Candy hearts and plush hearts

This is late for a Valentine's Day post (and I'm only doing one because I wanted a post of actual photos in between posts about what publicity I've been getting for my photos recently), but I didn't get the photos until a nice long photowalk on Sunday from downtown Des Plaines to Allstate Arena in Rosemont.

I'll definitely photograph a Valentine's-themed display if it includes a takeoff on conversation hearts. This was a church on Lee. Another view:

At the end of the walk, longer than I remembered it to be (so I missed warmups before a San Antonio Rampage-Chicago Wolves hockey game), I stopped in Target by the arena and caught the clearance display, with hints of an upcoming holiday in the background:

All right, this is mostly an excuse to post the 2013 update of one of my most popular Flickr images ever, 2008's "What nerds do for Valentine's Day", in which I sorted and cataloged a whole bag of Necco Sweethearts. 2008 I did an 18 ounce bag and alphabetized the hearts and put them on my scanner instead of taking a photo. 2013 I found a 7 ounce bag at the Family Dollar across the street from the apartment I'm moving out of the night before V-Day and put them on an old cookie sheet, arranged by themes and words, not alphabetized. (The two rows of messages escalating from "TWEET ME" to "MARRY ME" is my favorite part.)

Flickr version with notes and comments here. The update was nowhere nearly as successful as I'd hoped, but it was the kind of obsessive thing I had to do. (I may have a lot of 5-year updates of projects I did the year I really took off on Flickr and the blog. Also, in part, because I've never fully finished posting some of the original projects.) Oh, and I got followed by the authentic Necco account on Twitter before I even posted this, oddly. (I'd tweeted my dismay that the store I was trying to buy candy hearts at only had Brach's.)

Tree installation!

So this is happening already, if you're the type who freaks out about how early Christmas/winter holiday things appear. Once it's less than two weeks before Thanksgiving, I'm not too bothered by it, though I was taken aback on this visit when listening to WBEZ and they mentioned a certain FM station had switched to its all-holiday-music format that day (and given the problems with reception downtown, it was bleeding into WBEZ on my radio at that very moment).

I'd come downtown to catch the #6 bus to Hyde Park to visit the Seminary Co-op Bookstore on their last weekend in the space they've occupied for 51 years. They move next week to a nearby spot. Even with CTA Bus Tracker on my phone, I just missed the bus I needed and had 20+ minutes to the next. So I got a few shots of the tree and Christkindlmarket getting installed in Daley Plaza.

I checked and all the signs said "NO TRESSPASSING."

I'd meant to have another pumpkin-y drink at the Joe Muggs cafe in Books-a-Million (I got pressured into buying a membership/discount card at the BAM that replaced the Borders in my hometown, and now I have to buy things with it) but ended up with a gingerbread latte, and just missed the next #6 bus. Under the excruciating circumstances of having to run down the block for one, assuming the crowd of people waiting for it will give you time, then seeing it continue on because no one else was waiting for it. That's when I gave up on making it to Hyde Park, not having time to wait for a third bus, and bought a few staple items at the City Target on State. Also decorated for holidays, but not overwhelmingly so yet.