Sunday, August 08, 2010

Market Days

Hey! Today marks ten years since I started work with my current employer. Am I a lifer?

Ah well, this is NOT a blog about work matters, though there is a photo in this entry that includes my former department head. No, this one is a quick check in at the end of a sunny summer weekend that included Gay Pride Part II, or as it is properly known, Halsted Market Days.

Imagine a half mile of Boystown closed to traffic, vendor and not-for-profit booths set up, many half naked men walking around, and much booze. My first weekend in Chicago coincided with Market Days, and at the time, I thought it was AMAZING. Now? Not so much. I never really feel part of the gay scene, and after a while, the people watching depresses me as much for my own unsuppressible cattiness as for the people themselves. Plus, it takes a heck of a lot to be as milky white as I am, and I don't care to spend all that time in the sun, drunkenly or not.

Still, it is fun to go down for a little while, and so we parked ourselves for an early dinner on Yoshi's patio, bypassing the street vendor grills he and his staff were working.
nearby were a few carnival attractions (the inflated balls in the pool looked both hilariously fun as well as dangerously hot in the sunshine - little greenhouses). Sangria for me, wine for Conrad. Michael and Laura and a dubious stuffed toy representing the President, plus a guest appearance by the aformentioned Bob. And home by 6ish. Not a bad way to have a Market Days experience at all!

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