North Coast Video

My friend Beth works at a video store here in Chicago called North Coast. I was hanging out with her during her shift a couple of days ago. The weather was stormy and the store was packed. People were waiting in line forever as my friend rushed around the store trying to help everybody. I was sitting on a stool behind the retail counter playing tetris on the internet as the store became more and more slammed with customers . People kept addressing me as an employee.

a lady says to me:
"I am returning this video today. It was due last night. Is it late? Do i have to pay a late fee?"

i say:
"yes, it's late. i don't work here, so i don't know if you have to pay a late fee."

A handful of people came to me with similar queries and after hearing them out I would simply say:
"sorry i don't work here"


I went back to my tetris game for another 20 minutes, and then my mom called me on my cell phone. I was chatting for a good 10 minutes while simultaneously trying to continue my game of tetris. I looked up and the line had become huge. Some lady was contesting her late fees for a really long time and was pissed that her reserved copy of the newly released dvd "obsessed" (starring beyonce) had been accidentally rented out. I realized that people were staring and snickering at me in the line. I made eye contact briefly and 6 people fled up to the counter where I was sitting.

everyone was freaking out on me:

customer 1."why aren't you helping your co-worker out, huh?"

customer 2."you've had your head stuck in that damn laptop for the last 15 minutes!"

customer 3. "can i speak to your manager?"

customer 4 "what's this girls deal?" (my personal favorite)

I stood up and stated loud and clearly:

"I DON'T WORK HERE"

People sheepishly got back in line as i flashed them a huge, slightly insincere smile.

Some woman waiting in line said to another:
" Now THAT'S a good friend. hangin' out on a friday night at the video store while her buddy is workin'"

Some drunk dude with a plastic cup joked with me:
"You better ring us up as long as you're back there taking up space"
(who later told my friend "your top is 3d in all the right places")

and lastly a nice young man came up to me in a shy manner and asked:
"do you play.........violin, or viola? i mean Viola? I think I saw you play last year, well I know I saw you play, It was awesome. "

Tennis in the Park

I've played tennis since Jr. High. I'm not great, but I can hit the ball around and volley pretty well. There are some public courts near a High School in my neighborhood of Humboldt Park. Rollin and I have tried to take advantage of the free courts this summer. When school was out of session there was always a group of young little gang bangers that would yell at us and make rude comments while we were trying to play.
Once they chased us to our car and tried to steal our racquets and made fun of Rollin's pants.

Well, it's been a relief now that school is back in session. The courts are surrounded by plenty of playing field for the young high school teams to practice for soccer and football games. None of the kids really paid us any attention and it finally started to feel like we were blending in.

Yesterday I was going through my drawer of "work out" clothes and found this pair of shiny blue leggings. I decided to wear them to the courts yesterday because they were kind of cute and comfy. We started warming up and hitting the ball around. As I was playing at a casual pace I realized the leggings were kind of slipping off of me and so I asked rollin if I could use his belt. That didn't really work and they slipped even more due to the weight of the metal on the belt.

I just ignored this nuisance and thought it was pretty minor and not worth going home. We proceded to play an actual game. I served first and i was like

"Zero-Zero. Love-Love"
and smacked the ball over to the other side.

We slowly got into the game and I would have to pull up my pants like every other hit or so. It wasn't so bad early on, but as we were getting into the heat of the game it really started to piss me off.

Because of this distraction, rollin won the first 2 games. It was ON in the 3rd game.
We were at the end of the match and it was my point at Ad-In (that means whoever is serving has won the challenge where both players are tied at 40/40 and they just have to sinch the deal and kick out one last point before they've won the game.)
It was a great volley. I got some awesome shots and killed it by sprinting up to the net and smacking the ball on the opposite side of the court. No way rollin could have hit it. You can imagine I was pretty pleased with myself, but after the initial rush had set in I heard this kid say really loudly

"LOOK AT THAT GIRLS BUTT"

The soccer team, the football team, the bus drivers waiting to take the kids home were all laughing hysterically.

The leggings had slipped off of me and I didn't even realize cuz they're kind of like a second skin, ya know.

I was SO embarrassed and pulled up not only the leggings, but my pink cotton polka dotted undies i bought at Primark in england. For those of you who aren't familiar with Primark, it carries the equivelant of the selection of undergarments you would find at a huge grocery store in the health and beauty aisle.

I thought to myself:

"the show must go on"

and continued to finish the game. i thought it would seem more lame if I just left right after. I didn't even win the set either.

I came back today to play some more, take this photo and hopefully recover from yesterday's mishap. I accidentally hit a ball out into the football field.

The coach came up to me with the stray ball and said:
"you were out here yesterday, wernch you girl?"

and i was like:
"om...ya"

he goes:
"keep it up. keep it up real good"