I knew Spring had finally arrived in Chicago when I heard the first tinkling notes of the ice cream truck last Sunday. It rolls up aimlessly, gravitates to the building next door, and comes to a long musical pause as the Mexican kids come running out shrieking. Thirty minutes of looping musical nonsense never sounded so good to me after 6 long months – cold, snow, ice, hail; shoveling, brushing, trudging, plowing – of a Chicago winter. That's enough for me to embrace the Ice Cream Man himself. My Spring is here!
Last Spring was marked with weekend trips away: I painted the Big Apple green with a random convergence of fellow "U" alumni friends on St. Patty's weekend, took a trip down memory lane on my 2 year wedding anniversary with The Fella back home in South Florida, and celebrated my mom's 60th birthday with just the girls in Sin City.
This Spring I'm very much looking forward to just enjoying the Chicago weather and stoop-sittin' with the dog (yes, I bring a touch of Miami ghetto-ness here!). It's one of my favorite activities to welcome the new season: we have our brunch together on the front steps, read the weekend edition of Red Eye, and people-watch.
I'm looking forward to the soccer playing guys turning the school's concrete walkway into a make-shift field, rooftop shindigs, and trees blooming. I'm looking forward to dog parties in the grassy school property across the street, robins chirping, and even warmer weather which brings Ice Cream Man #2, this one with his old-school push cart of frozen goodies and hand-tooted bell ringing through the neighborhood.
Give me another few months of the endless drone of Ice Cream Men, I'm sure I'll be ready for the quiet that Winter brings.
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