If only the city were so creative...

It is a beautiful day in Chicago right now. The sun is out and it is actually producing warmth for the first time in weeks. My iGoogle homepage tells me it is 68 degrees out. All in all, simply wonderful.

I decided to celebrate this wonderfullness by spending the second half of my lunch hour down at Millennium Park. On the North end of the park is a fountain, apparently in the Wrigley Square and Millennium Monument area (that's a mouthful of a title!) and that is where I found myself an empty bench and proceeded to finish my book in the much missed sunshine.

I ended up finishing the comic before my lunch was done so I spent the remainder of my time gazing idly around the park. I wasn't doing a hard-core people study, which I often love to do to occupy my time and brain, more just lazily cruising over the surroundings with my eyes. It was halfway through this cruise that I saw a family in front of me that grabbed my attention.

What I can only guess was a father figure was running around the empty fountain chasing two 5 year old looking girls who were giggling hysterically. The fountain turned off for the season became the perfect ring for the kids to run and run but never really get out of sight of the parental units. Like a human version of a hamster wheel. The low lying wall also provided excellent "wall-walking" for these kids and the varying heights helped with the dramatic feeling of the chase taking place. There was also the added bonus of being able to hide just outside/inside the ring (depending on where dad was) and jump up to surprise the other party. All in all these kids were having a great time.

As I watched them giggle in the way only a 5 year old who hasn't seen the world yet still can, I thought how great it was that this family had found a way to take one of the many expensive city adornments and put it to great use during an off season. I thought how much could we save as a city if we started paying attention to creating things that could be functional year round, if instead of filling my alley with constantly changing flower planters (shucks Daley, thems flowers sure is pretty out there in my smoking alley, thanks!) maybe put that money into our public transit system so we don't have to hike fares again. I can't speak for everyone but I personally could do without the 4 planters directly out back my building when I smoke if it meant a faster, cheaper, cleaner ride to work each day.

Moral of the story? Can I fix Chicago's monetary and political woes? Of course not. But I can say if you are reading this today and you live in Chicago, go outside! And if you live in Chicago and have small children now you have a new place to let them run rampant and smile if you ever find yourself downtown on a warm fall day.

Free is the Magic Number

Ultimately, what it comes down to is that I just simply have too much stuff. I am a classic pack rat, and have an inability to ever throw anything away. Ever. It's something I have dealt with my entire life, and really haven't put that much energy into trying to change so don't feel bad for me when I gripe about stumbling over things or not being able to find things. A while ago I came up with the brilliant idea to try and start selling all these extra things I have - clothes, movies, furniture. I even made a few attempts to craigslist various items all with no luck. But again, I didn't put too much work into it so again, don't feel bad for me.

But recently I got to a tipping point with one specific item. The Day Bed. I got the day bed from a friend when I was living in a studio and it served me quite well in my tiny home. Then I moved to a 1 bedroom and bought myself a big girl bed and moved the day bed into couch status. Then I was gifted a couch. This left the poor day bed relegated to "in the way" status and I took it down. Problem was that at the time the only space I had to store it was up against my bedroom wall. And it lived there for months. It lived there through multiple attempts (half hearted as they were) to sell it online and in person. It lived there as I consistently stubbed my toes on it and banged my knees against it. And finally a few weeks ago I decided it just couldn't live there anymore.

So I posted it once again on the never ending sales section of Craigslist. But this time I thought I'd try a new track. This time I posted it as "FREE".

Saturday night at 8:00 I tossed out the ad with a few cell phone picks and stated that it would be great if I could get it outta my place by the end of the weekend. Saturday night at 8:10 I took the ad down and started replying to the 15 messages I had already received.

Call one: Interested party no longer interested.
Call two:
Me: Is Martha there?
Other end of phone: No, can I take a message?
Me: She just replied to an ad I posted on Craigslist about a bed...
Other end of line: She just went to store, should be back soon.
Me: Okay I'll call back in 20 minutes or so.

15 minutes later, my phone rings and it's Martha hoping I still have the bed. A few quick directions and they were at my place within the hour.

9:30 Saturday night, bed gone. I have found my bedroom once again restored to it's rightful size and my are toes blissfully happy to have found their arch nemesis whisked away. And somewhere out there in Chicago is a very happy little girl who now has a bed all to herself.

Could I have used the $50 or so bucks I could have made selling it? Yes. Did giving it away to a very excited family make me feel way better than $50 ever could have? You bet.

Marketing Fail

No Hotwire, you actually have nothing I want. Thanks for trying.

And the top 5 are...

According to Crain's online information the top five largest employers in Chicago are
1) U.S. Government - 78,000 local employees
2) Chicago Public Schools - 43,910 local employees
3) City of Chicago - 35,570 local employees
4) Wal-Mart - 23,453 local employees
5) Cook County - 22,142 local employees.

So Wal-Mart, who the city tried to keep out so desperately, employs more people than the county? Awesome.

Another great fact:
Nationally the U.S. Government employs 1,800,000 people. Wal-Mart? Their national number is 2,100,000. Makes you wonder who is really running this country some days.