Walks, Jobs, Concerts

What do a man in a pink lab coat, a mother carrying not one but three children with her on her bike, and a man and woman riding a motorcycle with a sidecar have in common?

They can all be seen during a walk from the West Loop to Michigan Ave and back. We went for a social justice prayer walk last night during Community Night and those were the things/people I noticed. Chicago can be pretty strange sometimes.

The sun was on its way down when we set out, so the stifling heat became more and more bearable as we walked our separate paths. One of the greatest moments was as I passed Mikaela (we split up into two groups and walked different directions either down Jackson or Adams and back on the other) because we simply smiled at each other, gave each other high fives, and kept walking. I'm sure it was confusing for anyone who saw us, since we didn't talk or anything, but for me it was comforting to have so many roommates spread out in the Loop.

It was also nice to have some alone time while still sort of being with community. I've needed a lot of thinking time lately with the year wrapping up and us MercyWorkers all figuring out our plans for July 27th and beyond. There's a lot of resume revising and cover letter writing going on around here these days, and it can get overwhelming. Quiet walks downtown help take away some of the edge. Other things include taking advantage of the free day at Adler Planetarium, especially with its location right on the lake. From there, the skyline looks small. And we all know I'm a fan of free concerts, so I've also been checking those out at Millennium Park.

This past Monday, The Head and The Heart and Iron & Wine both performed so I went with Kim, who is in the city this week. We got there two hours early and there was already a line for the front seating plus people were already grabbing patches of grass in the yard area. We spread out our blanket and hung out, hoping Becca, Steph, Diego, and his mom would join us later. Unfortunately they got there too late and couldn't get a spot on the lawn since there were so many people. They enjoyed the concert from across the street and we joined them eventually--we couldn't see the stage anyway, so we figured we might as well spend the concert with friends instead of surrounded by strangers.

Today it's rainy and gray outside, which means two things: cooler weather (or humid weather) & mosquitos.