Real America

Rather than go downtown to buy sweatshop-free t-shirts and French cheese, sit in the Reg reading blogs and some Hannah Arendt, or maybe go to some foreign or independent movie on campus, or otherwise be a pretentious blue-American fool, yesterday I went to a track meet in the Chicago suburb of Naperville. The track meet itself was very cool, and since I was sitting with Chicago people most everyone took out a Great Book or at least a book at one point or another. I was reading Sam's Allen Bloom book, which got thoroughly criticized by other team members while he was down on the track. Also, I've never seen so many in-shape people in one place at once. Damn! Bloom would've enjoyed himself, I'll bet.

This was my first trip, at least in quite some time, to upscale "real-America." During my brief forays off the bleachers, I got a free burrito from Chipotle, having won some contest I hadn't known I was entering. Later, I got carded by an establishment (a Bar Louie) that I wasn't even trying to enter. I was simply walking past the place, by myself, kind of quickly, at that, but I apparently was walking between the bouncer and the entrance, which meant that I got the whole "ID, please." Oh well. All told, I had lots of fun being a normal American for a day, though I suppose I should restate my conviction (growing weaker, though) that lounging around the Upper East Side or sitting in UChicago coffeeshops reading Hegel is no less "American" than a trip to a loud sports bar filled with women who bend over in low-cut designer jeans to reveal that they're wearing a thong...