The Village Idiots

Congratulations John, SaraAnne & family! Wow, moving to Chicago in November, huh? I hope your inaugural winter is a mild one. Will you be moving all your beer paraphernalia?

Please remember to provide address and other contact information later. I am so excited for you guys! It sounds like a good fit. *Big Hugs*

When we landed in O'hare it was 30 degrees. Get ready to bust out that super warm clothing. Sounds really exciting and challenging, John.

SaraAnne and I arrived in the windy city (though I haven't heard locals refer to it as that) this past Thursday. We left Richmond, VA Wednesday morning, which was probably good because I didn't really have time to mull over the elections. Our little convoy stopped for the night in Akron and drove on early Thursday morning.

We live in an apartment within walking distance of Lake Michigan and the church. We'll be leaving in a bit to lead our first worship service as the church's new pastors. SaraAnne will be doing the preaching.

I didn't bring my beer paraphernalia with me, because it mostly stayed in the basement in the parsonage in Newtown, and it got kind of nasty down there. So I'll have to buy new equipment anyway.

Someone told me Barak Obama lives near us, but I don't know where, exactly.

Congratulations Burgess family! Have both of you been hired by the church? How did the first worship service go? How large is your congregation. Inquiring minds want to know! ;-)

Both SaraAnne and I have been called to be the pastors of Ellis Avenue Church. The church is a small inner-city church. It's actually smaller than my former church. It is a diverse congregation in terms of race, economics, and education--probably a fair sampling of the community we are in. The worship style of the church is a traditional/liturgical approach with contemporary elements mixed in.

I thought our first worship service went well. SaraAnne preached, while I lead in some of the other worship aspects.

Barring death or anyone leaving the church, come June, perhaps May, our church family should increase by at least two.

Is SaraAnne having twins?!?

That's right. Who'd have thought that moving to a real city, taking new jobs, wouldn't be the biggest transition for the Burgess family. We are having twins.

You guys are nuts.

Yea! Congratulations!!! Please give SaraAnne my best. I get to be Aunty Penny . . . two times!

An Idiot's Thanksgiving in Chicago

We woke up yesterday morning to find snow on the ground. Snow? In November? This isn't supposed to be. They were calling for snow on the news, but people weren't rushing to the stores to buy emergency supplies--canned goods, bottled water, milk, bread, batteries. Snow in Chicago is a lot different from snow in Virginia. In Virginia, two inches of snow will close almost everything in town, but we weren't in Virginia anymore.

What looked to be a bad omen as I awoke that morning turned out to be nothing more than an ordinary day. Aside from getting the snow off the car and scraping all the ice off the windshield, it was like any other day. The roads were cleared, people were out doing what they'd normally be doing. We made our way to Rockefeller chapel at the University of Chicago, for an interfaith, community Thanksgiving service.

Thanksgiving dinner was uneventful and relatively stress free. For the first time in like eight years, I didn't have to cook a turkey. My contribution to the meal was fried won ton and sweet potato pie. We had a church-wide Thanksgiving dinner for people who were going to be in town for the holiday. It was a traditional Thanksgiving fare, minus the sushi, poke, local kine salad. There was no beer, but lots of wine, and our host, who is originally from KC, served me some of his sake.

Later that evening, I went to the Falcon Inn, a bar around the block from our apartment. The Falcon Inn is a real bar. The regulars wouldn't dream to refer to it as a pub. There's no food service, just drinks. The myriad of conversations going on are about politics, child-rearing, and of course, sports. This was my second time at the Falcon Inn, and I must have made an impression, because the bartender, Ray, bought me a beer, and proclaimed me a regular. He began telling everyone, "This is my man, John, he's a regular now," and then he exhorted everyone to treat me well. His announcement was greeted by cheers and welcome. It was kind of embarrassing, and kind of cool at the same time.

The bar sounds like Cheers!

John, sounds like you guys are settling well into your new digs. Have you found out where Barak Obama lives? He's actually "returning" to Hawai'i to do some stumping for the Dems.

