Defense of Poetry" for class today (off a computer screen) & he asked to snap a few photos... My worry is that i'm going to be like one of those tools that pop up on the luther site now... Or i'll be on, like, the front of the catalog or something ridiculous - but, as an aspiring photographer myself, i understand how awkward it is to ask someone to snap their picture in the first place... then even moreso when they say "no, get the hell out of here, pervert."

I did feel kind of bad that i wasn't really doing anything... except staring, gape-mouthed at a computer screen... At one point, i even pretended to 'have a thought' and frantically typed some fake reading notes (seriously, i did this)... (he said not to pose, just do 'whatever i was doing') I sipped coffee a couple times, but every time i did i couldn't help grinning because i had an image of some 80s Maxwell House commercial running through my head...

Sadly, as i've previously mentioned, I am unable to produce images & post them on this blog, and i've found, in going through my pictures on my hard drive, i never seem to take pictures of anybody drinking coffee... It seems coffee-drinking is not as conducive to photography as, say, alcohol is... So, just check out this horse...

I find myself spending a lot of time in coffee shops thse days... And i wonder if i will be able to readjust to real, non-coffee based life after i finish here. On any given day, i might wander from 2-3 different coffee shops, buy a cup of coffee or tea & sit & read & write, or just eavesdrop... It is a good life, but i fear it may not be a real life...
Hm. Well, i guess i'll enjoy it however long it lasts...