Bobtail Adventures

I forgot to blog about a most interesting night that I had not too long ago, so here's your update:


One balmy summer evening in late June, my friend Tracy and I (yes, two Tracys. We know.) wandered over to Bobtail Ice Cream on Broadway in Chicago. A series of events unfolded that we found quite incredulous. Check it out...


1.) We walked into the store and got in line behind a 20-something couple, a guy and a girl who looked like they dropped straight out of a JCrew catalogue. This is not an uncommon occurrence in the Lakeview neighborhood, so I didn't think anything of it. Until they abandoned all semblances of humanity a few minutes later. Shortly after we got in line behind them, two petite Asian women walked into the store. After listening to them for .5 seconds, it was obvious that they did not speak a lot of English, and that the store was confusing them. They walked to the front of the line and started gesturing and using single words at the counter. The staff at Bobtail smiled and did an admirable job of handling their ice cream requests and efficiently moved them through the line. The couple in front of Tracy and I, however, decided to pitch a hissy fit about the fact that these women had "cut" in line. The girl loudly asked the counter staff "ISN'T THIS THE LINE?" and pointed behind Tracy and I to the back of it. Then her boyfriend decided to be funny and gestured kicking the women from behind. At which point, appalled to the point of outrage, I turned to Tracy and said loudly, "SERIOUSLY? They're pitching a fit about ICE CREAM?" Tracy smiled and said, "YES, I DO BELIEVE THEY ARE." "Really," I replied, "I wonder what it must be like to have an ice cream crisis...to need ice cream so badly that you are completely inappropriate in public." "I know," said Tracy, "That's ridiculous."
It is ridiculous. I hope that their ice cream melted all over their JCrew clothes and left permanent stains. I hope they never again return to the Bobtail Ice Cream shop because they are so appalled that they couldn't get their ice cream RIGHT THIS MINUTE when other people obviously needed help. Because, frankly, I like Bobtail, and I'd rather have my experience there without the added contribution of Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum.


2.) After this head-shaking incident, Tracy and I retired to the bench outside of the shop to watch passerby while eating our ice cream (merlot ice cream with dark chocolate chips. Seriously amazing.), and chatted with the family next to us, also enjoying the sights and sounds. About ten minutes after we sat down, we heard a deafening shriek coming from the intersection next to us. Apparently, a girl waiting to walk through the intersection knew someone in the car going through the intersection, and they had not seen in each other in years. Or at least days. Because following the shriek, the girl in the car turned her car onto the street, threw it into park, and launched herself at the other girl, who had been running after her car in the middle of the street, blocking all traffic. A shriek-y reunion followed in the middle of Broadway (not the world's slowest street), and Tracy and I just looked at each other and shrugged.


3.) Right before leaving, Tracy and I were finishing up a conversation when this man walked by at a very deliberate, slow pace. Notably slow. Holding some sort of pottery. And chanting to himself while staring straight ahead. I didn't see his face, and Tracy said that he had painted around his eyes white circles of some sort. We watched him walk down the block at that pace, and one by one, pedestrians and bicylists stopped in the street and on the sidewalk to watch him pass, shaking their heads in confusion. Who was this man? No one knows. But it just goes to show, if you want attention, walk slowly and stare straight ahead while talking to yourself. It gets a lot of attention.


Other minor things happened this one evening in the Lakeview neighborhood, but suffice it to say, it was a remarkable night.