About 2:15 p.m. on the west side of chicago on madison ave. i was standing outside this italian ice stand with a mentally questionable vendor today, (also they didn’t take credit cards leaving me really thirsty) and I felt something clasp onto one of my fingers…. I looked down and this little afro-american boy not more than 3 years with food smeared on his face was staring up at me with a look, not of curiousity, but of comfort … like what he was doing was completely normal. I said “hey buddy” to which he just kept staring as if he expected me to lead him somewhere…at which point his mother (who was about 3 feet to my right) noticed and yelled at him. I forget his name but it struck me as noticeably African-American sounding. He walked away…not really towards his mother but straight on ahead. I felt some sort of racial tension with the mother, who I failed to initiate any dialogue with…my fault or hers I’m not sure. I looked her direction and half cracked a smile … and I didn’t feel much warmth. This was a part of the city where the reporter I was with was the only other caucasian person I could see … which I didn’t really care about, but it’s not a fact that easily escapes your head at the moment. The kids I was waiting for left the store with multi-colored suits in the window and we were on our way. I’m not sure if the little boy kept walking, or if he turned around after about 10 feet.

About 10 pm. on the West side of Aurora last night I saw a kid skateboarding by himself near a set of stairs and decided I had a minute and it had been too long for me so I grabbed my board out of the trunk and ollied a curb on my way to spot. I ended up not skating so much as answering questions posed to me by this kid, who turned out to be a drop-out (freshly so at 16 yrs) of the same school’s property he was skating on. I didn’t feel like lecturing anyone and like he said “school’s not for everyone” ( I believe that college isn’t for everyone, but not finishing high school is shooting yourself in the foot). The kid seemed told me I was the first 23 yr. old who still skated that he had met. Yeah … I’m usually that old guy on the rare occasion I go to the skatepark, but whatever. His name was Clint and he was hoping for a construction job that his girlfriend’s dad was supposed to hook him up with sometime soon. The look in his eyes suggested he wasn’t too thrilled at the prospect. I asked what he did if he didn’t go to school to which he vaguely answered that he sort of worked sometimes and mostly just skated and hung out. I was hoping I left him the impression that he should go back to school, but refusing to say anything suggesting that other than talking about the fact that I kept up skating through college, I would guess things won’t go that way.

About 7:45 pm today I was out running like the spoiled kid I am with my i-pod and it looked like rain. I hoped it wouldn’t rain and ruin my I-pod and stop the stream of Ratatat filling my head. After about 5 miles and some shin splints due to me grabbing a really worn out pair of shoes, my house was just around the corner. The skies opened up (not completely) just enough to cool me down and not have to worry about broken electronics that cost a bit too much to replace. That seemed to be a metaphor…. the rain came at the perfect time to cool things down. But I’m not sure what that suggests.

There’s a lot more that happened but the rain just stopped.