riding the bus home today I realized that Chicago is glorious in the spring. there are gorgeous flowers lining Michigan Avenue right now: hyacinths growing alongside red, pink, and yellow tulips. on the streets that run alongside Lincoln Park, the leaves on the trees shimmer beautifully as the sun lights them from behind. the lake is wonderfully blue-green and the sky is huge and azure. Chicago just metamophosizes into this bright, living, nature-colored city emerging from its winter pupa. it's great.

April is flying home on Saturday. her grandfather is undergoing a quintuple bypass (not the technical name) tomorrow and after wrestling with the pros and cons of staying versus going, she found a plane ticket for an incredibly low $226. for her family's sake, I hope her grandfather makes a full recovery. but this is a massive health condition--all of the valves of his heart have failed. it'll be good for her to go home and see him. sometimes I wonder if I should pay a visit to my grandparents, knowing what state my own grandpa is in. but then I don't know if I'd be more of a burden to my already overly-taxed grandma than a welcome guest.

because April is going home, Jim will now accompany me to the Belle & Sebastian concert. this is cool because he really wanted to go but only just heard them for the first time when he saw Storytelling and then borrowed my B&S albums two weeks ago. but there is one small not cool element: because he's so freaking tall, I won't get to stand right up front as I would traditionally do with April. ah well.

ok. enough for now.