suburbia, illinois summer '08

cornfields and condo complexes as far as the eye can see. miles and miles of farmland out here in illinois and what do we americans do with it?? turn it into sustainable living communities to benefit the rest of the world?? no, we turn it into box chain stores and restaurants and fill it with miles and miles of perfectly manicured, exactly matching houses and condo 'communities' and give them names like 'rolling meadows', and 'torrey pines'. i didn't grow up in a suburb like this. granted, tennessee has it's fair share of mcmansions, box stores and condos, but where i grew up was much more, um, 'rural' (or 'bum fucked' to use a more descriptive metaphor).
this place just freaks me out a little. it's all so clean, so well packaged.
but, with all downsides, there are upsides (i think). and those are, that i'm five minutes from the super target, 20 minutes from ikea, and 2 minutes from a box chain called "meijer" (pronounced 'may-yer' as in john, ernie and i debated over how to pronounce the name when we got here. i said it was 'major' and he said it was a more exotic sounding 'may -har', we were both wrong...crazy cornfield town)...which is an EXACT replica of the super walmarts of my youth. it's bizarro walmart.
(me want low prices, rRRRR!!)

we are an hour outside of chicago proper, and with the traffic (good lord the traffic), at times it's a two hour trip. so, we've been downtown once, and harlan had a little bit of trouble with the city, it seemed to make him screechy, so we left early. the city looked beautiful and hopefully we'll have more times to explore.
for the forth of july weekend however, i think we're going to take in some true midwestern small town america. there are towns nearby that boast of old time trolley rides, antique soda fountains and small town fireworks displays on the river. ahh, i can almost smell the cotton candy and popcorn. maybe i'll wear some red gingham and put on my fanciest blue eyeshadow.

yum.