Let's Rock...

How to be a Chicago Sports Fan (written in 1975)

2011-04-15T10:32:00.007-05:00

Today I have been sorting through the designated Chicago collection that one of my predecessors compiled because many of the books were never cataloged. While leafing through How to Survive in Chicago... and Enjoy It, by Kenan Heise, Charles McWhinnie, Judith Birnbaum, and Juanita Carlson, (the authors loved their ellipsis), I came across this sage advice on how to root for the home team if you're in Chicago:

A Chicago Cubs fan... how to become one
Know where Wrigley Field is (Addison & Sheffield), that it was originally built for a team in the Federal League, is ivy-covered, and is the only ball park in the majors without lights.
Know that the chewing-gum Wrigleys have owned the team for a long time, and live in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
Live on the North Side and be able to go to the beach or anywhere else on a summer afternoon to hear the game blasting forth from radios. Or else live on the South Side (White Sox territory) and be willing to be treated as a person with an affliction.
Be accepting of the fact that a team that can go a generation without winning a pennant is still worth dying a little bit for.

A Chicago White Sox fan... how to earn the title
Know what team won the pennant in 1959 and what city's air raid fire sirens went off as a result. It helps to know what years Nellie Fox, Billy Pierce, and Jungle Jim Rivera played.
Attend White Sox games. In the late 1960s the park was as abandoned as any in either league. Most critics said it was because the stadium was in a supposedly dangerous neighborhood. Well, Blackhawks fans go into one 10 times worse and almost always at night [ooh burn]. The Sox began to win and the myth was totally dispelled.
Share the White Sox fan's mentality about winning. That 1959 pennant followed 30 years losing it.
Hate the Cubs, but hope for a "subway World Series." Just to show those northsiders who will never understand how much greater Luke Appling was than their overoptimistic Ernie Banks.
A Blackhawk fan and what that means
Be accepting of the most cynical ownership in all sports. Under heavy pressure the owners put in water faucets for the fans. No efforts have succeeded in clearing up the practice of selling tickets so that the average fan over the years will not have to bribe ticket sellers for important dates.
Enjoy good hockey. The team plays a lot of it even though they rarely win the Stanley Cup.
Chicago Winds
Just another second-rate football team in Chicago. Many argue that Chicago has just that already.
An additional chance to root for another underdog.
Chicago Bears, or how to be a frozen-toed fan
Know a little about that crotchety, often-lovable relic of the stone age of professional football, George Halas.
Be able to recall the 73 to 0 score of the immortal game against Washington on December 8, 1940.
Know the other teams in the "Black and Blue Division" and accept the fact that they are why so many of the Bears are always in Illinois Masonic Hospital having their knees operated on.
Live, as other Chicago fans often do, on hope and with the realization that winning cannot be everything.
Know someone who has a season pass or who hopes to inherit one.
Chicago Bulls... why and how to cheer for them
To be a superfan, get an old Chicago Zephyr or Stag pennant to commemorate the city's prior attempt at pro basketball. George Halas even attempted a team here in the 1930s (the Bruins). Other teams included the Chicago Majors, the Globetrotters (based here), the American Gears, and the Packers (an earlier name for the Zephyrs).
Take a course in corporate structure and personnel management to grasp the front-office and player-general manager maneuvers of this fantastic salaried operation.
Watch the coaching of this operation. It has been a Bull's strength.
But like any other Chicago fan, live on hope. After all, Chicago does have potential. Didn't it recover from a fire back in 1871?
Note: For scores (1 hour to 2 hours late) of baseball, football, hockey, basketball, call the Chicago Tribune at 222-1234 or the Chicago-Sun Times-Chicago Daily News at WH 3-3080.

Interesting how some things never change:
To be a Cubs fan, you must know more about the park than about the team itself; the really big fans don't even live in Chicago.
To be a Sox fan, you must hold on to trivia and titles while dodging bullets in your apparently really ghetto neighborhood.
To be a Hawks fan - I think this one has actually drastically changed for the better recently - you needed to fight an owner completely out of touch with his fan base.
To be a football fan in Chicago, you need to realize that your team is going to get beat to hell by stronger teams, and getting tickets will be next to impossible unless to know someone.
To be a Bulls fan, you need to also know your history, and watch the politics of the home office -not being a Bulls/basketball fan, I can't really comment on how accurate that is today.

Barbados - written 3.10

2011-03-20T17:56:00.002-05:00

Riding in the back of a big white taxi-van, alone, in Barbados - a passing glimpse of an apartment building reminds me:

Life has its own sense of humor.

On the outside of the yellow-stuccoed cinder block edifice was a single word: Luxor. Well, I thought, close enough.

Up until about 4 weeks ago, the plan was for us to be headed from Cairo to Luxor this very night, aboard the overnight train. History had its own plans, so one deposed dictator later, Dan and I found ourselves changing plans.

So, one might wonder, how is it that I find myself laughing at the irony of a vacation rental name alone? Blame it on resting too easily. Dan and I both, when traveling alone, would never dream of heading to bed without a back-up alarm set, just in case 'something' happened to the wakeup call.

You can see where this is going.

8:30am we are jolted awake by the universally-gentle knock and call of the housekeeping staff. Instinct kicked in, and we both hit the proverbial snooze button, groggily calling out 'no thank you' a couple times. Thankfully, something didn't sit right; I checked the clock one last time before dozing back off. 5 minutes later, we were at the curb, waiting for the airport shuttle to take us to our 10am flight. We hit the airport at 9am, and I decided to run ahead to try to stall while Dan checked our one bag.

I got to the gate in time, but unfortunately Dan wasn't able to even get passed the luggage counter.

So, here I am - 10:30pm, waiting for Dan's arrival. He should be here sometime around midnight. A nice place of jerk pork and parsley potatoes awaits as his reward for all his struggles. Tomorrow, it's on to St. Vincent, and the Bequia, barring any more unforeseen misadventures.

23-26 moving right along

2010-08-10T10:40:00.004-05:00

Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin
I just can't resist the lure of larger-than-life industrialists, and their impulsive attempts at world domination. I never had the chance to read much about the life of Henry Ford, and am glad I picked up this title. Grandin's book does a wonderful job of not only explaining the history of the Fordlandia experiment in Brazil, but also telling the reader a bit more about the sort of man Henry Ford was, and the different forces that drove him to make some very radical decisions with his empire. The reader is left with a picture of a man full on contradictions - at once jerking away from his anti-Semitic views and half-crazed loathing of farm animals, while being drawn to his desire for absolute efficiency and economy with resources. The same man that introduced a fair living wage for workers in an era of poverty was also the man who sent out brutal enforcers to squash dissent and prevent workers from unionizing. Obsessed with the idea that good country living and manual labor outdoors was the key to a healthy existence, Ford was regardless instrumental with the boom in urban sprawl and industrialized life (a fact he never seemed to acknowledge). This book is mainly about the attempt to move Detroit industry into the jungle, and to introduce assembly-line-style efficiency to a population of workers used to seasonal, subsistence living - but these topics can't be approached without a knowledge of the man who thought they could become a reality.

Thunderstruck by Erik Larson
Those of you who read the wonderful Devil in the White City will be familiar with Erik Larson's formula of alternating between two stories: murder and creation. In Thunderstruck, the author chronicles the invention of wireless radio technology, focusing on the life and activities of Gugliemo Marconi. Through his tale of invention through trial and error, Larson follows the unhappy marriage of Hawley Crippen and the failed entertainer, Belle Elmore. I don't want to give too much away, but when things turn out unhappily for Ms. Elmore, Marconi's struggling new technology gets a trial by fire in front of what was, most likely, the first truly international audience in history.

Diamond Ruby by Joseph Wallace
Baseball, a woman in a man's game, the Roaring 20s in NYC - what's not to love? Diamond Ruby is loosely based on the true story of a woman who was able to out pitch Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in exhibition play, and the resulting permanent ban of women from the game of baseball. Though this book indulges in a great tale of 'what if?' it remains believable. Fans of the game will relish descriptions of how the game used to be, while those who are just interested in the time period will appreciate the pop culture references and allusions to different historical events. I appreciate Wallace's style, and his ability to weave in different themes without making the book feel like a heavy-handed history lecture.

The Quiet American by Graham Greene
Before going to SE Asia, I was told by many people that this is the quintessential Vietnam book; while I never got the chance to read it before I left, I knew I had to get around to it sometime. I must say that much of the Vietnam of Greene's time was gone by the time I walked the street's of Saigon, but I caught glimpses here and there of what has endured. Gone are the bombings, raids, soldiers, and much of the non-motorized vehicles - but still strongly-present are the street kitchens, thronging streets, and decaying colonial architecture (albeit nestled in pockets among the boom of new construction). I was attracted to Greene's narrative style - fusing humor, sarcasm, harsh reality, and a dose of social commentary (though thankfully not in excess); this was the first of his novels that I have read, and I am sure I will go on to read more.

20-22 in Brief

2010-07-22T15:26:00.003-05:00

Greyhound -Steffan Piper

I devoured this book in a matter of two days; this book had me at magnetic cassette tape cover. Piper's tale is of an emotionally neglected pre-teen boy, traveling the country solo (to the shock of all that meet him) on a Greyhound bus. Along the way, the boy meets a cast on characters that both help remind the reader of the general kindness of their fellow man, but also caution them to be wary of the occasional devious nut job. This book left me wanting to follow the boy's story past the end of his journey, partially because I was interested in his personality, but mainly because I enjoyed the writer's narrative style. I will be looking out for further novels by this author.

