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Gapers Block published from April 22, 2003 to Jan. 1, 2016. The site will remain up in archive form. Please visit Third Coast Review, a new site by several GB alumni.
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TODAY

Wednesday, October 9

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Fuel

Benjy / October 7, 2004 1:53 PM

Window? I'm stuck in a cubicle...

Ken / October 7, 2004 1:54 PM

Alas, my office has no window. Yeah, it sucks.

j3s / October 7, 2004 1:54 PM

"A crack in the sky and a hand reaching down to me."

How did you know I had "Oh, You Pretty Things" in my head all day yesterday (until it was usurped by Shatner's "Common People")?

On a less lyrical level, the courtyard to my apartment building, reflections of the sun, a cat that won't stop meowing, and blinds on another window across the way.

Ken / October 7, 2004 1:57 PM

Go ahead, Jes, rub it in.

Shylo / October 7, 2004 1:58 PM

An skyscraper apartment building full of people that never jump, but sometimes do have sex within our sightlines.

j3s / October 7, 2004 1:58 PM

Heh, sorry Ken. Working at home for the last two years has kind of made me repress all memories of cube life.

emily / October 7, 2004 1:59 PM

Windows? I don't need no stinking windows.

anne / October 7, 2004 2:00 PM

If I stand up and look over the cube walls...The Metra on one side, and the purple line on the other. This...is Davis.

vit / October 7, 2004 2:03 PM

an alley, and if I lean a bit further, the "EL" tracks.

miss ellen / October 7, 2004 2:07 PM


it requires a small walk (yes, cube farm for me, too), but the merchandise mart "pez heads".

Thurston / October 7, 2004 2:13 PM

The Fairmont Hotel, the Illinois Center, the rooftop deck at the Lake Shore Athletic Club, the Swissotel, the homes of Sammy Sosa and Oprah Winfrey, and what I think is one of the only nice looking new contruction condo buildings in the city.

Andrew / October 7, 2004 2:14 PM

I can see for miles and miles and miles... not really.

I see powerlines, then the strip of "forest" separating my office building from the residential neighborhood beyond. The leaves are changing colors. Gotta love the suburbs.

Clodius / October 7, 2004 2:14 PM

The gathering darkness.

Michael / October 7, 2004 2:19 PM

I work on a trading floor...no windows...it's like working in a cave.

Brenda / October 7, 2004 2:21 PM

Taylor Street, hospital smokestacks, and a blind person learning how to navigate public sidewalks

Linda / October 7, 2004 2:26 PM

The tops of a few buildings and then.... the lake.

heather / October 7, 2004 2:42 PM

a six-point buck, eating all our groundcover.

a forest.

two squirrels: one brown, one grey.

my brother, smoking and trying not to grin at me looking out the window.

Charity / October 7, 2004 3:04 PM

Well...if I look over the cubicle wall I can see me neighbor's head and then the window. Out there is the Metra line.

lacey / October 7, 2004 3:15 PM

I work in a cube but right next to a huge wall of windows. Not to make anyone on here growl or anything, but I look at these beautiful trees all day long, and now they are turning red from the top down. Gorgeous! The 'burbs do have their high points ;)

jennifer / October 7, 2004 3:24 PM

Arby's.

Alice / October 7, 2004 3:25 PM

I don't even have a cube. Just a desk. And I'm probably lucky to have that. No exterior windows here either, but if I look out of one of the interior windows, I can see the lobby! Woo!

Wendy / October 7, 2004 3:26 PM

My office window looks out onto a hallway and a window to the outside, which looks out onto... well, a parking lot. And a Menard's. I know you're jealous.

suzanne / October 7, 2004 3:35 PM

a fire escape and some random buildings of the loop variety. but if i walk over to the window and position myself just so,i can see a sliver of the lake and sky!

Anthony / October 7, 2004 3:53 PM

in front of me: the eighth, ninth floor of the board of trade.

behind me: an atrium

very boring.

Heather S. / October 7, 2004 4:00 PM

http://www.neptunesociety.com !
and
planes landing at O'Hare

margot / October 7, 2004 4:02 PM

The Lyric Opera building, the UBS building and further off the Aon center. If I lean really close to my window I can see down to the river and out to the lake. Actually, not much to complain about here (at least outside the window, inside my office is another story).

amyc / October 7, 2004 4:06 PM

To my right: the Sears Tower. To my left: the lake. Not bad for a cube (although straight ahead is all the brown rectangleness of the Illinois Center and that ugly-ass Hyatt).