Hmmm...the Falcon Inn sounds interesting. What a cool experience! I hope I can visit you (when there's no snow and ice!) and check it out.

We are surviving our inaugural winter in Chicago. We had about fourteen inches of snow over the weekend, and it hasn't been that bad (said the man who has parking near his building and doesn't have to dig his car out on the street).

The temperature these past few days has been in the high twenties, which sounds cold, and I guess it is, or at least I would have thought so a year ago, but it's actually pretty comfortable. I mean it's not like I can go out in shorts and short sleeves, but put on a down parka, gloves, boots, and it's almost quite balmy. Of course this is after experiencing a few days of single digit temperatures (not including wind chill). In my limited winter experience, I used to think cold was cold, and that once it got below freezing there really wasn't that much difference in temperature, say between 20 degrees and 30 degrees, or 10 and 15. I was wrong. I walked to the produce market one day, like I always do, and on my way there it was 7 degrees. On my way home, after making a few stops, the temperature had risen to 11, and it actually felt a lot warmer.

YO JB:
have you got a new email address? is it the one you've linked to in the comment above?

Mitchell,
I do have a new address, and it is linked to my VI comments.

You know you've pretty much acclimated to Chicago when you look at the weather forecast and think, "Oh good, it's going to be in the thirties today."

There are a lot of homeless in Chicago, quite a few in Hyde Park (the neighborhood we live in). A couple of months ago I started giving money to this one guy, not a lot, just a couple of dollars. His name is Melvin, and he usually stands outside of Blockbuster. At first I ignored him, or told him I didn't have anything and walked away quickly. But one very cold night, I would say it was freezing, but it's usually freezing, Melvin was standing at his spot, it was snowing, and the wind was blowing, and it hit me--that's hard work standing out their, asking for money while most people ignore you.

I can't help everyone, but maybe I can help one guy scrape together enough money to find a place to sleep for the night, and if not that, at least the amount I give him will be enough for him to ride the train. Melvin explained to me that when it gets cold he'll ride the train or the bus all night just to get out of the cold. So whenever I go to Blockbuster, which is often ever since I signed up for their movie pass thing, I'll give some money to Melvin. We usually talk for a while, mostly about his situation and homelessness in general, sometimes he'll ask about me. It's hard to say that we're friends, but Melvin's become more than just some homeless guy, and I've become more than just some guy who gives him money. I can't say I feel good about doing this or that I receive any satisfaction. In the long run, the little I give will not matter much.

Today I went to what I hope is one of many trips to Wrigley Field--caught an afternoon game between the Cubs and the Padres.

I was a little worried about getting to the park--this was my first time on the train in Chicago. The directions seemed easy enough, take the Metra blue line to the end of the line, transfer to the CTA red line to Addison--simple. Well, I got the first part easily enough, I just stayed on the train till it stopped, got off, and tried to find the CTA station. You would think an elevated train would be easy to find, just look up, and there it is. Only problem is the red line is the only line not elevated through downtown Chicago. After spending several minutes looking for an underground entrance to the terminal. I finally found my way by following Sosa, Garciapara, and Wood, to the Lake St terminal, which I thought was odd, Sosa having been traded to the O's, but there they were, in their white home jerseys with their names on the back.

It was kind of cool riding in a train full of enthusiastic Cubs' fans, and a very few, somewhat subdued Padres' supporters.

Wrigley was almost everything I imagined it to be. A ballpark practically unaffected by time--natural grass, no obscene jumbotron for video playback, non-existent advertisements on the outfield wall or behind the backstop, and best of all, a giant, green scoreboard hovering over centerfield. The scoreboard is so old, that there aren't even enough spaces for all the ongoing games. There's enough space for twenty four teams, twelve for the NL and twelve for that other league. There are actual people inside the scoreboard, watching the game and putting up tiles of numbers.

