winter

well, it's winter in chicago. tom warned me it wasn't supposed to get above freezing today, so i bundled up. there were major train delays, and i was 30 min. late to work. while i was waiting, i quoted the first line of grace livingston hill's astra to myself, "it had started to snow in a slow, desultury way, not as if it really meant anything by it." it continued to snow all day, but the wind blows fiercely, here in chicago, and so it rarely got the chance to stick before being blown on. this morning ch got his packing scicence degree out and constructed fancy box contraptions to deliver things so they wouldn't get smashed in the wind. (never EVER wrap, say, a dozen roses in celophane and expect the wind to pick up that huge sail! just let it blow through.) he took a half day to curl up with his cat, and left me in the dungeon of the sears tower with no windows, only weather reports from bundled up customers.
when i left work i just missed a purple line, and waited shivering on the platform, breathing through leah's scarf and wishing my hat was finished (i'm so close! one sleeve left!) took it 2 stops to merchandise mart, where i wandered in the wind and snow trying to find office depot. (only walked 1 block out of my way before calling ch, who's about as useful in chicago as rachel is in philly. although ch may be more useful, as i don't know if rachel gives restaurant recomendations or public art tours.) was dying to find something else to do after exchanging my ink to stay inside the warm office depot, but my brain was frozen and i couldn't think of anything. stupid- so i still haven't scanned my newest renderings in, yet. the damn thing will be made before i even show y'all the choices i had. anyway, too cold for me to wait on an el platform again, so i walked to the red line. i was wearing my fuzzy frog socks (no, not the pair of frog socks l gave me for my birthday, my OTHER pair of frog socks i got for my birthday...) inside my chucks, which were not nearly warm enough. it's definately time to put away the chucks till spring and become an exclusively docs girl.
came home, radiators were hissing, took off the chucks, put on the houseshoes, put the socks on the radiator. checked email, went back to the socks. nice. i love radiators. so much. i just wish they were warmer. and the windows in the kitchen didn't rattle. i'm thinking of making thick, heavy, velvet curtains for them. keep out the gangway lights, keep out the cold. and the back door rattles. everything rattles, actually. it's windy in chicago.