Flugtag
9.6.2008

Straight Up Now by Paula Abdul was blasting over the loudspeakers of North Beach as Kelly, Pat, Ben, and I sifted our feet through the sand toward the spectacle we were attending. Kelly & I knew almost every word to this song and we suddenly found ourselves alone together in our private performance of dance & singing. "I used to think that maybe I would get married and I would spend countless hours lip syncing and choreographing stupid dances with my husband. That's how I wanted to spend winter Saturday nights," I admitted. Kelly laughed, she is an empathetic soul of someone who just wants to revel in silliness 95% of the day.


"I feel that way too," she told me. "But now I am realizing that some of those really neat things I thought I would do in marriage- like silly dances and writing morbid songs about chickens- doesn't really appeal to most boys." And I guess that's why we have each other- cameras with telephoto lens' strapped around our neck, hooting & hollering & making up songs all the while.


We attended Flugtag this afternoon at North Beach with sixty to eighty thousand other bodies. Flugtag is an event where people construct planes (please use the definition of plane loosely here) and then run their craft over a ramp into Lake Michigan. The prize is awarded to the plane that flies the furthest- the fun part is the creativity. Mushrooms, flying saucers, and mustaches bound off the ramp and straight into the water with most flying no more than 40 feet. We made our way to the edge of land with a perfect view of the ramp & the most jolly fellow Chicago-ans who shared a very tight space with us. Afterward, the four of us wandered Chicago, finding ourselves suddenly facing a lion (in Lincoln Park Zoo) and then a bride who jiggled her breast to all those who looked at her. "I love Chicago," Kelly sighed.



Totally in love with:

Heroes Season Two : I find this show to be absolutely amazing & creative & terrifying. Perhaps topping the favorites list with Gilmore Girls, Sopranos, & Carnivale.


"At any given moment you have the power to say: this is not how the story is going to end."

the journals