action packed

So I got out of work early, walked down to the West Side Market to meet up with friends for good hanging out, driving to Edgewater, reviving the age-old East Side/West Side debate. One of the guys just moved here from New Jersey and this was the first time he'd been "across the bridge." He's done what many people living here hardly ever do.

Saturday morning, me and a few people from church ended up doing an Easter service at a halfway house on the east side, stopped at home to take a breath, and then hung out with Lindsay for the afternoon. We drove out to one of those historical village things all the way down Mayfield Road, which was completely deserted, and then hung out on Larchmere since it looked like it was going to rain and outside would have to wait.

One of my former regulars runs an African store down there and I haven't seen him in two years, but he served us ginger tea and this other drink that had hibiscus flowers and sugar that looked and tasted like really good Kool-aid if the color wasn't made of chemicals. I ended up learning about his life story, how he got here from Senegal, lived at the Salvation Army, temped and washed dishes and went back to school. He said he wants to share his story with other people coming here and show how they can succeed.

There was an article in the paper this past Sunday about immigration, and I look at places like Toronto or Columbus and how there's so much more going on because they're places that welcome new people with new ideas. It's a shame that our leadership doesn't at least try this.

Easter was beautiful, playing music that morning with some of my favorite people, the Greek guys who live across the street brought us over lots of leftover curried chickpeas and gyro meat, spent the afternoon chilling with the roomie at Edgewater and then stopping by Ethiopian church for dinner before going to my parents' house where I got to hang out with my cousins and family and hear stories about how my high school aged cousin convinced his classmates he was from England and claimed that in England, they speak "The British Language."

America, you need to get out more.