Contents of My Purse

I just reached into my bag to grab some chapstick, and realized that if you judged me by the contents within, you would probably assume I'm a seventy-six year old spinster with respiratory problems. The bag contains the following items:

- 1 ball of yarn (multicolored in the fall palate) & 2 knitting needles (shiny, purple)
- 1 shitty mystery novel, possibly bought in the check-out line at Walgreens
- 3 tubes of chapstick (Soft Lips, Walgreens, Burt's Bees)
- 1 clementine (probably too bruised to eat)
- 1 pair of nail clippers
- 1 wallet (turquoise, vintage)
- 1 ziplock baggy of tissues (with lotion!)
- 1 bag of Ricola lozenges
- 1 box of Dayquil
- 1 inhaler & 1 vaporizer for said inhaler
- 5 sets of keys (car, other car, apartment, house, garage)
- 1 pack of gum with only 2 sticks left
- 1 bejeweled cat pin
- 1 packet of organic Darjeeling tea
- 1 handwoven scarf from Iceland

I had been sent to Jackson Park, an industrial neighborhood on the west side of chicago. It is where the bronze foundry was located. I drove past family owned restaurants way past their prime, with billboards placed out front advertising their banquet -sized party rooms and bargain meals available for sunday brunch. I carried on down the street, staring ahead but not really seeing. This tends to be my way of operating these days, going through the motions, one might say, in a non-reactionary way. This small voyage to the blue collar factory (in every sense of the word for everyone wore blue snap up work suits) seemed different though.I turned down a small side street where a mass of billowing smoke would greet me. Though only feet before my arrival I stopped for a moment and looked,really looked. There, before me, stood what I thought to be a run down freight train, only to realize that it belonged to the Ringling Bros. Circus. My eyes traced the jubilant emblem on every cart as I quietly yelped to myself. I don't know what it was, but there was something that was quite surreal in that moment. I sat there, the sun beating down, as I just kind of admired the animal cargo that quietly sat in this hidden spot on the west side of chicago. It was magical. I was hoping to spot an elephants trunk waving out at me or to be accompanied by a lions roar but neither of those things happened. The train sat as I sat, mindfully in the moment which was really all i needed.

This one goes out to that crazy kid, John McCain...

CAKE

Now that the weather is getting colder, it's time to put on a few extra pounds for warmth. The best way? Cake. Really. If there's one thing I've learned in my twenty-two years, it's that you should eat cake whenever possible. Thus, I present to you my latest creation: chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and a chocolate, peanut butter ganache. I'm having heart palpitations just thinking about it. Try not to drool on the keyboard...

Its a toss up (no that is not a pizza joke) between the Pizza Party Board Game, which was by no means boring, and Scattergories. They both rank highly on my tomatometer and I have been pondering that question a lot lately. Perhaps its due to a bit of nostalgia mixed with hunger. I am not so sure, but it is something to think about. 

..I wish those were the hardest questions that I had to answer now a days. 

Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears

The two of us spent ten hard-earned minutes gathering together lint covered pocket change and gumball remnants to buy this mans cd, and let me say...5 dollars of mish mosh currency well spent. Take a listen to "I Don't Mind" the first single from "The Early Recordings."

http://www.zshare.net/download/50643874e8329093/

A brief introduction to Paris on the Prairie

This is our public homage to our lives in Chicago. Anything that interests us is going on the blog. Our lives are in transit -- en route, if you will -- and we can be explained best by a hokey pun thought of on a weekday evening. A collection of our quotidian jaunts and local haunts...