32 Short Stories About Racine and Addison

One Day Steve came home with a beautiful little golden kitten. He told me I could name it, providing I picked a name from his independent magazine. It took me all day, but I finally chose Gidget.

I stole that cat from Steve. I never had a cat before, so I swiped her. As she got older, I taught her how to do 'yoga'.

Whenever I was bored or had some time to kill, I would pierce my ear. Used an ice cube and a potato. I used things from the 25 cent machine at the grocery store as earrings. The most piercings I did in one ear was seven.

Whenever Jody and I were home at the same time, and it started to rain, we would walk in the rain until it stopped.

I bought Jody gladiolas one night on my way home from work. That made her really happy.

One day Steve yelled at me for doing our other roommate's dishes too often. He said he needed to take care of himself and not rely on us to do his chores.

Steve was a big fan of Matt Groening way before anyone else was. He had all his books in 1985.

Steve also owned a frame-by-frame book of the movie Psycho. I read it almost everyday.

I kept all my brooches on the window sill in my room, in our garden apartment.. I had about two dozen. That window's lock was broken.

I was weirdly happy whenever Ramen noodles went on sale at Jewel. I ate a lot of Ramen noodles.

One night, I was up with a pain in my stomach, when Steve came home. He asked me what I ate, and I told him scrambled eggs and a coke. He said he heard somewhere you shouldn't mix 'eggs and pop'. I believed him. I remember thinking he'd be a good dad someday. I've never mixed eggs and pop again.

One day I commented positively on the hand painted mural on that weird little nostalgia store on Addison by Racine. (They both are still there) Doug thought less of me ever since. I know I saw him cringe out of the corner of my eye!


I told Doug I wanted to grow and bleach my hair so it looked like Marilyn's during her last photo shoot. I thought it would be cool. He had a positive reaction. (I didn't have the patients to grow my hair, and he knew it!)

The first movie I saw in Chicago was Amadeus at the Music Box. The theater and the movie seemed, to me, to be made for each other.

Besides our couch, I also found my dresser in the alley. It was painted a hideous, yet some how attractive, pinkish-purple. I taped the Musicbox schedule to the side of it. I kept that thing for at least 10 years.

I searched the neighborhood alleys every week for 'good' garbage.

I spent way too much time thinking about that dresser. Did someone's child die? Did she just out grow it? Did she move away to college? Or maybe she ran away, and the parents just couldn't bear look at it any more. Was it just too damn ugly and the grandma bought a new one...?

Steve was a big fan of The Replacements, and played them loud and often. Doug was a big fan of Songs From the Big Chair, cause he liked the title. I played Bauhaus and Siouxsie whenever I could.

Caren and Jody slept on bunk beds after they moved in. Whenever I saw them in bed, I had flashbacks to my and my brother's bunkbeds.

Caren and I liked to do laundry together and smoke and gab while we sat on the machines. The laundry room was right outside our front door.

Caren once said to me sex was better when you didn't do it too often. I remember thinking to myself "I hope to God one day I will be able to say that to someone".

Jody had very interesting toes, and I would stare at them a lot. Interesting isn't the right word. Cute- that's the right word.

We never ran our central air, cause none of us could afford it. Our rent on our newly rehabbed, huge two bedroom was 400.00. I made about 70 bucks a week at work.

Jody tried to teach me how to drive. I would make her do it at 2 in the morning, so there would be little traffic. Back in '85, there was little traffic near Racine and Addison at 2 am. I never did get my license. I'm not sure why.

I am getting ready to move my blog story to a new 'chapter' and I'm cleaning up some loose ends, or 'loose memories', if you will.

Yes, I do have a post brewing about living near Cubs Park. I think I will end my "Racine and Addison chapter" with that story.

Yes, I'm a little Marilyn crazy these days.

Ok, so there's not 32 stories. 32 is a lot.