all the good ideas are already taken

yesterday was the long-awaited final phase of the integration of mb and my blogmate's stuff. in anticipation of this day, i had emotionally prepared myself for a solid day of lugging heavy, awkward pieces of furniture up many flights of stairs (i'm not that good a friend, by the way- there was a heavily subsidized mattress upgrade in it for me). as it turned out, there wasn't really that much lugging to be done, but boy was there a lot of driving! my day went something like: lakeview to hyde park to little village to wicker park to hyde park to lakeview to wicker park to hyde park to lakeview.

between one of the stops i sat in front of my house, daydreaming (ok, sleeping) in a borrowed pick-up truck with my hazards on and was jarred back into reality by a phone call from mb. "is your apartment on fire?" he asked, without the slightest bit of irony. i looked up at my building, and back into space, and back up at my building, wondering if 1) i wasn't actually in front of my building or 2) if mb was making some sort of joke referencing something that i didn't get. what i didn't manage to do, as i surveyed my surroundings, was look directly behind me at the billowing smoke pouring out of what turned out to be the dominick's (local grocery store) down the street.

first of all, good riddance. it was a crappy grocery store and kind of an eye-sore and i'm not sorry to see it go. now that space is free to become a nice (but not too nice), laid-back bar with a big patio and nightly drink specials that include $3 bloody mary's (maries?) at least twice a week.

unable to resist the urge to rubber-neck, i made a point to walk past the wreckage on my way to the gym today (what possessed me to make my debut back at the gym after a two week hiatus the day after moving furniture i couldn't say). apparently when dominick's goes out, it goes out in style... i heard something on the news this morning about a giant fire ball, and from charred carcass of what was once a building, i believe it.

more astonishing than the actual rubble was the crowd of people that were shameless stopped on the street watching the demolition crews go at it. i felt compelled to keep walking, contenting myself with a limited view, but everyone else just gawked. i don't why i was so impressed by the throng of onlookers- as far as i know it's not rude to stare at a building...

but as i forced myself to look in the other direction i noticed that the bar across the street had its patio full of people who sat there with their pitchers of beer, watching the wrecking ball with a zeal i thought was only reserved for cubs games and american idol.

so while i think it's a little tacky to stand there on the street and stare at a burned-down grocery store, my only objection to the organized tailgating that's going on is that i didn't think of it first.