Urban Adventures

This photo, by Chicago Photographer Thomas Marlow, was the product of a messy day.

I took Anna downtown hoping to take her to free concerts, which were all supposed to be located in one park, but alas, I couldn't find any of them, and the the said park was GIGANTIC. We had not brought Anna's stroller, either. She had only the stroller for her lucky doll, named, Natalie (respectively).

It was humid. I was waddling and she was whining and when we finally got to the vistors center to ask about the concerts the clerk said, "Oh--those concerts are spread all over the city. And by the way, the summer is almost over. You've basically missed everything."

We truged over to "Silk Road" for a free glass-bead making demonstration. Anna got to hide in a kid-sized mongolian yurt. And I met Thomas Marlow, who is taking portraits of locals to adorn the tiles of a local L station. If you'll sit for him, he'll let you select a portrait and print it for you. So we picked this one, and I love it, although don't I seem a little lumpy? Anna tells me, "You don't look like a lump, you look like a mama!" I'm concerned that the line between the two might be very fine indeed.

The day Thomas took our photo he told me that he has already taken 300. He only has a mere 14,700 left to go. Somehow this made me feel a little bit better about the book I need to complete before Natalie (the breathing one) comes.

Anna and I then ate at a Turkish festival and then spent a lazy hour waiting for the free trolley. I was so tired and, um, lumpy, that I had to sit on the pavement. A kind man even stopped, pulled out his wallet and started to hand us some bills before he realized that I wasn't actually pan handling--just pregnant, and hot, weary from adjusting my expections as they grew and shrank and grew again.

What I'm learning slowly, about the City--and about parenting--is that the only way to enjoy the ride is to let go of preconcieved notions of how things will be (or should be). Only then can I embrace what actually is--which is of course, the only the only thing there is to embrace.