Away: A Novel - Amy Bloom

Eastern European immigrant woman flees horrific massacre in the old country to the United States, only to hump her way (in the military and carnal sense) across North America in an attempt to return to Eastern Europe. Hated it.

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon - David Grann

I love good travel writing; I love a well-presented book on history, anthropology, or archaeology; and I love a good biography - this was all that and more. This is the first book since I fell in love with The White Rock (Hugh Thomson) that managed to combine all these interests.

Reads 17-19

2010-07-02T16:38:00.003-05:00

The Help - Kathryn Stockett

This one was selected for my work's book discussion group, though I had wanted to read it for a while due to its popularity. Not really a challenging read, but a very engaging one. I felt that a lot of research and time went into figuring out how to portray the different households, events, and interpersonal dynamics that were present in the racially-charged environment of the book. I can see why this book has gained such popularity, because it makes the difficult topics a bit more accessible. I think for people who actually lived through this time period, it might be an interesting take on what they experienced (in particular the idea that many people may have been largely unaware of the Civil Rights Movement's major events because of a lack of access to mass media, and a lack of coverage, or biased regional coverage).

The Little Golden Calf - Ilya Ilf and Yevgeni Petrov

Dan recommended this title for me, after hearing friends of his talk about it - he knew I like Russian lit. The thing that kept striking me was how I kept forgetting the age of the book; the language, subject matter, and the flow of it seemed like a more current piece. The Calf tells the story of a band of drifter con artists who set out to bilk an underground millionaire (in the early days of the revolution and the purges, showing you had too much cash wasn't a great idea) out a a portion of his fortune. I don't want to give too much away, but it was an entertaining ride that took me through the groups successes and failures. The copy I acquired through the Chicago Public Library had both the ending that was given to the book, and the original ending that went with the story when it was published in chapters in a magazine; I'm not really sure which one I prefer - they both have their strong points. The book ending seems to be more true to the tone of the rest of the story; the magazine ending seems to be a bit too neat and abrupt.

The Night Birds - Thomas Maltman

This was a case of judging a book by its cover - someone had dropped it in the returns slot at work, and it caught my eye. This book was one of those nice finds that keeps me up late at night, saying 'ok, just one more chapter before I sleep.' Maltman, inspired by old news clippings he had come across upon moving to Minnesota, pieced together a very compelling story about lives affected by the Dakota Conflicts that took place in the Upper Great Plains area during the Civil War. This very bloody, and largely forgotten piece of American and Native American history, was given a respectably unbiased treatment by the author when discussing the atrocities and generosities of the actors on both sides of the conflict. I appreciated that the individuals in the story were, for the most part, believable, rather than being the caricatures of good and evil one might expect to find in a novel where the subject matter is so emotionally charged. I would like to look into more work by the author because I feel like his writing involved a great deal of research and care - in addition to the details, his style and language appealed greatly to me.

Reads 11-16

2010-05-10T23:19:00.007-05:00

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

This book was sort of a required read, though I was curious about it due to the good reviews it was given. Brooklyn was selected as this summer's One Book, One Chicago title by the city, so I decided to make it the book for my work's dicsussion group. Well, this meeting will be interesting, because I don't really have much to say about it. It was a nicely written tale of immigrant life in the early 20th century, in New York. The heroine worked through the challenges and joys of being a lone female, away from her home and kin, only to screw things up for herself in a colossal (though not fatal) way for herself in the end. Part of me wants to write her off as being a big dummy, but her errors are understandable, considering her age and newly found freedoms and feelings - another part of me didn't want to call her anything because she wasn't a compelling enough figure to me to elicit an emotional response.

Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Basque Transvestite in the New World

This book was given to me in a book exchange, and made for a wonderfully engaging short read for a flight. This memoir relays a first-hand account given by one Catalina de Erauso, a Basque woman who escaped a convent, began living as a man, and eventually became a soldier for Spain in the conquest of Peru and Chile. While the book's preface goes into some detail discussing transvestism throughout history, and citing passages in Erauso's memoir to support her probable preference for the fairer sex, her own words stick mainly to the facts of her journey and leave us to speculate about her deeper motivations. This was a pretty fascinating read into the life and mind of an individual who lead an extraordinary life in extraordinary times.

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

If anything, Azar Mafisi's memoir about her life in, and eventual departure from, Iran, showed me that I have much ground to make up in terms of reading my 'great books.' Aside from relating her hardships and joys in her home country during a very difficult era, Mafisi's discussion of the individual selected works are wonderfully in-depth and heartfelt. One can tell that Mafisi truly loves her chosen subject matter (she is a professor of literature and international studies), and feels deeply the works she explores with her students. This is moving read for both lovers of literature, and those interested in Middle Eastern affairs.

City of Thieves: A Novel - David Benioff

I judged this book by it's cover, deciding to read it when it caught my eye on the returns cart at work. This was a quick read, good for a flight or a couple evenings at home. COT dealt with a series of events (fictional) that occurred during the siege of Leningrad during WW2. The narrative floated in and out of humor, horror, hope, and bravado (often combining many of the above) with the fluidity one might expect when told from the vantage point of a late teen/early 20s young man, left behind by his family with aspirations to guard his city from intruders. I won't give too much away, but this book was one part survivor story, one part 'how I met your grandmother,' one part great escape novel, and one part coming of age at a time of crisis story.

Dead in the Family - Charlaine Harris
The latest installment in the Sookie Stackhouse series (TrueBlood), preordered and delivered on the release date for all my nerdy pleasure, left me pretty unsatisfied. It was like grabbing some guilty pleasure fast food and then realizing you can't taste any of it because you have a head cold; I knew I was reading, but I didn't feel like I was getting anything of interest out of the book. I know the Sookie books aren't really marvels of literature, but usually they're the kind of read I blow through and enjoy because of the action and amusing characters that are constantly evolving. This book just kind of left me hanging. I got the feeling that everything that happened was just a setup for a much more interesting followup book, or a handful of slightly less dull followups if Ms. Harris decides to stretch the things she's developing out further by tying up each loose end in a separate book. Unfortunately, I think I'll probably have to wait another year until the next release to find out; kind of stinks when something you've looked forward to doesn't pan out.

Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight by Gina Ochsner

I thought this was a beautifully-written book that traveled fluidly between poetry, prose, fiction, and what could be considered historical fiction. For some reason I seem to be returning to the topic of Russia often in my reads (perhaps it's all the cold, gray weather). This quirky little book had much to offer in terms of unique plot, vivid characters, and an unexpected ending. For someone who tends to lean towards less avant-garde works of fiction, I can say that I was genuinely surprised that I got so into a work like this that tended to be so unpredictable and (as the title would indicate) dreamlike. I would definitely seek out more of Ms. Ochsner's work in the future - I hope that she continues to write outside her usual short story genre.

"You might still see it in the desert..."

2010-04-14T00:24:00.003-05:00

Selected photos from my trip to see Audrey in Phoenix, AZ, last weekend.

Many are from the Desert Botanical Garden - a amazing place, absolutely shouting out loud with colors, textures, and wonderful fragrances. I would love to go there again.

Reader's Digest - 2010 books 7-10

2010-03-31T23:18:00.002-05:00

I've done a lot of reading since I last updated my reading (b)log, so I thought I'd do a quick catch up.

I blew through books 2 and 3 in the Alexander McCall Smith No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series. Books 2 and 3, entitled Tears of the Giraffe, and Morality for Beautiful Girls, respectively, were the laid back but well-written reads I expected them to be. The only issue I have with this series, and most series, to be honest, is the need to repeat certain language and points in every book. This feature of the series novel reminds me of the television drama, where you are forced to see the 'Last time on____' bit in the beginning. The repetition gets a bit old, but I understand that it is somewhat needed in order to inform and hook readers who may be picking up a series in the middle. My annoyance with this, however, it minimal, and in no way discourages me from continuing to read these books - they're a nice compliment to more challenging reads.

My big read the last month was Age of Wonder, by Richard Holmes.

I took my time with this book because it was chocked full of information, and wonderful footnotes. Age of Wonder chronicles the period of Romantic scientific discovery, spanning from Joseph Banks's explorations of Tahiti, to the first human flight in balloons, to the revolutionizing of astronomy by the Herschels and their vastly improved telescopes, all the way on to Davy changing (almost inventing) the role of the career scientist with his activities in chemistry research. The book's timeline is roughly bound together by tying the careers of several prominent European (though mainly UK) scientists to the life and work of Banks with the Royal Society from the late 18th to early 19th century. This fascinating read sets the stage for readers to conduct further readings into the influences of Charles Darwin and his contemporaries by illustrating how the Romantic generation prepared the world to the further scientific revolutions to come.
What struck me most about this book was how rapidly the world was turned upside down by things we now take for granted: flight, harnessing electricity, the discovery of fundamental elements and the dispelling of the idea of 4 essential elemental forces in the world, toying with concepts of human energy/soul/reanimation. This petri dish of inquiring minds not only brought forth the Darwins, it also created the Shelleys and their Frankensteins. Scientific concepts we now take for granted were once exciting, bold, and, very often, the subject of much fear. This is an accessible (though a bit long) read for the lay; not at all full of jargon. I definitely would recommend.

The final book I finished for this installment was Mudbound, by Hillary Jordan. I can't say I formed a definite opinion of this book. It was engaging enough that I blew through it in a day, but I can't say if I liked or disliked it. It was just a decent quick read. The premise is the telling of a series of events that took place in the rural south in post World War Two America from various different characters' view points. This was a well-written piece, but sadly a bit predictable, considering the subject matter. I went in expecting to be shocked and a little depressed, and it did happen, despite the author's attempt to make some of the ending a bit more positive.

