December 26, 2024
At Pinstripes, cocktails are half off from 16:00 to 18:00 on Thursdays. It’s about $65 for two hours of bocce. Not a bad deal I guess.
It’s the day after Christmas. I leave my party toward the end of the game to go home and walk the dog before our dinner reservation. I’ll meet them there.
I ride the #2 Hyde Park Express from Grand and McClurg down Michigan Avenue to State and Washington, where I hop the Blue Line subway toward ORD.
On the bus, two girlfriends board with their toddlers and sit near me. Seems they’re on their way back from Navy Pier. The kids are tired and cold, snuggled in their fleece blankets.
One is watching me with interest. I smile. Then she pulls a rope of snot a few inches long from her nose and contemplates it.
I pull an individually wrapped wipe from my backpack and hand it to the mothers, who had been searching frantically for one of their own to intercept the child’s finding before she could eat it.
They expressed profuse gratitude and we joked about the branding: Dude Wipes.