I love the Chicago Library system. Yes the branches can be a little skuzzy and the librarians a little cranky, but the library is everywhere and has the most amazing collection including, among other weird things, fishing poles. I pretty much stopped buying books a few years ago and get all my reading material from the library; meanwhile my husband favors random dusty cds of Bach variations played by Hungarian royalists in October.
I love him, but people the music, it confuses me.
Really the story starts by returning some of those cds to the Bezazian branch. Did I know as a (lover of a) lover of classical music, I could get two free tickets to a classical concert at Ravinia, a fancy music venue/park thingie? Most of them were gone but a few shows were left and when I came back the next day with a first and second choice, the librarian informed me that the program was for two tickets for two separate concerts – I had to take four (or else? security kicks me out of the building?? they force me take fiction books out from the main branch where they only alphabetize by last name???) Worried about the unknown potential ramifications, I dutifully took my four tickets.
We went to our first choice concert, an out-of-town event I have yet to write about (see also event #1, the Frank Lloyd Wright house in Oak Park, and #3 San Fransisco). The other tickets we semi forgot about; they were for yesterday but when one of my favorite ex-coworkers invited us to cook out at his house on the same night we were already planning to grill with someone else, we made plans for… last night.
Notably neither party ended up grilling.
But this realization started a lacidasical attempt to give the tickets away that ended at First Slice, an amazing non-profit pie shop conviently around the corner from my therapist. I asked the barista if she wanted them or would be willing to offer them to anyone who wandered in and she responded “do you know anyone who needs a lunch today?”
Before I really thought about it, I ended up trading my free ticket obligation for an envelope with $15 and a take someone to lunch obligation.
I am not brave and while I spend a good chunk of my time interacting with people -see librarians, baristas, and working in market research- approaching strangers scares me half to death. Luckily Derrick approached me first and while he found my suggestion to take him to lunch at 2:30 in the afternoon a little odd, he was a good sport.
It was really weird, terrifying to think about, but pretty awesome while happening. I was super nervous about some family events, and it was a perfect distraction while waiting to hear how things went. A textbook definition, if there was such a thing, of an aesthetic snafu. Some random stuff happened, I made some questionable choices, but ended up getting exactly what I needed when all was said and done.
I have $5 of obligation left; I’m trying to decide if I’m brave enough to go around offering popsicles to random people in the neighborhood on the next really hot day.
Aesthetic Snafu 