Now, on to the next!

Overheard in the Library

2010-03-31T10:29:00.003-05:00

This phone call just occurred behind me in the computer lab:

Him: Hey sweetheart
Him: What's that? You want to kiss me?
(me getting ready to crack down on some phone nookie)
Him: You went Poo Poo!? In the Potty!?
Him: OOOOh that's great! That's the best news I've heard all day!

---
Totally cute and funny at the same time.

Book 6 - The Good Soldiers - David Finkel

2010-03-11T14:33:00.002-06:00

I chose this book for my library's book discussion group because there is a heavy military focus among the club's members, and because the book had been getting great reviews. This was pretty far outside the scope of my normal interests, so I appreciated the challenge of expanding my reading repertoire. The Good Soldiers does a wonderful job of profiling the soldiers in a very impartial, but at the same time analytical way - not taking any sort of stance (hard to do in war writing, especially in a controversial war such as Iraq), but also not flinching away from hard truths.

This book is at times uplifting, punishing, informative, and infuriating, either individually as you read the different episodes, or as the overall vibe that you get when reflecting on the work as a whole. I think that everyone should give it a try; one thing it really drove home is how little Americans know about what is going on in Iraq. It's rather disturbing how the war in Iraq has become a very silent and almost invisible conflict due to a very sad lack of news coverage - this book puts things into perspective and acts very effectively as a wake up call. What is seen on TV aren't stats and events - they are human lives and futures. Have a read - reacquaint yourself with what is going on with our troops and the people they have been sent to fight, assist, and try to understand (no small task, as we've seen). Regardless of your thoughts on the war, this book is a very informative read.

Small Change

2010-03-02T21:37:00.002-06:00

I guess March needs to be the month of small changes rather than sweeping reform. I already know what I should be doing, now I need to tweak my lifestyle to the point where I am actually doing those things. It seems silly, and a little sad, that I need to make more of an effort to get out of my desk chair during my work day, but it's now more than obvious how bad my sedentary profession is on my long-term health goals. So now it's stairs whenever possible - and yes that means going four floors, not just the one floor trips - and visiting people's offices rather than calling them. It means getting off my bus a stop early to go an extra couple blocks.

This month also means really keeping an eye on balancing what I eat. For the longest time I've been aware that I don't really eat horrendous things, but I need to do better eating a good balance of the healthy things I tend to seek out. This also means committing to introducing more protein in my diet. I have cut out the caffeine, and really have shit for energy - now that my body isn't getting 'energy' from false sources like sugar and caffeine, I need to be more conscious of what I'm doing to get the fuel I need.

Finally, as one big step, I have committed to three races for this year (so far, we'll see): two shorties and one long. First up is the Mother's Day Breast Cancer Network of Strength event with Karen, Andrew, and Dan. Donations are most welcome, for this and my other fund raising event, the Rock n' Roll Half Marathon. I'll be running as part of Team PAWS to raise money and awareness for Chicago's homeless dog and cat populations. The non-get-your-credit-card-out race that I'm doing, with Dan, is the Warrior Dash, which sounds like all kinds of fun.

So, for now it's stand at attention, and get those nightly (at least when there isn't hockey) fitness runs in to take off the 'I'm lazy' weight I put on since my last half marathon. After that, it'll be time to start training for real.

How incredibly cute

2010-02-08T21:11:00.002-06:00

is my new niece?

Apparently her daddy stinks :D

2010 Books 3, 4, and 5 - Vacation Reads

2010-02-05T12:37:00.003-06:00

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
I took a gamble on this book because it got great reviews; I read as little as possible about the plot because I like surprises. I am glad I took the chance, because this read pushed me into territory I would not have chosen for myself had I known all the details. I don't want to give away too much about what makes this book really unique, but Mitchell really proves himself to be a very creative and versatile scribe. There were times when I would begin a new chapter and would find the change in tone so jarring that I was tempted to skip over passages, but I found that any distaste that I felt for style was overcome by the compelling plot. This one is a definitely plus.

44 Scotland Street - Alexander McCall Smith
I picked this one up due to the popularity of this author and his various series. 44 Scotland Street sweeps you up into a world of mini plots, somewhat interrelated, that remind me of a literary version of Seinfeld. While this wouldn't be my first choice in reading material, it really scratched my itch for a lightweight beach read from a genre other than vampire fiction. It wasn't the best thing I've read, but it wasn't so bad that I would cross off the possibility of picking up the next book in this particular series.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith
Same motivation for reading this one as I had for 44 Scotland Street - I wanted to see what the buzz was all about. I found this to be a much more enjoyable read than 44, and have actually picked up the second book in the series to continue on. I like the very vivid sensual information about the towns, countryside, and individuals involved in the stories. While this is a book about a detective, it doesn't follow the usual pattern of suspense, violence, sex, and action. That may sound boring, but I find the style of this book a relief from the cliche - it's full of sentiment, humor, and the gentle pride and wisdom of its main players, while at the same time keeping the reader engaged in figuring out the individual cases.

Of the three books read on my trip, I think I have definitely been inspired to read more of David Mitchell's work, and McCall Smith's further detective series installments.

Saba

2010-02-01T23:47:00.002-06:00

Back

2010-01-31T15:08:00.003-06:00

Returned safely from a great trip to Saba. Went directly to the hospital to see my brand new niece, who decided early yesterday that she'd had enough of the womb and wanted to arrive over a month early. She looks wonderful and seems to be in good health - it's going to take some time to wrap my head around being an aunt, but I know I'm going to enjoy the process. For those keeping baby stats - Lucille Rose is 5lbs 3oz - not sure what her length is, but I do know she has some crazy long fingers! I know there will be pictures up in here soon enough - I was kicking myself during the visit for leaving my camera packed in the car with our carry-ons.

Now to grab a power nap so I can actually feel human while trying to visit people later tonight.

2010 Book 2 - West with the Night - Beryl Markham

2010-01-21T10:45:00.008-06:00

Where was Beryl Markham when I was growing up? As a young tomboy, I looked up to Katherine Hepburn for her ballzy though feminine ways, and always wondered why there weren't more women around who were like her, and, as an extension, like me (or at least the way I saw myself).

I was given West with the Night by a coworker, who thought I would enjoy the work - apparently he recommends it to just about everyone he knows. After finishing the piece, I can see why. Markham's prose flows smoothly over her accounts of her less-than-conventional upbringing in East Africa; she makes boar hunts, horse training, campfire congresses, and solo flights over uncharted swamps that could be smelled from a thousand feet become poetic. From her words, you can tell that Markham's relationship with Africa was a love affair - each anecdote was brought as vividly into my mind as the memories must have been in her own when she set them to paper.

From here, I am paying forward the favor done for me by my coworker by advising anyone and everyone to read this book. When you're done, I am fairly sure you will do exactly what I did, and seek out more information about the lively individuals she acted as biographer for in miniature, and the cities and towns she praised or condemned.

Book number two for the year has also been a big thumbs up - I hope the trend continues.

2010 Book 1 - Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

2010-01-14T15:40:00.006-06:00

Some people are doing 365 photos for 2010 - well, I missed the boat on that one. Instead, I think I will make an effort to log the books I read this year, and to explain, briefly, why I did or did not like them.

Zeitoun is the true story of what happened to one man of Syrian origins in New Orleans after Katrina. My first impression, sad to say, was judging the book by its cover. I have to admit that even before I heard the favorable reviews, I was drawn to the art work and texture of the book's cover. Zeitoun is a lovely hardcover edition (not sure how the softcover will come out) graced by very attractive, almost wood block printing stylized artwork.

Moving on past the aesthetics, one is introduced to the protagonist, Abdulrahman Zeitoun, an American citizen who was born and raised on the island town of Jableh, Syria. Zeitoun, as he is known about New Orleans, is an industrious entrepreneur who owns and operates his own painting and contracting company with his American-born wife, Kathy; together the couple have four children. As the narrative progresses, you get to know the Zeitoun family as a close-knit one, bound together by love, faith, and hard work.

Dave Eggers's writing captures the growing tension, and the wavering between skepticism and fear the Zeitoun family must have felt in the hours leading up to the evacuation and arrival of Katrina. When the time to decide came, Kathy departed from New Orleans with the children and the dog, while her husband remained to care for the couple's various rental and commercial properties. Description of the storm itself is patchy and disinterested - a reflection of the reality that Zeitoun's area was not severely impacted by the storm itself, but by the aftermath of the levees breaking. In reality, Zeitoun slept through most of the main event. What follows the departure of Katrina is a description of a surreal waterworld of abandoned pets, abandoned homes, abandoned humans, and, occasionally, the abandonment of all sense of humanity.

I don't want to spoil the rest, but I will put this book in my 'yes' pile, and encourage my friends to read on.

White Out

2010-01-07T10:53:00.003-06:00

The title is self-explanatory I guess. Today we have heavy heavy snows falling in the city, making everything lovely, and everyone slow. My commute was akin to trying to run on a sandy beach, with my incredibly heavy snow boots on, and the 3+ inches of snow to slog through. Amazingly enough, I managed to beat the bus on the mile walk to the el stop; the people of Chicago were more diligent in their sidewalk shoveling than the plows were in clearing the surface roads, so apparently I had an easier time than the motorists.
As a result of the city's slowdown, things are quiet in the library today, which plays a bit part in why I am blogging. With some hope, I may be able to catch up on my 'to do' list here if things remain calm - hopefully in writing this, I haven't managed to jinx myself.

