Lazy Afternoon

I had lunch with one of my friends from London this afternoon. She just got back from a few weeks in Eastern Europe after the program ended, and I was extremely impressed with her stories. Turkish bazaars? Two day ferries to Greece? Communists? I'm not really cut out for "roughing it", as the kids are calling it these days, but I'd like a short backpacking adventure one day. Just no overnight trains. I am THROUGH with those.

Afterwards, I drove downtown to drop off some film at Gamma. For some reason, no photo stores around here can develop 120 film. I'm way too nervous to try and explain cross-processing to a surly Walgreens employee. Better to pay about three times as much and get amazing results from a pro (gulp... I hope).

I had some time to kill, so I drove north and west a bit and ended up at Milwaukee Ave for secondhand shopping. There's a stretch of about 4 blocks with some really great stores. One end is around Nick's Beer Garden, and the other is at Urban Outfitters, I guess. It's nothing like my favorite Brick Lane digs, or Soho, but I still found some cool places. One store sold mostly boots-- steel-tipped motorcyle boots, frayed cowboy boots, stretched out and supple riding boots...

Some of the bars in the area look promising, and I'd like to go back soon and make sure. There was a photoshoot going on by the Singer Sewing Machine store, and people were rubbernecking on the sidewalk. I was more enthralled with the Singer Sewing Machine store itself, with its faded signs from the 1970s in red, white, and blue. My lomo fish eye was stowed in my bag, so I got a couple of pictures. I'll have to finish the roll and bring it back to Gamma. Then we shall see.