How to get to . . .

It's not uncommon to liken one's neighborhood to towns of pop culture gone by. How many talk of growing up in Maybury or fearing they may one day move to Stepford?

I shared a revelation recently with John: Our neighborhood is Sesame Street. All quaintness aside, I remember that show being my first encounter with urban living -- people of varied cultural backgrounds, working as police officers or teachers, chatting with each other on front stoops as they keep watch over their blocks. Litter comes grumpily alive and giant oddballs share their simple wisdoms.

And I realized that sometimes I watch my neighborhood as if it's a television show. I hope I don't put it under glass, but there's a palpable thrill in taking up a fixed perch somewhere and watching what unfolds over the span of half an hour.

Yesterday I wasn't so much stationary as slow-moving, leisurely riding my bike home from work after an uncharacteristically good day, looking ahead to getting home to celebrate John's birthday but also wanting to take my time and enjoy the last grip of chill before warm air settles in for good.

There's a low-slung brick building on my route that houses two separate businesses: A brand new pie shop that's had its grand opening delayed by red tape, and a longstanding dry cleaning & alterations shop, with plants so huge and viney I imagine they're holding up the ceiling.

First scene: Two quick seconds of the pie shop -- A 3-speed bicycle in front whose basket, at last, holds a red "Open" sign and people gather in lines for a slice of Shaker lemon or banana cream.

Second scene: Two equally quick seconds of a mid-life Asian man, tailoring a pair of dress pants in the front window of the dry cleaner, surrounded by the hulking arms of decades-old philodendron.

I've been replaying this scene in my mind since yesterday. Possibly more than any other 5-second increment before, it tells the story of our neighborhood. Old vs. new, conventional vs. cutting-edge, utilitarian vs. decadent, cluttered vs. minimalist cool. But these worlds, while distinct, are also largely indebted to each other (a pie shop borrowing from homespun traditions, a dry cleaner benefitting from added foot traffic), and they manage to co-exist peaceably.

That tiny scene was so expertly spliced together that you couldn't even see the seam anymore. This is the kind of neighborhood I prefer to call home, where my own internal contradictions are written across the built environment, appearing not as juxtapositions at all, but as stories at their midpoints with many chapters yet to be read.

Sweat Well Spent

This is our beautifully restored Logan Theater, which celebrated its grand reopening yesterday after several months of excavation and rehab, not to mention coughing, discovery, and worry on the part of its reanimator -- a guy who's part real-estate mogul, part pain in the ass (we first met 10 years ago, after a very public fight over affordable housing), but still manages his charms.

Along the way, he found old murals -- each one painstakingly restored and brought back to its original glory -- and the stunning Tiffany-style glasswork over the box office. You have to fall in love with a building to take that kind of care.

You also have to fall in love with a neighborhood, even one you consider too dicey to raise your own kids in. But you make your investments -- he's preserved hundreds of local rental units and even helped fund the prairie garden near the square -- and you help affect positive change.

As a theater two miles or so to the north faces its own demise -- a megachurch has set its sights on the building -- I'm grateful for the inner madness that would compel a developer to see importance in this building. Thanks to his investment (and make no mistake, his equity was more than just sweat), we won't be a community that gets swindled out of that history. We'll be a community that hails its rescue.

The Mind and Body Conspire to Give My Lost Hour Back

I woke up in a panic this morning: House to clean, leaky faucet in the kitchen, food to cook before it turns. And it was a full hour later than it would've been yesterday after my standard six hours of sleep. Not enough. Never enough. Curse you, extra hour of daylight. I'm not ready for you.

So I went about the house, changing the clocks. I balanced my checkbook, put away last night's dinner dishes, called my mother, did a few stretches, brought in the paper, and headed out the door for my morning run.

