It begins.

The NATO summit has brought roughly 5,000 leaders from all over the world to Chicago on the same weekend. It is 87.4 degrees Farenheit (that’s 30.7 degrees Celcius for the rest of the world) and sunny. My neighbor just tweeted this picture from the Mayor’s place four blocks away:

The kids (edit: I call everyone ‘kids’ – there were plenty of gray-hairs and young moms and even a few polo shirts) from the photo then marched down my street yelling something (I couldn’t tell what as I was peeking out my window from under the running shower [yes, my shower has a window, and it’s awesome], otherwise I would have gone down to take a picture). They’ve apparently set up shop somewhere near the Lincoln Square plaza. Cops are everywhere. They drive up and down the street, sometimes with their sirens, sometimes not. I’m hiding inside. Not that I’m not supportive of national health care and reasonable interest rates for college loans (I did just get my Master’s, after all, and I owe more money than I can comprehend), but I’ve become just as disillusioned with public demonstrations as I have with politicians. I will not jump on anyone’s bandwagon. Or maybe I’ve just become completely apathetic, overwhelmed by entropy.

Though part of me does want to ride downtown tomorrow just to see all the fuss.

More sirens. Yikes, that’s loud. Keep your ass down, Chicago. The next 72 hours are going to be miserable.