Leo / October 7, 2004 4:12 PM

A roof, some dryland trees, and mountains. Very pretty, but I wish I was in Sweet Home Chicago looking at grey skies and buildings.

cxc / October 7, 2004 4:31 PM

The lake, lots of boats. If I lean back in my chair a little I can see Millennium Park; a full-on-roll-away-from-the-desk-tilt-chair-and-crain-neck maneuver and I've got a view of the Planetarium and the fountain in Grant Park. The view is a definite, definite perk of the job.

Cinnamon / October 7, 2004 4:32 PM

If I look south I can see the Sears Tower and many other buildings although they're kinda small. If I look east I can see a garage being knocked down, the roof of a bank a few other low-rise buildings and if I stand on my tippie-tippie-toes, I can see a wee strip of the lake.

The nice thing about being on the 5th floor in Evanston, is that I get amazing views of the spring and summer storms rolling into the city.

Leo, today it's actually a nice day. Sunny with wispy clouds and in the 70s.

Kate / October 7, 2004 5:06 PM

Outside my office window: Three skinny areca palms and a giant baobab tree, plus the campus bike and moped parking lot and the corner of Hamilton Hall next door.

(Sorry, couldn't resist) -- Kate, ex-Chicago

paul / October 7, 2004 6:23 PM

In order from nearest to farthest - the back of Coyote Ugly, an old building they use to represent police stations in many TV shows and a couple of movies, which is turning into condos, a crane which will soon be replaced by a condo, which will obscure my view of the Merchandise Mart and the Sears Tower.

A little to the right I can see the Harry Caray's/Donald J. DePorter Gateway at the Ohio/Orleans triangle, featuring the "Being Born" sculpture by Virginio Ferrari, then past that Office Depot and more condos.

If I was at home I would have said "a tree".

Alex / October 7, 2004 7:01 PM

The shorties across the street playing in their yard on the last nice day of the year.

Joe / October 7, 2004 7:25 PM

Smiling faces all around
Rushing through their busy towns

Where do they go?
Moving on their way
Walking down the
Highways and the byways
Where do they go?
Moving on their way

Jerry / October 7, 2004 8:31 PM

Currently I'm embroiled at Cracker Barre .. erm, Crate & Barrel, so I see the rolling, beautifully Italianesque hills of a Northbrook landfill, but when working at home, I see a very dirty alley, then 23rd Place, then Cristo Rey High School, and, if I look way far out in the distance, 55 and stacks and stacks and stacks of containers.

Ron / October 7, 2004 9:51 PM

Corn.

Lots and lots of corn

Steve / October 8, 2004 12:09 AM

Damn -- if I'd answered this last night, I would've been able to say Newbury Street from the Ritz-Carlton here in Boston. But the company event -- and the company dime -- came to an end this afternoon, and now all I can see is less-than-lovely Somerville, MA from the window of my Holiday Inn.

But tomorrow eve I shall look out an airplane window and see the city that I truly love, Chicago.

Michael / October 8, 2004 1:51 AM

I posted earlier from the dark chasms of the Chicago Stock Exchange; if I look out my window now from my modest, but cozy, one-bedroom apartment, I can see a beautiful $1.5 million tear-down across the street near Marshfield and Waveland that I can never afford, but can still dream about. I just gotta say that the best part about GP is sharing my thoughts with so many other people that feel as passionately about this city as I do.

Audrey / October 8, 2004 9:17 AM

I see one of the gargoyles that sit on top of the Harold Washington Library, the back of the Harrison Hotel sign, South Loop condos and the new University Center building. And lots and lots of gray sky today.

Pete / October 8, 2004 9:29 AM

Drizzle-covered glass and the non-descript black office building across the street on Riverside Plaza. Though if I lean back a bit I can see the Sears Tower, so that's something.

Hobbsie / October 8, 2004 10:13 AM

A bellwood tree that's in transition from green to bright yellow and Whitney Young High School and all the dopey kiddos with their crazy music and baggy jeans.

Craig / October 8, 2004 10:34 AM

From the 7th floor of a loft in the West Loop Gate:

Window 1, Northeast: Hancock etc. skyline, Blommer Chocolate Factory, rooftop water towers with ads for self storage paitned on them, food packing company buildings.

Window 2, North West: Fulton Market Cold Storage building, Green line El, Courvoisier billboard, dozens of water towers and hundreds of warehouses.

