excited to start something new, a new job in this case, at the newberry (i did not even plan that. but i like it.) most definitely on the list of prettiest places i’ve ever worked.
this time a year ago, i ended up in massachusetts to hug a friend before her mother’s sudden funeral. and in spite of the roller-coaster of this past year (and it has been one for her), lucy still believes that the present can be amazing. her positivity and optimism are infectious. love you, L.
“We are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind’s door at 4am of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends. We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget.” - Joan Didion.
Art Friday. After meeting a friend for lunch, wandered around the Art Institute for the first time in a long time. Became uncomfortable in the fashion exhibit, annoyed in the Lichtenstein show, and then narrowly escaped a meltdown in the photography gallery. Seeing the dept where E worked a few months ago. Still not sure if I actually hated all the art I saw, or if grief was just getting in my way. It happens. Whatever.
Walked up to the MCA, desperately hoping to find something visual that I enjoyed less I change my entire career path, and I was blown away by the Rashid Johnson show. I also enjoyed the 80s show (though, lets be honest, my favorite part of the 80s exhibit might be that name. “This Will Have Been”… ugh its such a good title.) But Rashid Johnson. Definitely going on my top-five-favorite-shows-ever list. And Shiloh helped work on it! I can’t wait to pick her brain. Serious. Go. See. It.
“In any war story, but especially a true one, it’s difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen. What seems to happen becomes its own happening and has to be told that way. The angles of vision are skewed. When a booby trap explodes, you close your eyes and duck and float outside yourself. .. The pictures get jumbled, you tend to miss a lot. And then afterward, when you go to tell about it, there is always that surreal seemingness, which makes the story seem untrue, but which in fact represents the hard and exact truth as it seemed.” Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried
Ramón Miranda Beltrán, Practical People and Practical Ideals, 2011
To the Chicago Police Department, and everyone they intimidated, threatened, attacked, or arrested yesterday.