The only disappointment, besides the game (Cubs lost 1-0--it was a close game, but it wasn't very good. Neither team played really well. It's almost as if the Padres accidentally won the game), was that I so wanted the ivy to be a summertime green--maybe next time.

Hilarious, that part about following Sosa and Garciaparra. Took me a moment to figure out what you meant!

Oh. You are a lucky man. How much were a dog and a beer?

Mitchell,

I think the dog I got was $4--it was a grilled Nathan's all beef frank, prepared Chicago-style--served on a steamed poppy seed bun and topped with mustard, relish, chopped onion, two slices of tomatoes, a dill pickle spear, two small hot peppers, and celery salt.

I tried a Chicago style dog before, and wasn't crazy about it. I hoped a Wrigley dog would be different, but even against the backdrop of baseball, the Chicago style dog was lacking.

My basic hotdog philosophy is that the dog should be the center of attention, while the toppings should lend support in enhancing the flavor of the dog. The "extras" in a Chicago style dog, while not overpowering, combined together are put on par with the dog. Also, all the toppings make the bun go soggy, and I hate soggy bread.

The beer is Old Style, a Chicago brand, for 5.50 a pint.

Wrigley is awesome. I think you'd enjoy it. It's surprisingly intimate for a big league park, perhaps because it only seats 39,000. We were on the upper deck, midway down, between first and home, and even from that high up, the seats were pretty good.

Wow, it sounds great! You're going to take me to Wrigley when I go visit, right? ;-)

BTW, I like my hotdogs w/ a schmear of mustard (not the yucky yellow kind, but maybe whole grain?) and a smattering of relish. Maybe sauerkraut if it's good. But I agree with you that condiments should definitely not make the bun soggy.

If you put a water-resistant condiment on the bread, such as mayo or possibly mustard, the watery ingredients won't get into the bread so much. I'm a sauerkraut fiend, so I consider a [i]slightly[/i] soggy bun to be a small price to pay in exchange for some yummy kraut.

I agree that toppings should enhance the hot dog, but the more the better, in my book. I prefer mine with a little bit of mustard (yellow's fine; dijon's better), lots of grilled onions, some good cheese, lots of sauerkraut, and a decent amount of catsup. Yes, I know that's sacrilege, but it's my dog and if you don't like it, don't watch me eat it!

I have had a few Chicago-style dogs (in front of the Home Depot) and thought they were quite good; not five-dollars-a-dog good, but good nonetheless. The tomato was an interesting and unexpectedly positive touch. The pickle spears I wasn't so fond of.

Hmm, catsup on your hot dog, huh? I'd rather have yellow mustard.

Penny,
When you come to Chicago I'll take you to Wrigley--of course you usually have to get tickets a couple of weeks ahead.

As for ketchup (what the hell is catsup?)on a hotdog--Kekoa and Kanoa love it like that--They also dip their broccoli in ketchup, macaroni and cheese, peaches, they'd put ketchup on their oatmeal if I let them. But as Mitchell correctly points out, it's his hotdog.

I prefer my dog with mustard and sauerkraut, and maybe some onions. And while I enjoy an all beef dog, I'd rather have an Italian sausage with mustard, grilled onions and peppers.

Oh, another cool thing about Wrigley is that the 7th inning stretch is Take me out to the Ballgame, and not God Bless America, though I wonder if they'd sing both for a nationally televised game.

I didn't know ball parks were playing God Bless America during the 7th inning stretch. When did that start? Now that Honolulu doesn't house a AAA team anymore, I think the last game I attended was years ago when the Padres came down to play. I think I went to that game with Mitchell. I believe he was appalled because I was eating during the National Anthem, which I sort of did, but unintentionally!

I don't know if they sing God Bless America at all ballparks, but after 9/11/01, I've heard it when watching televised games, which only amounts to a handful of games since I don't have cable. It was sung during the playoffs and World Series. I took my brother to Camden Yards a couple of years ago, and they sang God Bless America. I even remember hearing it at a Richmond Braves (AAA) ballgame.