“MeMadeMay (2019) day 17. Back to freezing here in Chicago, so my white dress gets paired with a turtleneck and my photos get taken indoors. This time at Beans and Bagels, which became my regular cafe after Dollop ruined The Grind.”

Fuckin’ DIPPO.

Once upon a time, there was a cafe in Lincoln Square called The Grind. Some of my earliest dates with Kenneth were on their back patio. When I still worked a normal job, I dreamed of having a life where I could sit in the cafe every day. And then I did that thing! I went to The Grind every single day for SEVEN YEARS. I filled masses of notebooks, mostly with awkward fanfiction and reductive anxiety. I edited SO MANY naked lady photos, in full view of the general public. (Just kidding, I always tried to face my laptop toward a wall when I was editing burlesque photos.) They were my internet for the two-ish years that mine was disconnected. I loved all the baristas, and Tara, the owner. I went every day, even when I was so broke I was counting change for my coffee. Because it was an important part of what I wanted my life to look like. And, to this day, I am SO SICK OF ROSEMARY, because they used to put rosemary in the eggs in their breakfast sandwiches, which I also ate every single day.

And then, one day, Tara had had enough of Chicago (which, I can’t really blame her, honestly), and sold the cafe to Dollop, which is a local-ish chain. They promised her they wouldn’t change anything, and then promptly changed literally everything six months later, with the owner smirking to Block Club Chicago that “no one liked it the way it was anyway”. It’s gone completely now, and the space has been empty since like 2021.

Enter Beans & Bagels. They have a green business certification, they generate (I think) zero non-compostable/non recyclable waste. They’re just on the other side of the neighborhood. For a short while, I went there every single day to sit in the cafe with a breakfast sandwich and a mocha. Exactly the same, just in a new place. And then the world ended and we still went every day, to their walk-up window. And, actually, I got to sit in the cafe with a breakfast sandwich and a mocha today, for the first time since 2020. My life looks very different now, but I’m glad there’s still room at the table for me sometimes.

Dress is, again, Simplicity 4105 from 1952.

The post MeMadeMay 2019 Day 17 appeared first on Revisionist Vintage.

“MeMadeMay (2019) day 2! This one is a two-fer, as you probably recognize both the white dress and hat from other photos! It’s freezing and miserable here in Chicago and my hair is in terrible need of washing, so it was a hat day for me, but I wouldn’t normally wear this hat and dress together otherwise.”

Because I didn’t bother to mention it originally, the dress is Simplicity 4105 from 1952, and the hat is Simplicity 9644 from 1971.

One of the benefits of MMMay is really sort of figuring out one’s personal style. Before I copied the caption over from IG, I was looking at the photos going “well, I’d never wear those things together now… but I guess that was fine.” Surprise, I didn’t really like it then, either.

Also! I didn’t start enforcing my rule that I have to put on a face every day until… I think 2021. Why is that a rule? Honestly, because I like my face better when I get to decide what it looks like. I really don’t care if anyone else wears makeup, doesn’t wear makeup, I don’t care what you do to your face, and honestly, I don’t care whether or not you like what I do to mine. But it is part of my canvas, and by extension, it’s part of my mask, and having a face on actually makes it substantially easier for me to interact with other people out in the world. I hadn’t figured that out yet though.

These photos were taken on… Wilson and Campbell, across from the Lutheran Church. I only remember that specifically because I think I shot almost all of my photos by myself the first year (Kenneth was still recovering from his first go-round with chronic illness, and so I was still doing most everything by myself) and I stuck my phone inside the Little Free Library that’s on that corner to take these.

If you’re new to the blog, or to MeMadeMay, you can read my overview here!

The post MeMadeMay 2019 Day 2 appeared first on Revisionist Vintage.