general bitching

so, i have a lot of time to waste. i spend it mostly out of the house, trying to find various things to make my life easier. i have many things on this list, probably only because i have a lot of time on my hands to figure out that i need these things to make my life easier. anyway, here is some of that list:

a dresser (as my $20 kiwanis dresser is falling apart)
a bike basket
clothes for my new job
books on how to save money

because i'm trying not to break the bank, i'm trying to find the cheapest way possible to fulfill these needs. so that means finding the dresser, the clothes and the books second hand and the bike basket somewhere in the vicinity of the city of chicago (preferably the northside).

so i rode my bike the other day to the targhetto to find a bike basket. they had had one there before for $20, maybe they'll still have them in stock. no. they had no way of carrying anything on your bike that wasn't smaller than a water bottle. oh, they had little white plastic baskets with flowers on them. evidently they think that anyone who needs to carry anything on a bike must be under the age of 10.

so i go to sportmart. they must have something for bikes. they're a goddamn SPORTING GOODS store, right? no, they didn't have a damn thing. they had one of those shelves you can put over your rear tire that would support a milk crate, but no actual bags or baskets. then i asked one of the male, muscle-bound employees there if they had climbing equipment, as i was thinking with a mesh basket and a few carabiners, i could rig something up. THEY DON'T HAVE CLIMBING EQUIPMENT. ok, i know that the closest thing to a mountain here in illinois is Wilmot in wisconsin (which is 230 ft.), but say i was planning a trip to mt. rainier and i wanted to buy some climbing stuff before i left. I COULDN'T DO IT AT SPORTMART. fuck them. i guess if all i wanted to do was get FAT and play GOLF all fucking day, that's the place i'd go.

so then i go to on the route, which is a cycle shop on lincoln. they had THE BASKET I WANTED. but it was ALREADY SOLD, according to the slip inside. i asked if they had anymore. of course not. i've only ridden all over God's green fucking earth on my FUCKING BIKE, why would you have what i wanted. so i left.

and then i gave up. i'll have to order the damn thing online.

and the dresser search has been equally unsuccessful. i've been to three salvation armys, two brown elephants and countless antique/second-hand stores. nada. if i was willing to spend $300, i'd have a pretty sweet dresser. if i was willing to spend that, i could have had one from target a long time ago. that's not the point. i have seen pretty sweet dressers at the salvo for $60-80—when i didn't need one. but now that i need them, the salvo on broadway and montrose has a butt-fucking ugly dresser from the 60s for $280. hello????? you're the goddamn salvation army. you want to sell that? put it down to $80 where it belongs and then the poor-ass sons of bitches who shop there can afford it. assholes.