Back from the Land of Dramatic Weather!
Wow. Attila the Hub and I had a great time in the Chicago area, where we caught up with most of his relatives and experienced that interesting weather one associates with the Midwest and the East Coast (especially Florida): it can be a hot day, and then it begins sprinkling.
I tried to explain it to my mother: "imagine being at the beach, where the wind can whip up at any moment and you really don't know how to dress from hour to hour. Then add another 20-degree variation and the possibility of rain at any time."
But it was so beautiful: the clouds in the sky shift around all the time, and there's a continual light show. And without hills, the horizon goes down just about to your feet. Lots of drama. I found myself wishing I could be in that area for one really good thunderstorm, warm and cozy and a few floors up, watching the light change through a picture window.
And Skokie!—I loved Skokie. Where else do you go into an ordinary coffee shop and order deli food (latkes, matzo ball soup, blintzes)? But don't get me started on Chicago food, either: those sandwiches with the peppers are terrific, and they have that incredible pizza—either super-thin or mega-thick.
My niece just graduated from DePaul, and one of my cousins (the one who lives in Indiana right now) has a little girl who turns three this fall and is the cutest, smartest little girl in the world. Once Attila-hub and I get our own baby, we may be able to work out a "child-exchange program" over one summer when ours is a toddler and hers is 5-6. That might be a lot of fun. (More likely, we'll just plan a few long reunions when the kids can get together: who am I kidding that I'll be letting my child out of my sight?)
Thanks so much to Desert Cat for holding the fort down here: it was nice to see interesting entries on my blog when I went back to the Holiday Inn and went into nightly family-driven fits of exhaustion.
I'm speaking at a local charity event tomorrow, so posting could be light over the next 24 hours. But know that I'm grateful to everyone who frequents my blog—it's good to know you're there.
Posted by: Attila at
01:07 PM
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1
You're back! you're back! Welcome home!
So nice to see someone appreciate that area for its good things. As opposed to those of us who couldn't wait to grow up and get back out, sometimes forgetting those really good things.
There was a time, in Skokie, when the person handing you your Jewish soul food might have blue numbers tatooed on the arm reaching out to you. Funny old-style European numbers, faded with time. There probably aren't too many of those left any more.
It never failed to send chills up my spine.
That super-thick pizza, by the way, is usually STUFFED pizza, yum! Giordano's! Uno's!
Those of us who safely escaped to the drama of Florida weather, rather than the Chicago version, are happy to find this distinction in the rain down here: it's WARM. Nice friendly warm rain. Reason why you don't see Floridians in raincoats and umbrellas very often. What for? It's harmless rain, it doesn't hurt, even when it pours down so hard. It's just wet.
Then it stops. It's a nice part of the drama, that it's usually sunny all day until mid-afternoon, rains for an hour or two all sturm und drang, then stops and the sun shines again. Makes steam.
Or, often, that sun never goes away, and you can dance around in a sun shower, rain streaming down sparkling in the sunshine.
I remember some good weather drama from my Arcadia, CA childhood. Just a lot fewer and farther between. Hail. Wading thigh-deep in water, walking to school.
In New Orleans, they'd say, It's weatherish today.
Welcome home!
Posted by: k at June 18, 2005 04:29 AM (6krEN)
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Ah, I was sure there was a distinction. But even the rain on a summer afternoon in Skokie didn't feel cold the way CA rain is COLD. If it decides to rain here, it's usually serious about it.
You have to admit, though: both FL and IL are marvelous places for storm-watching (um, up to a point--you know what I mean).
Ask your mother about the waitress at Jack's in Skokie--or I'll email you about it. Simply hilarious.
Posted by: Attila Girl at June 18, 2005 05:39 AM (8e5bN)
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Oh, I've been dying to hear! She's so bouncing off the walls still, she can't remember what she told who. Walter was there the weekend before you, so he got to catch up a bit. But I'm still waiting to hear about breakfast.
I probably shouldn't say this out loud just now - but I love hurricanes. Whenever one's coming and people ask, Why don't you leave?, I have to bite my lip to stop myself saying, What?! I wouldn't miss it for the world!
So I was caught off guard at how much little Arlene rattled me. Hmmm...
Posted by: k at June 18, 2005 09:20 AM (6krEN)
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Hm. Maybe I'll blog it after all; it was pretty funny.
Posted by: Attila Girl at June 18, 2005 07:17 PM (8e5bN)
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What really caught my attention when I moved to AZ is how the clouds stand so STILL here. I was used to everything being in constant motion in the sky, as they are in the midwest.
When I returned to Minnesota for a visit a couple of years later, I noticed again how much the clouds move.
Interesting difference.
Posted by: Desert Cat at June 18, 2005 11:12 PM (xdX36)
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We have the LIVELIEST clouds down here! They like to go two or three different directions at once. It's the sea breezes, outflow boundaries, what have you. It can make you dizzy at first, seeing three different levels of cloud, racing around in three different directions.
I forgot how still those desert clouds can be.
Posted by: k at June 19, 2005 06:18 AM (ywZa8)
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