chicagoguy14.wordpress.com
Sequel in Paris | Chicago Guy
https://chicagoguy14.wordpress.com/2015/03/21/sequel-in-paris
Laquo; Like an Ending. My Mom’s Music. So I sit down next to her. Shoulder to shoulder. Lightly grazing thighs with the rumble and clank of the train on down to the center of the city. She looks up from the phone. I am remembering your smile. Perhaps, she sees me and wonders about a grandfather she never knew as we touch shoulders. What’s the old man smiling about? At which point, you looked over with only enough interest to smirk, That was deep. Being pretty good with the more primal of life’s needs, I ...
chicagoguy14.wordpress.com
A Life of Caring | Chicago Guy
https://chicagoguy14.wordpress.com/2015/05/10/a-life-of-caring
Did You Fix The Hole In The Ocean Yet? Ronnie Gilbert’s Smiling Power. A Life of Caring. From “Finding Work When There Are No Jobs”. An Aunt’s Day Story. Sometimes in the comforting grey late summer light that holds the Chicago Loop in a subdued humid hum of pure power; I can feel the presence of my grandfather, Frank J. Dowd. Gone since I was just a kid. A red faced, weary knowing smile, wisps of white hair, round and good to his grandson, suspender-popping Irishman. My Grandfather steps back, with a wi...
gohomeandaway.wordpress.com
RHINE VALLEY: 4 PIT STOPS (But None at a Castle) | Home & Away
https://gohomeandaway.wordpress.com/2015/08/14/rhine-valley-4-pit-stops-but-none-at-a-castle
Narrating the double-expat experience, one idiosyncrasy at a time. RHINE VALLEY: 4 PIT STOPS (But None at a Castle). August 14, 2015. While a boat cruise is unmatched when it comes to taking in the beautiful curves of the Rhine River. Gorge, the main advantage of touring the Rhine Valley by car is that it gives you a chance to explore the area in much greater detail. And there is so much to explore! It is a thousand years old with a population of 10 thousand people; it is located just over 30 minutes awa...
gohomeandaway.wordpress.com
Travel Dreams Come True: TWO DAYS IN THE RHINE VALLEY | Home & Away
https://gohomeandaway.wordpress.com/2015/08/13/travel-dreams-come-true-two-days-in-the-rhine-valley
Narrating the double-expat experience, one idiosyncrasy at a time. Travel Dreams Come True: TWO DAYS IN THE RHINE VALLEY. August 13, 2015. My college boyfriend had three crushes: Asian girls with giant racks, me (not Asian, no giant anything to speak of) and Germany. I could never understand that third one: for me, Germany was not country to be visited. It wasn’t even a place — but a concept. So when College Boyfriend raved about German food, landscape and castles, I thought he was a bit mad. Gorgeous na...
gohomeandaway.wordpress.com
ROTHENBURG, the Most German of German Towns | Home & Away
https://gohomeandaway.wordpress.com/2015/07/29/rothenburg-the-most-german-of-german-towns
Narrating the double-expat experience, one idiosyncrasy at a time. ROTHENBURG, the Most German of German Towns. July 29, 2015. Do you remember how I thought that Tallinn was the most whimsical place ever. Well, Tallinn has nothing on Rothenburg, which should be in the running for the title of Real Life Town That Looks the Most like It Just Dropped Out of a Disney Fairy Tale. Rothenburg is known for two things: being really beautiful and really German. I wanted to take photos of LITERALLY every single bui...
chicagoguy14.wordpress.com
Like Summer | Chicago Guy
https://chicagoguy14.wordpress.com/2015/02/04/like-summer
Laquo; The Night Ernie Banks Died. Because when you smiled like spun golden daybreak, planted your palms on your hips and said I play a bimbo on TV! There had to be a place to tell the story. It was July. Blisteringly hot on the Chicago Lakefront. This was a couple of summers after The Blues Brothers was shot, reviving Chicago as a movie making location. Even movies that would someday be put on the shelf. The really funny part, though, was that every time you said you really don’t know who I am? Blondie’...
chicagoguy14.wordpress.com
Resurrection Chicken Soup | Chicago Guy
https://chicagoguy14.wordpress.com/2015/04/04/resurrection-chicken-soup
Laquo; Where You There? Under Nelson Algren’s Giant Magnet. Does the golden promise smell of chicken soup wafting up from the street to your third floor landing still linger through the years? Can that hand delivered memory smell still come streaming back now that your old place on Second Avenue in Manhattan has been blown to kingdom come? Can the smell of chicken soup come back? Pounded them into dust. Again for the girl? I nod and look down. I would take the soup and crackers in the brown paper bag, tr...
chicagoguy14.wordpress.com
Where You There? | Chicago Guy
https://chicagoguy14.wordpress.com/2015/04/03/where-you-there
Laquo; My Mom’s Music. And the blood burbled out. He dropped down hard head. Smacked the soot stained sidewalk. Shook loose slammed beneath the city street throng. I did not see the moment. But I heard the sound of bone on concrete. Sprawling arms convulse then still. Under brutal baked and cruel city sun. There might not be tomorrow. And the blood burbled out. While the circles of cell phones rose to attention. Then a slow motion time staccato crowd moan. Then finally the siren. Then came the siren.
chicagoguy14.wordpress.com
Daddy? Did You Fix The Hole In The Ocean Yet? | Chicago Guy
https://chicagoguy14.wordpress.com/2015/04/21/daddy-did-you-fix-the-hole-in-the-ocean-yet
Laquo; Under Nelson Algren’s Giant Magnet. A Life of Caring. Did You Fix The Hole In The Ocean Yet? I remember one of the Obama kids being quoted, Daddy, did you fix the hole in the ocean yet? Then I remembered Teresa,. And as the oil kept killing the birds and the oysters and the shrimp and the souls of the fisherman, as it kept spurting and roaring and the fires kept burning, I wondered if Teresa, a love from so long ago, had somehow gone back to Gulfport. Had she gone back to help? And it bought to mi...
chicagoguy14.wordpress.com
Under Nelson Algren’s Giant Magnet | Chicago Guy
https://chicagoguy14.wordpress.com/2015/04/15/under-nelson-algrens-giant-magnet
Laquo; Resurrection Chicken Soup. Did You Fix The Hole In The Ocean Yet? Under Nelson Algren’s Giant Magnet. Dry mouth. No water after midnight. That’s the rule. But the appointment is early, 7:00 am, sun just coming over the morning concrete ribbon of the Kennedy expressway streaming into downtown Chicago over the cement shoulder of what used to be 1528 Wabansia, where Nelson Algren used to love Simone DeBeauvoir. But as a pal said today, there is a reason they call it practicing medicine. 2 Responses t...