2009 - it was the best of times, it was the blurst of times...

2009-12-31T15:51:00.004-06:00

Seems everyone is doing their year-end wrap up right now; the really ambitious are writing up their last decade, but my memory is too shot to attempt anything that grand. If all goes well, I may be able to accurately sum up the last 12 months without forgetting anything major, but if I do and you catch it, you probably know me and my life well enough to realize I'm lucky to remember what little I do. So, without further ado, 2009:
January

According to my google calender, I certified for the last time with unemployment on the 30th of December, 2008. I had been unemployed for almost five months.
1/6 I started working as a graduate assistant at The HistoryMakers three days a week; that was enough to get me off the dole.
Hit up tourneys in Detroit and Las Vegas.

February

Pond hockey in WI - nothing much else to report.

March

Went to Washington D.C. on alternative spring break and got to work at The National Anthropological Archives & Human Studies Film Archives at the Smithsonian. Thought for a little while that I was going to wind up working there for the summer, but funding eventually fell through.

April

Tournament outside of Toronto.

May

Graduated with my Masters in Library and Information Sciences, with an emphasis on archives administration, and a certification in rare books and special collections.
Entered the 'real world' - according to those around me, I hadn't already been there.

June

At some point became full time at The HistoryMakers, and gained the title Assistant Archivist.

July

Bleh

August

Inlaws took us on an awesome vacation on which we hit up Norway by boat, and then drove around Germany.

September

Bought a home in Bridgeport and moved in. Still in the process of making it ours, but it's a labor of love.
Got to sail on a sailboat from Waukegan to Chicago overnight, something I'd always wanted to do.

October

Got a call out of the blue from a place I had applied for a job at back when I was still unemployed. This eventually turned into a job offer, which I gladly accepted.
Went on a trip with Claudia to Vietnam and Cambodia.

November

Started working at the Union League Club of Chicago as the head of the library, with the potential to also take over the archives when time and funds permit.
Went from hourly grunt to salaried master of my own domain.

December

Finally got to ride the CTA Holiday Train.
Settled in for my long winter's nap.

Vietnam and Cambodia - abbreviation of an abbreviated trip

2009-12-29T20:37:00.007-06:00

Before the year is over, I'd like to make good on my promise a couple posts ago to put up some photos from the trip I took to Vietnam and Cambodia in Oct/Nov. Though we were only gone a mere eleven days, we packed so much in to our time that it felt double that (in a good way). I know for certain that I would love to return some day to give these two beautiful countries the attention they deserve, but for now I'll have to remember the little taste test that we had.

Saigon/HCM City, Vietnam

Amazing little bread critters in a shop we ducked in to to avoid the rain. I really wish we had bought some, but we only stopped for a couple seconds.

Some of the Party artwork

How just about every family gets around town - all on one scooter. There are helmet laws, but interestingly enough, they didn't seem to apply to children.

Claudia gets groomed.

Golden Temple Villa and Street Shots - Siem Reap, Cambodia

We did manage to get some relaxing in

There were loads of venues for that

"Welcome Drink"

My market friend. This kid could locate just about everything.

In control.

Temple Complexes Around Siem Reap

Day 1 - Bike Ride to Angkor Wat

Just like the cathedrals in Europe, these holy sites are still in use by the local religious folk. Each of the sites we went to still had many active Buddhist shrines.

The friezes were amazing - there are many non-close-up shots in the album, linked above.

It was wonderful to see that Angkor Wat was very much in use by the local people, and not one of those world heritage sites that have imposed high entrance fees that are prohibitive to the average non-tourist. We had to buy a three-day pass, but from what I saw, they only checked the obvious foreigners for these.

Some boys who insisted on giving us a tour of the local cemetery. I believe they were associated with the Children's hospital nearby.

Day 2 - Bike Ride to Angkor Thom

The ladies

The other ladies - they were all over the place.

I turned the corner and was taking a picture of the doorway when he walked into the frame. I literally gasped.

One of the many massive faces overlooking the site.

Active Buddhist shrine within Angkor Thom.

Pretty red stranger

I can't even do justice to the sounds and smells that surrounded us on our ride. I can come close to what it sounded like - every silly, exaggerated jungle soundtrack from a Tarzan movie. Seriously, it's pretty dead on. As for the smells, nothing can really capture that. Think of a mixture of burning aromatic wood and leaves; jasmine and other musky flowers; cinnamon; incense; damp earth; and heat.

Day 3 - TukTuk to Ta Prohm

In real life

These trees just oozed over the carved stones, like melted candle sticks.

The lichens all over the place were vibrant with color

None of these pictures really show the scale of these trees and buildings. I could fit comfortably between these roots, with a couple friends.

This old dude came up to me and started talking to me in very broken English, and for the life of me I couldn't get what he was saying. I could have sworn he was asking me if I wanted to see the dinosaur. Finally I just told Claudia to come with me while I saw what he was all eager to show us, and he pointed to this.

Well what do you know? A dinosaur. Can't even begin to figure what else it could be. So random. The old man was also covered with scores of tiny prison-like tattoos, the meanings of which I can only guess at, considering Cambodia's dark past. I don't doubt he saw some violent days in his lifetime.

It almost looks like the scaffolding is holding up this bad boy.

Walking out looked like something out of an Indiana Jones film.

Night in Siem Reap and the Water Festival

When the TukTuk got us back to Siem Reap, we decided to walk around because it was our last night, and we wanted to see more of the town. We hit the market one more time.

and then went on to the Water Festival, which was getting all revved up by the river.

There were loads of street vendors, noisy Cambodian pop music, and illuminated boats in the water.

People gathered around to watch the canoe races. I took loads of pics of the boats, but they mostly turned out crummy.

all of them were crewed by rowdy local youth and looked like a load of fun.

The night ended with a massive fireworks display

and the children placing offerings in the river of candy, candles, and flowers on rafts.

I wish I were a better low light photographer, but at least I managed to take some!

Halong Bay Cruise

Books and beers - librarian on vacation

why yes, those are carrots and peppers masterfully carved into flowers

and a tomato phoenix

Floating venders

And essentially the only shot I got of Hanoi

I wish I had had time to take more, but we were really only in the city proper for a handful of hours.

Highlights

2009-12-12T13:14:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was definitely an interesting cap to the work week. Everything started off with the mayor wandering into my work to use the phone. Apparently a whole clutch of Great Lakes mayors were meeting at the club to discuss various shared problems; Detroit was not in attendance. I actually got to talk to Mr. Daley on his second visit and he said that he remembered my grandmother from the States Attorney's office - it may have just been him being nice, but if it's true that's cool.
I brought in my camera for once, so in the slow evening I took some photos of my library before heading out for the night.

After work I tracked down the CTA Holiday Train, which was running my route home. I know times are tight with the CTA right now, but it's nice that they keep this tradition going - I had a good time, and there were lots of kids with their parents just riding the train around the city, seeing the sights.

Passing out candy - nice!

lol

This guy must have been freezing his ass off.

Till next year, Holiday Train

Photo tour of our trip to Norway and Germany

2009-12-09T00:10:00.005-06:00

Quiet arrival

Walked up to the highest point of Ålesund, Norway, for this view.

Overland hike from Geiranger to Hellesylt, Norway

Bergen, Norway - we hiked all the way from here back to the harbor.

Stavanger, Norway

On the Queen Mary 2

Berlin, Germany

Dresden, Germany

Autostadt - Wolfsburg, Germany

Celle, Germany

Internationales Wind- und Wasser-Mühlenmuseum, Germany

Hamburg, Germany

While I'm at it...

2009-12-08T01:32:00.002-06:00

I've been sleeping so poorly the last week or so that I might as well use some of my unwanted free time to update my blog. A lot has happened since I went missing from this site. I worked my butt off at a place that, while involved in a very cool project and mission, was not a good work environment for me. Thankfully, out of the blue, I was contacted about a year-old resume that I had submitted at a different place, which brought me to the position where I now find myself.

In the interim, I've lost and gained weight, sanity, confidence, control of my path, free time, and more in varying increments. Only now do I feel like I am finally straightening out my world and moving on to more interesting things. However, have been fortunate enough to have escaped the day-to-day grind in many wonderful ways - from travel, to moving house once again - I intend to write a bit more about that once I've had some sleep. So, hello blog - I missed you; I hope to be around you a bit more often as I get back to living like me again.

Beer goggles on my city

2009-11-18T23:31:00.003-06:00

I can't tell you all how thrilled I am - really. The feeling I have knowing that now I can go grab lunch with my father, or my brother, or Dan; the three most important men in my world. To know that when I get out of work - as my own direct boss, when I see fit - that I am in the heart of the city I love with a passion. All I can say is this is amazing. I go to and from with with the biggest, stupidest grin on my face. Riding home on the El tonight, listening to a live PA from Hyperactive (acid techno), knowing that what I see out the windows is really what inspired what I was jamming to. I felt a return to my giddy teens years of escape to the city for something more. And isn't that what I am doing now? Running further into the city to chase my ideal?

I know that today I leafed though, fake-casually, a copy of the original plans of the city, knowing I would soon be in charge of its awesomeness and more. I am a kid in the candy store right now. Everything I see tells me that I can have an amazing time for the next few years, but I know I really really need to read the signs and guess right. We shall see what happens.

I could really use the cash-in on job karma now.

