city life

this past friday, will and i invited our friends corey and libby over for some dinner, wine and rock band. it was a good time. we all took turns drumming, singing and playing the guitar. we'll just need to buy that extra bass guitar so that four of us can play at a time. will and i can't wait for his friend al (who introduced us to rock band) to return from vacation in israel so he can see how we've improved. it's pretty drastic.

saturday we drove to the milwaukee area to visit the other molly (will's sister). it's always nice to see her, the kids and john. on paper the drive isn't bad, but somehow it always ends up twice as long due to traffic, weather, etc. getting out of the city of chicago alone is enough to drive us both crazy. i'd rather have every hair plucked out of my head one by one. whatever. it's all a part of living in such a crazy place. where else can you be walking home from the wiener's circle (a hot dog place) and see something so fitting and .. ironic? no, wrong word. coincidental .. and at the same time disgusting as what i saw. i'm sure you know exactly what i'm talking about.

my friend pat, a fellow music ed. major and friend from high school, is going to try to apply for a job with chicago public schools for this fall. he's been asking me what he should do, so i'm being sure to tell him about every test he has to take (or retake), every application he has to fill out, and the best places to look for vacancies. i wish i'd had someone to tell me those things, but i'm happy to be the one to make things easier for him. it makes me realize how much further i've come than i thought. it's easy to feel clueless in such a big city, even after you've learned some things, because there's so much to know. i've paved the way for pat, and hopefully it will be easier for him because of my experiences. i hope he finds a job.

my middle schoolers are finally finishing west side story. while discussing racism and discrimination, i asked them if they think things are better. they said "yes, but they're not perfect." they know better than i do. i believe that thankfully it's much more unacceptable to say and do some of the things they could say and do in 1950s new york city, but neighborhoods --especially in the cities -- are still monochromatic. in chicago, the north east side and downtown are perhaps the most diverse areas, although you see mostly white. anything south of downtown seems to be pretty solid black and and anywhere west of wicker park is home to nearly all hispanic families. i guess it just feels easier to live around people who look just like you, but who will start the change? when are we going to mix it up?

a 7th grade boy today made a really good point when i asked about the roles of society versus your own free will in becoming who you become (violent, peaceful, uneducated, intellectual, rich, poor, etc.) and he said this:

"if you want to change things you have to start out by being an outsider. but some people are afraid to be an outsider, they just want to go with the rest of the group. but you have to be an outsider first if you want to get away from your fate and be who you want to be."