Avoiding Halsted (Hint: It’s a Metaphor!)

Every Saturday

from Memorial Day to Labor Day

and then some,

I wake up.

Walk Figgy Pudding.

Get coffee.

Go to yoga.

And walk through the Green City Market

in Lincoln Park.

To do this,

I navigate the back roads of the West Loop

to avoid a particularly potholed

and unappealing stretch of Halsted.

I’ve gone this route for two summers now.

Last Saturday, thanks to the construction on the

new Google building

(Welcome Google — but your

lengthy and unpredictable

construction project is inconveniencing me),

Carpenter was closed

forcing me to

cut over Lake to Halsted.

There, to my surprise,

is an official outpost of the Green City Market.

Right. In. My. Neighborhood.

Similarly,

A recent failed taxi ride with a

driver who didn’t understand the

simplest of directions

(Take me to the precious coffee shop in the historic building

with the name I can’t pronounce.

And step on it!)

accidentally landed me at

Dollop,

a great coffee shop owned by

my coffee crush Phil Tadros

just a block away from the Intelligentsia

Brian Cahill and I frequently — and reluctantly — meet.

The probing question

(and you knew there would be one) is:

In what ways are you

“Avoiding Halsted?”

I Surrender

Maybe The Life You Have Is The Life You Want