Pho Sho

2009-10-30T05:30:00.002-05:00

In Ho Chi Minh City. Passed out hard last night, and woke up in reasonable time this morning to a breakfast of egg pho and coffee. Claudia and I went out for a walk to a local spa where she got her hair and nails done while I had an amazing 45 minute head massage. Yes, head massage - basically all I ever want in life.
The rest of the day was spent wandering around on a mission to locate a particular style of scooter helmet that I kept seeing and really wanted for a bike helmet. Got all humid and sweaty, but then the torrential rain came, trapped us under a shop awning, and we grabbed some beers from the cooler and waited it out. Helmets and groceries were eventually acquired; now it's time for dinner and the bar.

Good morning / good night

2009-10-29T04:47:00.003-05:00

Parked watching the sun set over Hong Kong through the windows of the airport - knowing full well it's getting ready to rise not long from now in the city I flew out of about 15 hours ago. Needless to say, I'm feeling a little bit disoriented, but the view is spectacular. I am really excited my connecting flight to Ho Chi Minh City will leave here after dark, so I can see that mushroom farm of skyscrapers on the islands all lit up. Welcome to the other side of the world.

Automatic

2009-08-27T15:34:00.002-05:00

Sitting here at my desk, reading a printout of an article, I caught myself subconsciously holding the mouse with my right hand and using the scroll wheel to scroll down when I was getting to the end of the paragraph. I need to get away from my computer more.

Keys

2009-08-27T11:26:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow we get the keys to the new castle - I can't even explain how I feel about that right now. I'm trying to ignore it so that I don't get too distracted, but every once and a while I remember what's going on and I get a touch of the butterflies in the stomach. I can't wait to start bringing stuff over and making things our own - not having to deal with anyone else's BS. I can't wait to think about planning my garden and doing all the things I've been wanting to do with more space of my own. Dan will have his workshop area, and we'll finally have our basement bar. There will finally be enough room to not have bikes in the living room or hockey equipment airing out in the kitchen.

The nest week or so of living out of boxes will be kind of bogus, but the ends will definitely justify the means.

From what we've been told by the old owners, the Bridgeport welcoming committee has already been over asking questions and trying to feel us out, so I'm curious how that will all go down. I told them to tell them we were incredible loud, messy, and Cubs fans, so we'll see.

To do

2009-08-26T01:06:00.004-05:00

My list of small goals that I would like to achieve, bit by bit, in the near future:

01. Move in and get the house in order
02. Brew a batch of beer
03. Set up worm bins for kitchen waste
04. Read a chapter or two for LibriVox
05. Get some of my photos up on etsy to sell
06. Find out where I can take Polish classes
07. Learn to do metal work/make stained glass objects
08. Get back to training - I want to do this next year
09. Cut out pointless sugar and caffeine
10. Learn to can/pickle things
11. Go shampoo-less
12. Get the sewing machine from Mom and start learning how to use it
13. Learn to crochet
14. Plan out next year's plantings
15. Start henna dying el pelo

Boxing Day

2009-08-04T12:17:00.002-05:00

So we are one day out from our trip to Europe, which we will return from just in time to scramble to be reading for moving day. Needless to say, things are nutty around the house. It's a precarious balancing act between getting everything shoved into scavenged boxes, and making sure not to pack anything that might be needed or desired while we are abroad. Apologies to all those near and dear who may have had their needs and requests packed messily into one of my mental crates during this time; hopefully when I get back refreshed, and get moved into the new place I will be back to being a semi-rational human being.

In the meantime, leave a message to let me know what you want from Norway, Germany, or Poland - it may happen!

Helplessly addicted

2009-07-27T15:15:00.004-05:00

The post-grad-school chasm that was left after my final semester concluded has slowly started filling in - with an unhealthy addiction to low, cheap fiction. Currently the most anticipated event in my near future is the arrival of the next three volumes of the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mysteries series (HBO's True Blood series is based on these - it's my other shameless fix). With titles like Dead Until Dark, Dead as a Doornail, Definitely Dead, and Dead and Gone, how could you resist? You know what you're getting into, and you like it.

I just caught myself daydreaming about getting home and checking my mailbox for the familiar cheap yellow padded mailers used by other amazon junkies like myself. Maybe I'll have time before my 11pm game, I plot. It feels like of like being in love with someone you're kind of embarrassed of introducing to your friends; you love the time you've spent with them, but you just know some of your people will wind up giving you shit about it. Sookie has been keeping me up until 2am on weeknights, head under the covers with a book lamp so not to bother Dan - he teases me a bit, but understands. Dan has been carrying out an unhealthy relationship with World at War for the last few months, so I guess he is in no position to judge anyway.

I guess my brain is on vacation for the time being, and it has sought out vampires as a means of escape (I plowed through the Twilight series during finals week). Not sure what this means I'll move on to next; perhaps I'll move on to other deeper, darker areas of sci-fi, but I kind of doubt it. The vampire novel really does encapsulate all the guilty pleasures one could ask for in garbage reading: mystery, excitement, romance, corny humor, semi-predictable plot twists, pseudo-history, and more.

Thankfully I'm three books in and barely half way through the series; these should take me through my upcoming trips. I laugh to even type that, knowing that my level of anticipation is greater related to waiting for my books than it is for heading to the airport in less than a week and a half to head to Europe - I guess it helps me to focus on short-term events than to get all worked up waiting for the major things to finally arrive!

stretch

2009-07-23T20:16:00.001-05:00

This summer will go down in memory as the summer of skirts - not because I feel particularly feminine and dressy, but because they allow me to hide the extra baggage I took on over the winter. Good times.

An open letter to nurses

2009-07-22T00:43:00.004-05:00

Before I begin, thank you. I do appreciate and respect what you do, and nothing that follows should diminish that; I realize that the situation I am about to describe doesn't stem from any sort of malice, but, rather, a very well-deserved pride in your professional abilities.

What I want to ask is that you take my word for it when I ask you to draw blood from my hand. Yes, I know it's more painful. Normally. Unfortunately for me, it's become more than obvious that you will never be able to get blood any other way. My making this request is not a challenge for you to find the elusive non-rolling vein that lies somewhere buried in the fat of my inner arm. I don't care how much you call other nurses who tried, got frustrated, bruised me, and failed unprofessional, it doesn't mean that you will succeed. Trust me - it's not you, it's my veins.

So you called my bluff like all the rest - said you found one. You failed. At least you had the decency to look shame-faced while apologizing before heading off to the hand. Thing is, at this point the damage has been done and it's only going to get worse. As someone who has spent about 20 hours under the tattoo gun and have run out of fingers to count past and present piercings on, I know how to mentally prepare for needles and pain; what I can't prepare for is the unexpected, or even expected pointless pain. My tattoo artist or piercer would never jab around my arm trying to do something I'd already told them not to do - I trust them. At this point, I have lost my trust in you.

You dig into the hand. Things are going ok, and I am trying to breathe evenly, but I feel the white hot sensation all over my body, rushing into my ears and eyes, that means I will soon pass out if you don't stop. I wait as long as I can before telling you this - until you jiggle the needle and send a flame of pain through my hand. I need to lie down. Yes, I want a glass of water - thanks for fanning me. Funny enough, I am the one who is deeply embarrassed at this point for lacking the control to avoid this, either by not having tried hard enough to stop you, or by maintaining better focus.

A few minutes later, prone, I am ready to let you finish the last two vials. You laugh and say next time I should tell the nurse right off the bat that I need to lie down. I resist the urge to tell you that the mini nap never would have happened if my initial request had been respected. It's not the loss or sight of blood that gets me, it's a fear of this ritual repeating and being drawn out every single time. It's tiresome being made to feel over and over again that you assume I just don't know what I'm talking about, and that you need to show me. You do show me - that I'm right.

So, please - everything else you do is wonderful - you just need to learn that we, as patients, know a bit about our bodies and comfort zones. So, it's long sleeves for me tomorrow and the inevitable questions about why my hands are purple.

Getting closer

2009-06-17T10:23:00.001-05:00

We signed the disclosure documents earlier in the week and are having the inspection this afternoon - I'm pretty excited about that. The whole house buying process is starting to feel a bit more real now, like it might actually be pulled off. Here's hoping that they don't find out the place has house AIDS or anything of that nature - basement crabs.

No quarter given

2009-06-12T01:17:00.004-05:00

1:15AM - just after the harrowing encounter.

I had gone downstairs to turn out the lights Dan left on in his man-cave, and was just about ready to head up for the night. On the way up I made a stop to use the facilities, and was lost in thought when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye - quick, furtive, darting, low movement across the doorway, towards the kitchen.

My nemesis.

There's no mistaking that scurry - that tan/gold blur of hate - the reckless disregard of nearby human presence.

I finished up and looked left and right before exiting the bathroom, to size up the location of my foe and make sure that he wasn't waiting to ambush my toes as I crossed the threshold. Curse him for matching the color of that damned carpeting the landlady installed before we moved in!

I grabbed my trusty weapon - my hockey stick - which is always nearby to provide convenient protective space between me and the object needing smushing. I started towards my many-legged foe after being sure that it was him laying low and not a dust bunny. I was about to do him in with the butt-end when I realized I'd probably never want to handle the stick again with that evil gore where my hands would touch.

Flipping the stick over, I poked tentatively at the beast with the toe of the blade, half afraid the jab would make him jump on me - centipedes, of course, possessing the magical ability to leap great distances when provoked (who doesn't know that?). After about the third try I managed to pluck up the courage to do him in, and then quickly scooped him up to toss his still-writhing bug husk out the window.

