The New Neighborhood

I went to see the movie Lars and the Real Girl (not recommended unless you're extremely sentimental) with Marla on Friday and afterwards we stopped in a Lincoln Park tavern for a drink. It's really amazing to notice that all Lincoln Park bars look exactly alike. When I moved to Chicago in 1993 it wasn't that way: there were still plenty of old-time neighborhood hangouts with their coterie of regulars and their old jukeboxes with everything from Johnny Cash to Dave Brubeck. It was possible to meet the owners, and often as not they'd be working behind the bar.

Now, all the taverns are antiseptic and look like they were designed by the same interior decorator. Many have Irish-sounding names on the front, but we all know that real Irish bars (they do exist in Chicago)do not hang Budweiser signs in the window. And the clientele: all the people I couldn't stand in college have gravitated to Lincoln Park.

So, the movie and the tavern get a mixed review from me. Oh, so does the date with Marla. She's a nice girl who laughs at all my jokes, but I've noticed that I'm the only one who suggests our topics of conversation. She defers to me too heavily, and I'm starting to get bored. Well, next weekend Ginger comes in for a visit. That should make for an interesting post.

Last night I was out with a group of people including Urban Melissa. We were hanging out at a northside blues bar when I got a text from Bethany: "Come to Nick's! I miss you!" When I arrived at Nick's about an hour later, she bought me a Heineken and told me what was going on: she regrets moving from the neighborhood, hates living in Humboldt Park and she and her boyfriend are trying to sublet their place and are looking for apartments in Wicker Park. I was pretty tired at this point, having been up rather late on Friday but we made plans to grab dinner at Blue Line on Tuesday.

The conversation was music to my ears. The building hasn't seemed the same since Bethany moved out. It'll be nice having her in the neighborhood again.