Numbers Game

I don't understand why all the freeways here are referred to by name, i.e. "Stevenson," "Eisenhower," or "Dan Ryan". Back in the D, it's all about the numbers - 2-75, 696, I-94...in fact I would be hard pressed to tell you what the official names of those freeways even are. It just makes it that much more difficult for me to listen to the traffic report while simultaneously trying to figure out to which freeways they're referring. But that's probably one of the red flags that marks me as a recent transplant.
Anyway, I am expanding my mental map of the city. After some (unintentionally) aimless driving in Lincoln Park, I successfully navigated my way from one section of town to another without relying on Mapquest. I'm one of those people to whom "North" and "South" as directional terms really mean nothing. I need some visual aids, and explicit instructions regarding right and left turns. So needless to say, I was pretty proud of myself.
There was much more to my day than my travel triumph, but since it's late, and I don't want this blog to turn into a laundry list of my activities, I think I'll stop here, and leave the rest of my day to your imagination, dear (imaginary?) reader.

Wait Wait

It has been quite a wait. I keep procrastinating about writing here because I want to flesh out my thoughts, but then time passes and I lose my original inspiration. Tonight S. and I went to see a taping of "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," the NPR news quiz show. It was very entertaining, much more so than I expected. Unfortunately the digital camera failed us, so no pictures were taken to commemorate the event. But we did get to talk to Mo Rocca, Peter Sagal, Carl Kassel and Richard Roeper. In fact, it was Peter Sagal mentioning that people often blog about their experiences at the tapings that inspired me to write tonight. Plus, Peter and I had a brief discussion about the Elsa Peretti Tiffany necklaces, and how he bought a set for his wife. Now they will forever be linked in my mind. The Tiffany necklaces and Peter Sagal, that is. Although I hope he and his wife are forever linked as well.

The funniest thing for me was seeing Carl Kassel. I don't know why, but I always just pictured him as black. But it turns out he's an older, kind of tweedy, white guy. It's interesting how your mind makes these assumptions from which it's difficult to disabuse yourself. For instance, for years I thought that chartreuse was a rosy pink color, only to discover that it was, in actuality, green. To this day, I have to look it up in order to ascertain to which color it refers.

Tabula Rasa

I can't believe it's been two years since I last wrote. Blogger looks completely different, and even my own perspective on blogging has changed. I've seen the damage that can be done to people's lives via careless internet pontificating, and I'd really like to avoid that fate. I've also had some unpleasant encounters with people who take the veil of anonymity the internet offers a little too seriously.

So, dear reader, (assuming that there are any of you left after my two year hiatus) I would like to state, for your edification and my protection, that "Unreliable Narrator" means exactly that. I'm clearly not the most reliable of writers, and there may be occasions when I'm again forced to abandon this site in favor of real life - although hopefully not for a similarly lengthy period of time. Also, in literary terms, an unreliable narrator is one whose version of the story is not entirely credible. Essentially, not everything I write about necessarily refers to actual events or people in my life.

Disclaimer duly noted. Now I can get back to the writing. I'm actually dorkily excited about this. There have been many times during the past several months when I was tempted to write about something I'd heard, or read, or encountered. I had other obligations to attend to then, but now with a little more free time, I'm ready to get back in the saddle again.

Home Sweet Home

Hi! If you followed me here from my previous blog, give me a few days to get this up and running.