I started on a full-on sprint. Gotta get this done before the day is half over. But after a couple of blocks, it dawned on me exactly how beautiful it was outside. Sun shining overhead with just a few wispy clouds across all that blue. Crocuses coming up at Jeannie's house. A guy ahead of me walking with his toddler and the gentlest pit bull I've ever seen. A local brunch restaurant setting up for outdoor seating (it's March 11th!). People gathering for breakfast, church, bike rides, or walks. A guy in a knit hat carrying his pod of a baby in his arms. Dogs chasing rope toys on the boulevard.

Without realizing it, my pace had settled down to a steady cadence. The air smelled of muslin. Birds chased each other through the trees. A neighbor painted his porch.

When I got home I figured it must be close to lunch time by now, but I hadn't even eaten breakfast yet. Nice while it lasted, I thought, but back to the grind. But there in the house, all the clocks I'd just changed said the same thing: 10:20. Still morning. Plenty of time.

Gifts from the Dead

This ceramic tea set is compliments of Florence, who spent her final years in the care of two friends of ours -- Mike and Diane -- a few blocks south of us. Florence died in her home last month in the company of her hospice nurse.

We never actually met Florence, but we'd heard all the stories, especially her endless flirtations with Mike and objections to his wife Diane, whom Florence felt was interfering with their love.

Florence had no immediate family, and the one identified relative -- a niece -- has expressed little interest in Florence's spartan 'estate.' So Mike and Diane have been working to sift through years of accumulated detritus, separating trash from treasure, trying to find homes for things that may have some remaining utility.

So it is that we ended up stewards of this midcentury, mint-condition tea set. It now joins a few other odds and ends -- cream pitchers, a gravy boat, and an old pharmacy counter -- that have come to our house from those who have moved on or passed on. We're happy to carry on these legacies. We'll be responsible to their memories.

We went into Florence's house for the first time a couple weeks back. It smelled of must and urine. Silk unmentionables hung next to house dresses in her closet. Entire walls in the living and dining rooms were covered with mirrored squares (some had come loose from the wall), which must have made Florence feel elegant. I'm not sure how a place can feel dingy and hallowed at exactly the same time, but that's the only way to describe it.

Arbor Day

Just taking a moment to appreciate this tree. It's grown from sapling to colossus in the time we've been in this house, providing shade and privacy, not to mention a trysting spot for birds.

We recently learned we may lose our poplar. Its roots have grown over the City's water shut-off valve, so according to the Water Department, there are two potential outcomes:

1) cut out that segment of the root and heroically save the three (the choice of the Department of Forestry, and also our own)

2) the tree has to go

Some nearby families have opted out of trees altogether (despite a program that used to plant them in the parkways for free) or cut them down for fear of molested foundations. Though I'm firmly in the pro-tree camp, I understand this. You work hard to buy a house. You don't want unbridled nature to take it away from you.

Still, we've had our share of loss this last year, and we'd like to hang on to our leafy companion. We're hoping that nature and the built environment will find a way to tolerate each other.

Signs of life in unexpected places

In warmer months, the girls next door like to play under our porch. They call it the "squirrel house." There's a tiny path beside our front steps the girls can navigate without crouching, then a hidden space beneath the porch floor, full of cobwebs and rogue supermarket circulars -- but also a rarefied hideout for two kids who never lost their knack for creative play.

As someone with an irrational fear of harming people, I've always secretly worried over this. What if they can't get out one day? What if the porch collapses? (I mean jeez, look at that crack in our foundation!)

But on this unseasonably mild February morning, I braved the space myself to try to clear out some debris, and what I found was this scene: A hand-constructed table with a tiny mammalian friend in a flower pot. It's probably been there since June. I cleared out the litter but left the table set.

Would gladly spend my dollars here

We passed this seemingly shuttered plumbing shop last night on our way to dinner. In case you can't read the poster, it reads, "WORKING towards a
clog-free nation."

Living in Chicago these days, under a mayor
punch-drunk on privatization and working his damndest to dismantle the unions, it's easy to miss the days where even the humblest workers identified with
Soviet-style labor images.

I also have to love a shop that proudly displays toilets in its front window, especially as an upscale tequila bar opens just 1 block west, and fashionable folks walk by on their way to a caipirinha.