Good Fortune Day

My official title for today is "Good Fortune Day."

It began with Daena and I going on a free tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's home, usually $9.00. On the way out there, we stopped at the Library so that I could return my Indian Cookbook. With all the other problems I was having with the Library, I forgot about the due date, and for the second time since I've been in Chicago, held a book overdue. I ran in to pay the 30 cent fine, but they said that to my luck, the book had not been checked out under my name, so it wasn't late afterall. I asked them to check my account while I was there, and they said I had $7.50 in late fees, but no overdue books. They said that I had previously had $10.50 in late fees, but then I paid two dollars of it- which means to me that the Library found the books, realized their mistake, and are in the process of waving the late fees like they told me they would (IF, they said rolling their eyes, it turns out we do have them). But yes, good news. The books are found.

So then we went on the tour, which was interesting. Daena, with her degree in architecture, was able to tell me interesting snippets to complement the tour.

When we left, I was hungry, so we started casting about for what to eat or where to eat. We finally decided to walk to Juana's Mexican Buffet All You Can Eat for $3.50 just down the street. We'd never been there. So we rounded up Michael and Fabian (Phil and Val were out), and headed down there. The selection wasn't great, but they gave us a bag of candy each (except for Michael, who wasn't eating). Oh, but when I say a bag of candy, I mean like assorted candy that wouldn't fit in my two hands cupped together. When we got up to leave, the owner came up to us and said that if we wanted watermelons or potatoes that we should go around and meet him on the corner. He went on about how he loves God and America and believes in giving what you have, and he gives away food to help the poor community here, especially the Mexicans. We walked around outside and there were cases upon cases of potatoes and tomatoes and watermelon and cantaloupe and squash and onions, etc. Lots of people were around, giving and receiving. We grabbed a box of red potatoes, a box of white potatoes, three boxes of cantaloupe, and one box of watermelon. We went home to get the car to help out with this.

When we got back to the house, we pulled out a dozen of each kind of potato, one watermelon, and one cantaloupe, and took the rest down to Casa Romero, where the Holy Cross food pantry is. Valerie has told us about how excited the elderly people get when they come to get food and there is fresh anything, especially fruit.

Elena was there, who is the very very energetic woman who runs Kid's Cafe during the week, serving free meals to hundreds of neighborhood kids every day. She loves to feed people, and immediately offered us food. Michael was starting to get a bit hungry at this point, and Elena gave him a whole cooked chicken to take home and eat.

So, to sum up my day of good fortune,

1) No 30 cent late fee for the Indian Cookbook
2) The Library found my books
3) Bags of candy
4) Cases of food for free which we then got to
5) Share with other, less fortunate people
6) Whole cooked chicken