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k2daisyI got my Christmas booth set up yesterday. Moving into a new booth is like moving into dorm rooms in college; it's not quite the exhaustion of moving an entire house, but it is building one room from nothing into something lovely and inviting. But since I am no longer 19-20 years old, the physical exhaustion is overwhelming.
The good news is I got it done enough so I could post pics and customers can freely shop for all kinds of Christmas goodies. I still have a few boxes of inventory to bring in, but it doesn't look half-empty without them. Heck, the booth is going to be open for 3 months, I can bring that stuff in as other items sell.
My cousin and her husband are coming in for the weekend, their first visit to Chicago. They live outside Atlanta, and she and I have gotten pretty close since my dad died. She was there when Mom (her Auntie Honey) died, and she has actually already been here since she drove up with me and Molly when we finally moved back from Florida. But this is their first trip to see us. We were talking about going downtown on Saturday -- do the architecture boat tour, go to the Bean, etc.
But now that Chicago is a police state, with fucking Border Patrol on goddamn boats up and down the river, and groups of masked ICE thugs roaming downtown and plucking up brown families from tourist spots (not to mention the raids on homeless shelters and in one case using fucking BLACK HAWK HELICOPTERS to raid and essentially destroy an apartment building in the middle of the night), well...I don't know that I want to go there this weekend. I don't think my heart could handle seeing my city being invaded this way. I bounce between fury and grief just thinking about it.
I know I have lived in the suburbs for 25+ years, but Chicago is still MY city. I worked there for decades, in the Loop, in museums, in hospitals in good neighborhoods and bad. I have volunteered for 8 years for an organization of primary care clinics all over the North side. Like we used to say in regards to soap operas, I have "done my time" to own my claim to Chicago.
My cousin and her husband are staunch conservatives. We have had several thoughtful conversations about politics and policy (and freaking Trump, who embarrasses them even though they voted for him). I know her first thought isn't "they deserve this, they are illegal, get them out", it's for me and how I will feel about it. I will talk to her tonight and see if they still want to go downtown this weekend since I am sure this is on Fox or whatever they watch. Who knows, maybe they won't want to go for safety reasons. I know I am not afraid for myself; a frumpy middle-aged white lady isn't their target. Yet.
The good news is I got it done enough so I could post pics and customers can freely shop for all kinds of Christmas goodies. I still have a few boxes of inventory to bring in, but it doesn't look half-empty without them. Heck, the booth is going to be open for 3 months, I can bring that stuff in as other items sell.
My cousin and her husband are coming in for the weekend, their first visit to Chicago. They live outside Atlanta, and she and I have gotten pretty close since my dad died. She was there when Mom (her Auntie Honey) died, and she has actually already been here since she drove up with me and Molly when we finally moved back from Florida. But this is their first trip to see us. We were talking about going downtown on Saturday -- do the architecture boat tour, go to the Bean, etc.
But now that Chicago is a police state, with fucking Border Patrol on goddamn boats up and down the river, and groups of masked ICE thugs roaming downtown and plucking up brown families from tourist spots (not to mention the raids on homeless shelters and in one case using fucking BLACK HAWK HELICOPTERS to raid and essentially destroy an apartment building in the middle of the night), well...I don't know that I want to go there this weekend. I don't think my heart could handle seeing my city being invaded this way. I bounce between fury and grief just thinking about it.
I know I have lived in the suburbs for 25+ years, but Chicago is still MY city. I worked there for decades, in the Loop, in museums, in hospitals in good neighborhoods and bad. I have volunteered for 8 years for an organization of primary care clinics all over the North side. Like we used to say in regards to soap operas, I have "done my time" to own my claim to Chicago.
My cousin and her husband are staunch conservatives. We have had several thoughtful conversations about politics and policy (and freaking Trump, who embarrasses them even though they voted for him). I know her first thought isn't "they deserve this, they are illegal, get them out", it's for me and how I will feel about it. I will talk to her tonight and see if they still want to go downtown this weekend since I am sure this is on Fox or whatever they watch. Who knows, maybe they won't want to go for safety reasons. I know I am not afraid for myself; a frumpy middle-aged white lady isn't their target. Yet.