You can find me in the 'hood

[muckefuck]

I wonder if this will go down as the Year We Became Rogers Parkers. One of our neighbours calls our area "Rogers Edge" and there's something to that. Demographically, it has much more in common with adjacent parts of Edgewater than with most of Rogers Park. (For instance, despite the condo boom, the eight-block area around our house is the only part of that neighbourhood where more than a quarter of residents own their homes.) And when it comes to shopping or socialising, we always default to going south. It'll be our third full summer in this place without hardly venturing north of Pratt.

But Saturday I found myself roughly where Farwell meets the Lake (or would, if there weren't a park in the way) horsing around with bears while being eyed curiously by Hare Krishnas. And then Sunday I was back for more, drinking "tonic with a gin floater" (in the GWO's words) on the cordoned-off brick street in front of the Glenwood. It was my third visit there this year, and I'm really beginning to warm to the place. monshu had never been there before, but I think he'll be back.

I was hoping that we might try out one of the newer (to us) restaurants up on Morse for dinner, but the Heartland was right there and half empty. It kind of amazes me how little they've done to raise their game in all this time despite the new competition; their menu wouldn't have been adventurous even in central Iowa. When the cashier asked me what I thought of my meal, I said, "It was underseasoned, but I expect that from hippie food."

I'm trying to get in the habit of walking again and whereas I used to to head down into Edgewater Glen or west of Clark, increasingly I find myself heading up towards Greenleaf. A couple months ago, I ran into a nice couple we met through friends up there and I hope I might do so again. Or if not them, one of the other locals I'm beginning to get to know through profundojoe, lucentnotion, and others.