Now I am left with the pressing questions:

How did he get in?
Was he acting alone?
Was he on recon?
Will there be reinforcements?
What were his plans?
Will there be more in my boots in the morning? I swear he was headed towards them!
Why the hell does he need all those legs?

I may have won this round - but I fear the end may not yet be in sight. Tonight, dear kitty, you will need to be on your guard!

We have a house*

2009-06-11T08:59:00.002-05:00

Dan called me last night from Houston, at the Astros game, to tell me that our offer had been accepted more or less outright. *I am reserving doing the happy dance until we have keys in hand because things can never be that simple with us. Apparently the place they had lined up to buy just got taken off the market because the seller wants to sell to a family member; I hate to be the one to wish ill on anyone's hopes and dreams, but I'm kind of pulling for that sale to fall through so we can get this over with.

As things stand right now, we have a closing date of 9/1, 'or ASAP;' if things move along quickly, we'll move more quickly. This presents a minor problem because our lease is up 8/1. The plan as of right now is to throw our stuff in pod storage and live with the folks - on the bright side, this won't need to go on too long because we're going to be in Europe for the majority of August.

So, still waiting, but this time with a bit more hope.

Plot twists

2009-06-10T09:02:00.002-05:00

It's hard not to feel like something out there is now jerking our chains. Last night we were scheduled to see three places - the new one in Bridgeport, the one we were about to sign on in Oak Park, and another random joint that looked really nice in OP.

So the Bridgeport place was everything we wanted, sans the yard space, though that was made up for with an awesome deck and balcony. We were on our way out of the neighborhood when we decided to call our realtor to tell him to cancel the other showings, and that we wanted to move on the place. As it turns out, Paul was already on the phone with the listing agent for the Oak Park place that was waiting for our signature - a pipe burst while they were replacing the bathtub - we wouldn't be able to return there until Thursday. Excellent, we now had time to figure things out without having to stall.

Beyond that, the sellers of the Bridgeport place are poised to move and have a place picked out at their destination that won't sell to them on a contingency. Basically, they want to get out as quickly as we want to get in; if everything goes right, we could have this sealed up without that place ever being listed on the MLS.

So here is the hardest part - waiting. Their listing agent, the notorious S from the 3331 debacle, has been working hard to get this done for us - to make it up to us - but doesn't know these sellers well enough to be able to say whether or not they'll get freaked out or become greedy over the fact that they had a good offer before even listing. Hopefully not. We met the wife, and she seemed awesome, but that never means anything.

So, now we wait - with all luck things will fall neatly into place. I feel like I've deserved them to after all the stress and heartbreak this process has caused, but I know I'm not owed anything in the grand scheme of things. All I can ask for is speed for the good or bad news so that I can get to moving on!

Decision-making time - again?

2009-06-09T11:04:00.002-05:00

A quick and dirty update on the long saga of house hunting that I have been sparing whatever readership I have left from:

January: I contacted a realtor to see a couple places in Bridgeport, which I went to see with Audrey because Dan wasn't ready to look yet. Those were a flop, but the realtor seemed like a good guy, so we kept in touch - him sending me properties that fit our criteria, and me, for the most part, vetoing them.

February: Dan joins the search party, and we begin to look at places in earnest as our lease was going to be up at the end of May. Things seem to be going slowly but steadily, though nothing really sparked our interest.

March: more of the same.

April: A nice 2-flat came on the market, Dan and I put in a successful offer and were ready to buy when 3331 Lowe showed up. 3331 was a cute brick number on the street we currently rent on; it was dated and needed some work, but overall it had a ton of potential. We made an offer, beat out a competitor, and eventually had our offer accepted - or so we thought. A couple days later and talks start going downhill. All the sudden the seller doesn't want to use the dates she had previously agreed to because they are too soon - keep in mind that any later date will cause us to be homeless in the interim. Seller refuses to cover our storage and housing costs for this homeless period and seemingly re-agrees to our dates. Hours later, she backs away completely, telling her listing agent that it is simply too mentally and emotionally taxing to sell. That same day she shows her property to other people - days later it is under contract to someone else.

May: We manage to extend our lease on a monthly basis on the understanding that we will give our land lady two months notice, and will not leave after August if we haven't told her we were intending to. We continue to look, this time in Oak Park because no properties have hit the market in Bridgeport since 3331. Oak Park begins to look great - loads being listed - historic, lots of land, tons of room, etc. We put an offer in on our dream place, but are told that there is already an offer in that is higher than we think the place is worth.

June: Time is ticking. Found another place that is very much like 3331 Lowe in terms of charm and potential. Put in an offer, got a reasonable counter, and were hours away from signing. Call comes in from our realtor the evening before we sign that he had heard from the listing agent from 3331 - she has a dark horse contender. We are given the option to preview a place that hasn't even hit the market yet in Bridgeport (this apparently happens a lot - things sell there that never officially hit the MLS). Tonight we see this place, and go back to see the Oak Park place - it's decision time about whether we stay put, or move on. Space or location; city or burbs. This may seem minor, but it's anything but - it's a shift in lifestyle that Dan and I have to jointly decide to make - or not.

Here we go.

Crazy Eyes Chronicles

2009-06-08T09:39:00.003-05:00

For those of you who know Dan and me, you probably have heard me tell stories about Dan's sleep talking, or as I like to call it, Crazy Eying or Running Manning. Well, I've always wanted to start writing these down, possibly keeping a notebook by the bedside so that I could remember to make fun of him the next day. I think that notebook will be this blog.

So, this morning's entry (or last night's - it was somewhere in between) is dedicated to the rummage.

~2:30 am - wake up to Dan sitting bolt upright in bed, rummaging in the covers.

Me: What are you doing?
Dan: Looking for *mumble*
Me: Looking for what?
Dan: I'm looking for awesome.
Me: You're looking for awesome? It's right here!
Dan: *gives me dirty look, goes back to rummaging*
Dan: I need to find the awesome belt.
Me: OK love - you find it *rolls over and goes back to sleep*

Later that night/morning
Me: *returns from bathroom and jostles Dan while getting back into bed*
Dan: *tenses up and gives me a crazy stare*
Me: *busts out in nervous laughter*
Dan: *joins in, laughing*
We: *laugh together for a bit, at entirely different things I'm sure*
Me: *goes back to sleep*
Dan: *keeps on chuckling to himself*

Settling in, uneasily

2009-06-05T14:26:00.004-05:00

For those of you who have spoken to me over the last month or so, you already know my situation at work has been a bit rocky with uncertainty and miscommunication. Well, at the end of my first week in my new management position, things appear to be going more smoothly than they were the past two weeks when I was on my own, without my minions. Our office is full of summer student interns - all completely brilliant and totally overqualified for the tasks they're doing (in many, but not all cases - some of the work is pretty awesome) - and things are flying along at breakneck, hair-pulling pace.

Somewhere within all this mix, I seem to have developed a little cocoon of safety from the intense scrutiny I had become accustomed to when the office was more empty. Though we are a nonprofit, it should be understood that we are run very much like a corporate entity, with constant oversight, micromanaging, and 'Tough Love'-style motivation tactics. What doesn't kill or drive us mad here is supposed to be a learning experience that makes us stronger. This includes overtime without pay, apparently.

It has been interesting to see the new blood coming in and realizing what they've signed up for; most of them, like me, come from liberal arts backgrounds, and are feeling the cold shock of an entirely different style of work environment. Friends have often heard me employ the term the Seagull Boss in relation to some of my interactions here - while those experiences were frustrating and even infuriating to have had personally, I have to admit they're really funny to watch unfold as an outsider. There is a moment, just after someone checks their morning emails and lets out the telltale exasperated grunt, or when I hear someone being called into the office, where I snicker and imagine Keyboard Cat getting ready to play as failure ensues.

Today I actually received a positive comment in response to something I emailed and nearly crapped myself, so hopefully that means I've figured out the formula and will be relatively grief-free for the next eight weeks. Like a beaten child I am wary of shows of kindness out of the blue, and hesitantly wait for things to go back to the usual attempts at trying to pass under the radar. More to come.

Update

2009-05-22T09:32:00.002-05:00

This blog seems to have become the condensed version of daily life for the time being, but I'm slowly trying to get back into the swing. I graduated last weekend, so finally that chapter is over and done with.

Monday I started at a new term position at the place I've been working at since January; it only goes for 10 weeks, but it's management experience, which is cool. I am currently huddled within a protective fort made of stuff I need to sort through.

Dan and I are hopefully putting in an offer on a place in Oak Park today. We love Bridgeport, but it seems like the residents here have put selling on a hold and we are ready to move on. I hope we have better luck this time than we had with our last two attempts at home buying - third time is the charm, maybe? At any rate, we have close second and third choices, so at least this time we have backup plans.

Another all-nighter

2009-05-11T04:31:00.001-05:00

possibly the last for a long time. Just found out my grade already for my other course and am happy with that. I've felt like I've been phoning it in for the last semester, so it's nice to know my professor didn't think so as well.

Tonight (Monday) I am going to the Hawks playoff game solo because my wonderful husband bought me a ticket! As Claudia aptly put it: Hockey = Love.

Fri

2009-05-09T01:28:00.004-05:00

End of the week has passed and brought no news about the job. Dan helpfully suggested that they may have offered the job to the other candidate and were waiting to hear her response before coming to me. Thanks Dan.