Mark / October 8, 2004 10:42 AM

The side of a church -- adorned with small stained glass windows and the biggest collection of shingles (on the tall steep roof) i've ever seen, and a small parking lot, the bright blue sky with big puffy white clouds moving quickly by.

Thats here in Gainesville, FL... but oh when I lived in Chicago and worked on the 17th floor of the Rehab Institute, ahh. Lake Michigan for as far as the eye could see.

I moved to Chicago after having worked 2 years in a church basement (obvs. w/ no windows). There were times at work in Chi that i would simple stand and look out the window for like 20 mins straight. Part of it was the sheer newness of a beautiful city, some of it was the absolute freeedom associated with midday sunlight.

kate / October 8, 2004 10:49 AM

the top of the art institute, all of millennium park and gehry's bandshell, navy pier beyond the new condos being built on east randolph, buckingham fountain, the planetarium, the field museum, of course the lake with it's boats, and on a clear day i can see gary indiana.

i got it pretty good as far as the view but that's as far as the fortune goes.

Carly / October 8, 2004 11:23 AM

If I walk out my door I see the parking garage.

But I must mention, if I go up to the tenth floor, I have an awesome view of the skyline.

No windows in my office though =\.

Chad / October 8, 2004 12:02 PM

Congress, the river, Sears Tower, and the old Central Post Office which I would like to turn into my own evil lair.

steven / October 8, 2004 12:04 PM

view? not really. my cube doesn't have a window, but if i get up i can see outside, to the building about 50 feet away.

eep / October 8, 2004 12:18 PM

I have no window, but if I look into the office of the guy with the window, I can see a brick wall across the street. Beautiful.

pj chmiel / October 8, 2004 12:54 PM

Naturally, "three mothafuckin' po-lice starin' at me."
But besides that, this breathtakingly beautiful vista of boring Bowmanville.

Dawson / October 8, 2004 1:31 PM

Coyote Ugly. Gross.

Maureen / October 8, 2004 1:35 PM

The other wing of my building, a piece of 59th Street, and the 59th/University of Chicago Metra Electric stop. And some trees on the Midway and Jackson Park. All covered with grey sky and drizzling rain.

jm / October 8, 2004 1:39 PM

Um. I just took out the window in order to sand it and prime it before the snow flies this winter. Got bored and wandered over to the computer. So, out of my window, I see...the floor.

steve_sleeve / October 8, 2004 1:43 PM

austin park (morton grove represent).

penny / October 8, 2004 1:48 PM

i see suburban sprawl. i see a bastardized gino's east (a desperate restaurateur linked himself up with their franchise to help his ailing business and now all of it sucks), i see gray skies, changing leaves, rushing traffic filled with people more free than i am at the moment, vertical blinds (a horrible travesty in the world of decor), blowing trees, rainy streets and all around october-ness.

Krissy / October 8, 2004 2:23 PM

Omigod, a goblin is tearing up the wing of the plane! Can't anyone else see it?

No. Actually, Letizia's Natural Bakery.

Michael / October 8, 2004 2:24 PM

Ahh...I spent a good many days of my youth at Austin park...did that have the castle as the playground centerpiece? Harrer Park had the big shoe, I remember that.

Shylo / October 8, 2004 3:50 PM

PJ! I used to live at that intersection. Doesn't it look so much better at night?

Roni / October 8, 2004 4:19 PM

The outside wall of the building next to us. No pretty view here. :(

Scott / October 8, 2004 4:32 PM

bleakness, pure bleak.

Sandy / October 8, 2004 5:01 PM

Block 37 and Marshall Fields....mmmm....must go shopping.

Keidra / October 8, 2004 5:08 PM

I see a homeless guy digging out of a trash can. And this is outside my bedroom window.

Susan / October 8, 2004 5:14 PM

I see a big ass ugly ABM AMRO office tower with the rest of Chicago looking like an ant farm. A very *wet* ant farm.

Ella / October 8, 2004 6:06 PM

The Harold Washington Library

(they're owls, Audrey, not gargoyles)

Andy / October 9, 2004 10:04 AM

the whitewashed grecian statue of the building across the street from me -- carefully landscaped with maroon mums! It's dramatically lit at night

Andy S / October 9, 2004 7:25 PM

A band playing the east village street festival on Chicago Ave. According to the schedule, it's the Waco Brothers. Past that, I see the downtown skyline.

Paul / October 10, 2004 9:48 AM

The Magic Tree Bookstore, Winberie's, Scoville Park, and the Oak Park Public Library. Although if you asked yesterday, I would have said, "A homecoming parade."

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