A common desire...

This week is starting on a good note, mainly because it started in an apartment with running water. The week ended without running water due to the storms which Chicago saw on Thursday but in an attempt to further expand the use of cliches in this collection of essays, there was a definite silver lining in the storm clouds. I realized that even an apartment without water is still a pretty good place to call home.

High points of not having running water for three nights:
-An excuse not to do dishes
-A reminder that I always have a place to crash away from home
-The pudding I ate before I fell asleep, pudding I bought at the store on the way to my old friend Nat's house, pudding I wouldn't have bought had I not made the walk
-When the water finally came back on I had spent so much time wanting and hoping it would come back I finally gave up and sort of forgot about it and slmost gotten used to it
-A return to the futon

The power in my actual apartment didn't go out, the apartments are all connected to a back up generator but the hallways and lobby and streetlights were all dark. I'm not sure why/how this affected the water pipes but since water is included in my monthly rent I wasn't sure where to direct my questions. But I had power, I couldn't complain too much. Lots of people had nothing. On the walk home from work on Thursday the majority of the storm had passed, at least enough that I could walk through the streets and get an eye full of what had happened. The rain had stopped and all that was let was a little wind and a lot of dark buildings. I walked through the Rush & Division area of downtown and to my surprise a lot of bars in this area where still open. They had candles on all the tables and the atmosphere was very quiet and comfortable, a reminder that storms are just one more thing Midwesterners deal with. I don't think any tornadoes touched down in the city but there was a watch all afternoon, but once the rain stopped and the wind calmed life moved on. People weren't about to let the weather get in the way of their plans, including drinking.

The hallways of my building were lit by floodlights all attached to generators which cast crazy and heavy shadows and when mixed with the already old look of the former hotel I live in, a weird Escape From New York vibe was created. I discovered the lack of water at about 10:30pm, too late to find or want to find a place to crash, I was tired so I just went to bed without being able to brush my teeth or even wash my hands. I woke up and packed a tooth brush in my bag, threw on some deodorant, cologne and a fresh shirt and was off to work. The bus stop was full of the same, not once did I feel dirty knowing how many of the people in my neighborhood were going through the same thing. Once I got downtown I expected to see that scene in Batman where the Joker has contaminated all the heath and beauty products and the news casters look like hell during the evening broadcast, and instead it looked like it always does. Nothing looked different. The previous days weather had been near catastrophic and here was the same crowd of people returning to work, time marching on.

That Friday night I was still without water and two days without showering was too much, so I loaded an old snowboard backpack with clothes and my dop kit and then everything came full circle as I walked through Wrigleyville to my old address, my first address, the address with the futon on which I crashed when I first landed in Chicago last October. It is a common desire to want to go home, everyone feels it at some point. But with all the crap and headaches brought by the storm it brought one more reminder that things could be worse. It was a lucid feeling of comfort caused maybe by the contrast of a quiet night after a crazy storm, or maybe it was just the pudding.