chicago at night.

This weekend was interesting, a bit.

Friday night Upekha and I went downtown to Kay's apartment on Michigan Avenue and met her highly exuberant friends. After several hours of steadily increasing exuberance, we left and searched endlessly (well, for about 20 minutes) for a #6 bus stop. It was a magical search, though, as we came across no less than SIX rabbits. The first one was exciting, caused us to point gleefully and appreciate the unlikely brush with the animal kingdom. The second rabbit was just crazy - two rabbits in downtown Chicago? I mean, sure, this was a park.. thing, such that there were bushes and grasses and trees, but where did they come from? Did they, like us, ride the el trains? Were they sightseeing? Were they sailing rabbits, castaways near enough to the coast to swim to shore? Can rabbits swim?

By the third rabbit we weren't surprised anymore, and the next three were almost to be expected. It was something of a rabbit infestation, but a charming one.

I saw a sizeable rat leaping about on a garbage can, which was thrilling as I'd never seen a rat in public before (except in a pet store cage). I acquired a mutilated green-and-white polka-dotted umbrella, which might be in Luis's room. We sat across from a strange, spontaneously laughing man on the bus. It was altogether a magical night.

Saturday was uneventful and unproductive, but that night Upekha, Zach and I once again took the 6 downtown to watch a movie. We went for Borat, but because it was sold out ended up seeing Stranger Than Fiction, which I enjoyed. It left me feeling warm and content, and afterward we walked around for a while - hoping to go to a chocolate cafe, but it was closed.

We walked to Grant Park, hoping Buckingham Fountain would be on, such that we could admire the prettiness of the lights and the water and the city lights. It was off, but that was okay, because Grant Park is pretty and deserted at night, and we saw four more rabbits and two more rats.

That makes ten rabbits, three rats total. Which is more wildlife than I ever got to see back home.

I spent all of today (not really an exaggeration) reading "The Arabian Nights", deducing that I'm a slow (thorough?) reader. I have that uncomfortable, sterile feeling so unavoidably produced by sitting in my room all day reading what I must get read.

But the ten rabbits make all things worthwhile.