it's almost like i'm a real person, doing real things.

so this week, BoyCat and i have actually gotten our lazy asses off of our cheap ikea couches and gone out. to see things. things that other people like to see, like art and sports. who knew that you could see such things in public spaces, instead of just in books or on the teevee?

on tuesday, we went to the MCA, because BoyCat was very interested in seeing the chris ware exhibit. it's like, comic books or something.

hear that? it's a chorus of hipsters screeching "graphic novel! they're graphic novels!" no, just kidding, i actually kinda dig the graphic novel thing, though not quite as much as BoyCat. i have read marjane satrapi's stuff - i'm working on
persepolis 2 right now - and really liked it.

anyway. while we were there, we also checked out the wolfgang tillmans exhibit. some of it i loved, and some of it i hated. i mean, if you can take pictures like this:



then why are you also taking forty or so piece of photo paper, developing the hell out of them til they're jet black, and lining them up in neat rows on the wall? is this some kind of post-postmodern joke? because really. it's either that (which, by the way, isn't even funny), or it's artistic pretension of astronomical proportions. i can't imagine any photographer good enough to warrant an exhibit at the MCA actually thinks that big black squares on a wall is making a deep statement anymore, but hey, stranger things have happened.

then yesterday, BoyCat and i shifted gears and went to see some gay games swimming. it was a lot of fun - for someone to whom swimming never came very naturally, i actually really enjoy watching swimming competitions. and BoyCat swam all through high school, so just the smell of chlorine when we walked in the door made him giddy. it was pretty amazing to watch - people of a huge range of abilities participating, swimming heats with each other, supporting each other. it genuinely seems that every person in that pool area was having a good time.

and ok, can i just say? the event was held at the university of chicago athletic center - holy shit. now i went to boston college for two years, an institution with an endowment over one billion dollars, so i thought i had seen what a rich school looks like. i was wrong.

and to be sure, both u. of c. and boston college have people on the phone this very minute calling 20-something alumni, asking for a donation. well, not that i've ever indulged them before, but this has strengthened my resolve to not give my money away to the sort of institutions that can afford a plasma tv screen in front of every elliptical trainer.

christ.