In other news, on Tuesday Dan and I will be looking at homes in the Oak Park neighborhood just west of Chicago. Bridgeport isn't letting us in, and we're getting tired of this game - Oak Park seems to have a lot to offer while still reaping the benefits of being on the CTA and close in to the city. Aside from that, the housing stock in our price range is amazing - sweet vintage places with nice upgrades, beautiful landscaping, lots of outdoor space, and close proximity to a pretty cool downtown business area. So, we're going to go feel out out to see if we'd like to put down roots, or if we want to keep holding out for something here; at this point I could go either way, though I am starting to get bitter about how we've fared in this neighborhood with our two failed attempts at buying. Striking out twice in such a heart-wrenching way almost makes me feel like we somehow don't belong here; I know that's silly but it's hard not to start taking it a bit personal.

This weekend is all about Mom and taking her around for her special day - Saturday is plant show and working again in the garden, while Sunday is the breast cancer run and taking mom to dinner. Show your moms some love!

The wee hours

2009-05-07T03:21:00.002-05:00

Another late-nighter, but it marks the killing off of my second-to-last-ever grad school assignment. All that's left to do now is my big final project that is due next Friday; I am planning on murdering it over the weekend so that I don't have anything to spoil my enjoyment of the coming week.

In other news, interviewed for a full-time position for the summer at my current work; the competition looks really good, so I will not get my hopes up on this one. If it happens, cool - it'll be great for my resume; if not, that's ok too. They supposedly have a part-time gig for me that is guaranteed, and that will open me up to being able to take on some of the side projects I have planned for the summer in terms of apprenticing and volunteering to get more varied work experience. Regardless of their decision, I should have an answer by the end of the week - here goes nothing.

It's that time again!

2009-05-05T21:51:00.003-05:00

My friend Karen and I will be running this weekend in the Breast Cancer Network of Strength Walk to Empower (formerly the unfortunately-named Y-Me). If you're interested in donating to my race page, please go here.
Proceeds go to provide support in many different ways to individuals with breast cancer, their loved ones, and survivors.

Familiar refrain

2009-05-01T17:17:00.003-05:00

RE: Archivist/Lead Surveyor and Requisition Number ****

Dear Elizabeth *****,

Thank you for applying for Archivist/Lead Surveyor, ********.
We have been fortunate to receive resumes from many interested applicants for this opening and have decided to pursue an applicant at this time whose education and background would be a better fit for the position.

We appreciate your interest in furthering your career at the ******. Please continue to visit our website at ***** a listing of all open positions.

We wish you success in your future endeavors.

Thank you,

Human Resources Management
********

Glad to hear I lack the proper education and background for just about anything as I'm on the verge of completing yet another degree. I mourn the loss of entry-level academic positions.

****

training plan for reaching grad school finish line

2009-04-27T01:12:00.002-05:00

So I am in the final stretch and looking at a mountain of work (not shocking in the least). In order to avoid complete mental meltdown in the next two weeks, I have plotted out my own homework/life training plan to keep myself from piling too much on one day, and loading the other days with non-stop, hair-pulling stress. I have also done my best to write in some running days so that my 1/2 training can possibly not go completely down the toilet.

As for the other necessities like breathing, bathing, house work, and possibly packing for a move I don't know is actually coming or not - those will have to fall somewhere into the cracks of time I have left. On the plus side, our 'due to be homeless' date isn't until June 1, so at least that gives me a couple weeks to collect my wits after walking down that aisle, getting my diploma, and diving headlong into the real world (or not).
Somewhere in that time Karen and I were supposed to take a cross-country trip, but everything is hanging in flux right now until I find out when I am supposed to start work (my contract at the current place supposedly has been extended until the end of summer session). I also am feeling a bit hesitant to leave town if Dan and I have no idea what we're doing about living space. For those of you who aren't immediately in the loop, our lease is up June 1, we've been searching for a home to buy for the last couple months, and our land lady refuses to let us go month-to-month until we sign on a place. We had a place that we'd made an offer on, and had that offer accepted, but the seller completely screwed us over and walked away at the last minute. Back to square one with a little more than a month to find a home has us just a little bit frazzled. There have been many tiffs, and many make up meals and ice cream - nothin' says lovin' like training-massacring stress eating.

Hi blog

2009-04-23T01:31:00.003-05:00

my relationship with you is like my relationship with my gym of late - I only visit to blow off some steam when stuff gets so heavy I can't deal. So, today was so extra awesome on the 'shoot me in the face and get it over with' scale that I went and ran six miles at the gym; nice to see firsthand how badly I've let my training slide. I managed to finish in about 68minutes and then had to walk for another 10 to stop feeling like I was going to die on the treadmill. To be completely honest, I decided to do the long run at the gym because I knew it would be a tough one and wanted witnesses if I keeled over.

When it was all over, all that I was running from caught up and and I was back to square one. Oh well, at least I got a workout out of it, and I'm not too terribly sore; it was a stamina issue and not a strength issue. Out of body glide, so the chafe issue struck again - tried Vaseline but it didn't really work too well. Better than nothing though, I guess; the wonders of being a running fattie!

Now it's back to laying in bed - massive knot of anxiety eating away and keeping me awake. It'll be great when all of this is over, but there are so many things overlapping that there isn't one neat deadline. Time to do some scheduling and working out what I can eliminate from the stress list first (more like what needs to be eliminated first), so that I can move on and actually deal with the more long-term issues. In the end it's all manageable - nothing life-threatening, so no need to worry - just taxing at the moment. Life has a way of working out eventually, but it would be nice if it didn't work itself into such a knot before starting the process of sorting things out.

Robin red breast

2009-04-02T00:51:00.002-05:00

Some people look for crocuses poking through the brown grass, or curse their seasonal allergies; as for me, the sign that spring is finally near is the first runner's chafe of the season. Unlike my more hearty friends who run through the winter, I am just now emerging from my hibernation to answer the call to rise to my feet. Like my squirrel sistren, I have discovered that my carefully placed stashes of survival rations have become depleted during my winter absence; yes, those sticks of body glide that have been hanging out on my dresser (the site of which seemed to be a perpetual chastisement for my sloth) have turned out to be empty.

Heedless of my better judgment which, though slowed by my still-groggy state of mind, still told me that I should not attempt to run without greasing up, I hit the rubber path (no, I still have not braved the elements) sans anti-chafe protection. And now - I hurt. But it's ok, because it's all downhill from here (in some ways at least). I've had my first 'hey, wake up and resupply, dummy!' moment to tell me that I need to get serious again and be prepared. Red welts will shrink and fade as, hopefully, will my times and wasteline.

So, procrastination and lethergy be gone - it's time to lumber onto the lake path to get ready for a summer of events.

Gut reaction

2009-03-17T23:58:00.003-05:00

I was thinking about an odd bit of my personality while I was having a conversation with a friend today - the fact that the toughest decision I ever seem to make in life is what to order when I'm eating out. In all other areas of my life, I have always been a bit impressed with my ability to have a strong gut instinct of what I needed to do right off the bat, and the tenacity to stick with it until I get what I want (or completely fail and see the error in my ways). When shopping for clothes I even get a bit smug about the fact that I know exactly what I'm looking for before entering the store and can do a quick circuit and leave if I don't find it immediately.
This skill completely abandons me when food comes into the picture.
What do you want to eat tonight?
No clue
What are you in the mood for?
You choose
Are you ready to order?
I'll go last
Are you ready now?
Which do you think is better out of these two....?

When I do find something on the menu I like, there's usually some kind of bargaining I want to go through - can I get tots instead of fries? Can I get this steamed instead of fried? Can I get the dressing on the side? Can I substitute the chili for the salad? Can I get a fruit cup instead of hash browns? Can you make this spicy, please?

Outside the dinner table things seem so cut and dry for me; the path clear. Very seldom do I have to ask what my options are; I'm working them all out in my head. I rarely ask 'what do you think I should do?' I guess when it boils down to it, food for me is a matter of taste, while everything else turns into a mission - something I can see the end of already (for good or bad). Food is something to enjoy and even create and imagine the possibilities with, while my next step is more methodical and planned out; an inevitability. A necessity and not really open for discussion.

So now it's 'rainbow or pineapple sherbet?' I think I'll have both... Next week I'll be exploring the dining options in Washington D.C. and taking the next couple steps down that path I've been rapidly approaching for the last couple months; I'm sure I'll be well-fed and ready for the journey.

Book em, Dano

2009-02-25T22:57:00.003-06:00

Finally heard back from my contact at the Smithsonian and got some more information about my upcoming short stay and the potential summer gig. I'm not sure if I mentioned it here, but shortly after getting the news about the offered internship, I realized that I would need to be done by August 6th because I am leaving the country with Dan's family for a trip. Needless to say, I can't really be mad because the potential conflict is something that I want to do.

So Smithsonian guy told me that normally they want their summer interns to be able to work 10 weeks, but that they could make exceptions, and that he advised I get there for my one week to see how I like it before I commit to anything. At this point I'm thinking 'what on God's green earth could possibly happen there in one week that could change a life-long dream of mine?' I think maybe he also wants to see if he thinks I would work out for a summer as well, which seems more reasonable.

The most amusing part of the communication I received today was a semi-casual mention that in order to get clearance to work at the Smithsonian as an official intern, I would need to undergo an FBI background check and get fingerprinted. This wasn't a terrible shock to me, as I'd be employed by the government, but it still kind of made me laugh (and nervous). I've been a bit rowdy in my life, but nothing of major note. I find it kind of funny that I made it to this age without ever having my fingerprints taken (or even being in a cop car). Being a prankster in high school never got me anywhere, but I can't help but wonder how deep the FBI go. Will the local cops talk about the time my friend and I got a warning for starting a mini-bonfire in a local park by some train tracks? Will some teacher from High School dish about how he always thought I was up to no good? Will some embarrassing raver pictures surface of me amidst rumors of rampant drug usage? Surely she must have been high to dress like that!

