where am i?

when we moved into this place i truly believed i lived in wicker park. I thought this because the annoying ska rock guy from apartment people told me it was wicker park, my roommate told me it was wicker park, and my friend down the street confirmed it was wicker park. I was convinced, and so i would walk around scoffing at visitors from lakeview and the suburbs, and i would feel so mighty in the fact that this was my neighborhood.

it isn't my neighborhood. i don't live in wicker park. I either live in ukranian village or east village...or on the cusp of both. this wouldn't be a huge problem either, as living in ukranian village or east village or on the cusp of both allows me to say that wicker park is so passe, and i love saying things are passe. however, i was also under the impression that neighborhoods were directly related to wards, and that by living in wicker park i would live in the 1st ward...however i was wrong about both. wards have fucked up boundaries and it is sort of hard to figure out which one you live in (it took me about half an hour, and i am only partly sure of which one i live in). I think i live in the 32nd.

who cares? you ask...why would i, a girl who is still registered to vote in oregon, doesn't plan on staying in chicago for long, and finds chicago politics way too confusing to think about, care about which ward she lives in? i care because the first ward got those blue recycling bins, and i didn't! i really want to recycle, but i know those stupid blue bags just end up in the landfill anyway, and i am not going to go out of my way to track down blue bags, sort my trash, and inevitably make more garbage by adding a colorful plastic sack to the huge landfill. i won't do it. but throw some cans into a blue bin...now i would do that. I would feel good doing that, it would alleviate my guilt plagued conscience (those plastic water bottles are like piles of sin in my bedroom). I wanted that blue bin, so bad. when i was under the false impression that i would soon be receiving one i was fucking pumped, like i actually talked to people. I bragged about my up coming blue bin.

then...those bins started popping up everywhere around me. across damen, they have 'em, across division, they have 'em, there is even one out back at my job. huge blue bins barely full, and there is not one in my alley. and i am fucking pissed, what am i supposed to do, haul my paper and plastic bottles across division and sneak it into one of those taunting blue bins? is there some sort of law about sticking your recycling into someone else's bin? i don't think it is fair, i know those wicker park yuppies (hey, remember i don't live in wicker park, i can call them yuppies) they aren't using the blue bin to it's full potential like i would. i deserve it, i'll be the fucking robinhood of recycling.

fuck you ward boundaries!!!

while we're at it, can i please get five cents back for my beer bottles?