#269
Brothers gotta hug, dogs gotta be drugged, shop secondhand to feel...smug
Chicago was great. Oasis was great! My husband is the Certified Superfan™ but I enjoyed it a lot. If nothing else, we learned that men really will blow up a world-famous band, not speak for 15 years, constantly slag each other off in public, and then reunite for a multibillion-dollar tour instead of just going to therapy. As for whether the truce is real or not, we’ll never actually know, but:
They seem to have reached some kind of understanding. Nature is healing?
I spotted one celebrity in Chicago (other than the ones we paid to see on a stage), and it was this guy. He’s 62?!! Drop the skincare routine in my DMs!
We drove home very tired on Friday and enjoyed another three days off for the holiday weekend, in which the weather was almost completely perfect. I made a good fire on Saturday evening and even roasted a marshmallow, which I ate smashed between two halves of a chocolate chip cookie because I can do whatever I want.
The only annoyance of the weekend was the neighborhood block party, which I suppose is fine other than the fact that it always takes place on Labor Day weekend. Does that seem like…the best time…to block off four streets? And hold a party that you spend the summer begging people to RSVP for? To me it seems really dumb but apparently it is an immutable law of the universe.
Also, I assume because we were out of town and therefore out of our routine for a few days, I forgot to give the littlest dog her night drugs on both Saturday and Sunday. I thought she was just being kind of a dick all night long both nights, but in fact, it was I who was the dick. She got properly medicated on Monday night and, entirely predictably, slept like one of god’s own angels.
I read this story (gift link) about how parents of college-age kids have taken over their dorm decor with great interest. I thought about the stuff I took to college: a footlocker, milk crates, and some posters. One year i had a Disney’s Aladdin bedspread and sheets, I think because I thought they were funny? (I was very cool.)
Our “decor” was mostly Absolut Vodka ads and those Gap khakis ads torn out of magazines. Also, some kind of booze bottle with one of those melty candles stuck in, even though we weren’t supposed to have booze or candles in the dorms. I don’t think we even “decorated” the apartment I lived in my senior year: it was just the hand-me-down couch from my parents’ house and two old waiting room chairs from my roommate’s dad’s dentist office. My bedroom curtains were twin sheets, and I used those “curtains” well into my 30s (okay, that part is maybe a little embarrassing). Anyway, shit sure has changed!
I’ve learned that it is Secondhand September, in which one endeavors to buy only secondhand clothing (and I suppose anything else you can think of). It just so happened that I needed to replace the Nike Tanjuns I took to Paris, which I think were finally finished off by the Oasis concert and wandering around the West Loop while we waited for a table at Au Cheval (worth it). Imagine my delight when I spotted a pair of brand-new running shoes, size 8.5, in the window of the church thrift store at the end of my street. Consider my soul cleansed and purified by my higher power (off-price shoes).
On the topic of bargains, one thing that did not bring me joy in Chicago was visiting the Michigan Avenue Marshalls location. One of the thrills of shopping in such an oversaturated tourist destination was having access to a “good” Marshalls and of course Filene’s Basement (RIP). I regret to inform you this Marshalls is no longer any good at all? Perhaps this is true of Marshalls everywhere, I have no idea, but the shoe section was depressing and did not inspire me to press on. Is this part of the enshittification of everything?
There are a lot of good TV shows coming back: Slow Horses, Only Murders in the Building, the Downton movie (I’m counting it), and Bakeoff to name but a few. But I wonder if you’ve been watching Platonic? I would watch Rose Byrne read the telephone book, to be honest, but I truly do love the show and the central friendship. Also, Vinny Thomas is in it!
My birthday is this weekend. I will be 52, which actually does make me want to throw up a little. But I feel pretty good! I recently bought myself a kettlebell and am enjoying learning to swing it around and heave it up and down so I can climb stairs and tie my shoes well into my 80s, should I be that fortunate.
To celebrate I think we will have dinner somewhere and go see the Downton movie, and then next week we are going to see Pulp in Detroit to officially wrap up The Summer of 90s Bands. My nostalgia levels will be CRITICAL and I will be THRIVING.