I know that nothing will come of it, but it's kind of funny to imagine the world of the FBI man sent to look into a recent library science graduate seeking an archives internship; far from the cloak-and-dagger world he imagined he was getting into when he first attempted to get into the Bureau.

The people have spoken

2009-02-09T17:16:00.003-06:00

I was salty that the people at U.S. Cellular Field took down their congratulatory banner for President Obama before I had the chance to snap a photo of it (though really happy that they had put one up in the first place!). Well, I have a hunch that other people were just as salty because the banner has reappeared on the eastern corner of the stadium where it sat for most of January. In a random stroke of luck I happened to have my camera with me, so I made Audrey stop the car and throw on the hazards so I could get a couple pics. I need to go back during the say sometime so the picture of him on the banner can be seen better, but here it is in most of its glory:

So very awesome to have a Sox fan in the oval office!

Random thought of the day - opposable toes/dexterous feet

2009-02-04T22:02:00.001-06:00

I wish I could grip things with my feet like other primates. If this were possible I would finally have a way of warming my preternaturally-icey feet to the point where Dan dosen't scream in terror like a small girl when I happen to brush his bare leg with one in bed.

Damn

2009-02-04T01:41:00.003-06:00

Yet another friend got laid off - I wish this many of my friends were simply getting laid at this point in time...

Another interesting day - in FFWD

2009-02-04T01:31:00.002-06:00

Spoke with Smithsonian contact over the phone and was told of two opportunities: one which I will be taking advantage of over spring break, and the other which I will hopefully be taking advantage of over the course of 10 weeks this summer.

If all goes well I will be working an internship at the Smithsonian after graduation, which basically means that I will be well down the road to dying happy - as it was high on the list of that really long 'to do before I die' list.

Just to give you an idea of how much of a kid in the candy shop I'll be - here is a taste from the collection site that I can't seem to get out of my head:

"All told, the archives' holdings include nearly 635,000 ethnological and archaeological photographs (including some of the earliest images of indigenous people worldwide); 20,000 works of native art (mainly North American, Asian, and Oceanic); 11,400 sound recordings; and more than 8 million feet of original film and video materials. The Smithsonian's broad collection policy and support of anthropological research for over 150 years have made the NAA and HSFA unparalleled resources for scholars interested in the cultures of North America, Latin America, Oceania, Africa, Asia and Europe."

I can't even begin to explain how awesome that would be to me if this all winds up working out. I've wanted to be there, working there, since I first set foot in it as a little kid. I'm pretty certain I could never relocate to DC permanently because I love my city so much, but I really want to get a taste of what it must be like to work somewhere that incredible.

Abbreviated posting

2009-02-02T13:37:00.002-06:00

Declared intent to graduate in May

Former prof. talking to colleague at the Smithsonian to get me in there for an internship (only a week-long, but it sounds like he would have agreed to anything).

Lost 11 lbs since start of diet challenge earlier in Jan

Applied for a position at the Chicago History Museum

My +/- is good right now!

Memory is a funny thing

2009-01-30T00:35:00.010-06:00

as are internet message boards. I was browsing my regular DnB message board tonight when I saw a thread asking what our earliest music memories were; as someone who was raised with music constantly around, that was kind of a tough one.

What first came into my mind were background memories; ambient sounds and situations that seem to weave through all the years of my childhood. Growing up there were always lots of 'oldies' in the car on road trips and my dad talking about which was #1 when and what it made him think of. Lots of Rolling Stones and CCR, not to mention tons of one-hit-wonders that he could remember with complete clarity, even if he never liked them. Some songs sparked talks about 60s politics - race riots, peaceful demonstrations, hippies, fear of being sent to war, personal experiences, and national ones - each song prompting a mini-lesson in what it was like to be college-aged in a time of turmoil, and how those influences created some amazing music. Funny how now I do the same thing when I hear 90s music countdowns; I can't peg which ones charted, but I can remember instances, people, and all kinds of emotions wrapped up in the good, the bad, and the ugly; perhaps my era didn't witness such profound national changes, but each song chronicled massive private changes of one kind or another.

After that there are the goofy songs from the Dr. Demento show. We used to listen to it coming back from the demolition derby at the long-gone Santa Fe Speedway. These songs are tied up in memories of Indian Princess/Indian Guides friends, bikers in leather, lots of smoke, and an odd instance where for some reason I used the men's handicapped bathroom while my dad guarded the door outside, but somehow or other someone accidentally walked in. The speedway was an awesome contradiction to the tame suburbia in which we grew up: people smoked, drank, fought, made out, peed on walls, and cheered as mud spattered the people all around them - kicked up by colliding rust-buckets. Minus the mud, and it's a lot like how I remember old Comiskey Park.

Stream of consciousness, mixed in with some Weird Al Yankovic.

My first distinct musical memory was me visiting the nursing home where my Nana (Mom's mom) was living. My grandpa (Dad's dad) was a career musician and played in various bands, one of which came to entertain at her nursing home once a month - a bunch of old timers playing polka, tamburitza, etc.. Anyway, I was hanging out with Nana and her friends when grandpa got on the mic and called me up to the stage; I must have been about 5 or so. He asked me to sing 'You Are My Sunshine' while the band played. To this day I still have terrible stage fright and will only sing alone in the car. Despite the mental scarring, I got over it and never held a grudge against grandpa, but I was always sure to make myself scarce when he was playing (as long as I wasn't out of earshot)!

"In memory everything seems to happen to music."
~ Tennessee Williams
The Glass Managerie

Beautiful day

2009-01-20T12:09:00.003-06:00

Who could ask for anything more? Headed to work in the bright sunshine, but oddly in the middle of a heavy snowfall - it was like moving about in a snowglobe of my city. The radio was full of meaningful, celebratory music and constant commentary about the goings on in Washington.

When I arrived at work a projection screen was up and running with the feed from CNN. Words really can not describe the sight of the capital flooded with people, waiting breathlessly for things to begin - like waves, shimmering from the heat of the collective excitement. The proceedings were grand and poetic; the music and spoken words inspiring through their simple messages. Obama himself appeared confident and almost stoic, though once or twice a smile crept through - a foil to Biden's constant grin. Everyone was silent, except for murmured agreements with points being made, or the silent-but-joyful weeping of the sweet old lady next to me - she said she never thought she'd live to see this day. I'm very glad she has.

Now it's time to get down to work, both here at The HistoryMakers office on the small scale, and for President Obama on the grand scale - all my best wishes to him and his people for the huge mountain of tasks ahead.

Final Countdown

2009-01-15T23:19:00.002-06:00

We're now in the dwindling days of the Bush era; tonight was his last prime time address to the nation. To be 100% honest, I had no idea the broadcast was going on until I returned to the locker room at my gym after working out. I had my earphones on, so it took me a bit to notice he was on cnn, up there in the corner on the TV - the thing that tipped me off was how irritated everyone in there looked, and how people were watching me to see my reaction to the screen. I took off my headphones to listen, and continued to change.

What was normally a chatty locker room at a small gym was completely silent except for that usual, awkward voice; I avoided reacting to anything because I didn't feel like getting into anything political when I could already feel the tension in the room. Finally, the speech ended and Bush left the stage. On the TV the commentator mentioned the 'standing ovation as Bush leaves the stage for the last time.'

"Good riddance" says a female voice behind me. To my other side another girl starts to laugh. Immediately the mood lightens as it becomes serious that we're all on the same page. One girl makes a quip about how given the 30-something % approval rating, at least someone in the room had to be a fan. Eyes turn towards the shower stalls - one of which is in use.

"Hey Audrey," I call out, "are you a fan of President Bush?"

"Hell no!" is the immediate answer.

Everyone laughs, makes comments about it all coming to an end, and I head out to wait in the lobby.

Eight years - I can't believe we're finally at the end.

What a difference a week makes.

2009-01-08T20:47:00.005-06:00

Day 1: Get picked up and taken to try out a new gym - feeling the need to change the way I've been treating my body. Had a good workout, felt the burn, decided to join the gym. Got ready for new position - find nice clothes, get to sleep relatively early, fight the jitters.

Day 2: get dressed up for my first office-type job, a bit nervous about walking around in a skirt at something other than a wedding, funeral, or family event. Meet new coworkers and hit it off pretty well, though it was impossible not to compare them to all my friends at my old job and the relationships I miss having there. Get through the day - it was slow but not terrible. Went back to the gym for round two.

Day 3: Half day of work - had my outfit planned out the night before. Things went really quickly, so there wasn't time to think about it. Had some nice chats with the lady at the front desk; a grandmotherly type who loves knitting and really appreciated my favorite hat from Peru. Went to the gym again and rocked out some cardio. Ran three miles in about 34 minutes, and had an "ahhhh" moment when I found my stride. Stretched and rocked 12 miles on the bike, watching the snow swirl outside. Got home, ate more soup, and passed out before 11:30 (if you know me, you know how huge that is!).

Day 4: Full day of work - was actually excited to get all dressed up and enjoyed using the nice clothes I never seemed to wear. Finally spent some time in the archives and got things done; had good conversations with my workmate. Went and got issue with my nosering looked at by a piercer and found out things were OK. Came home, ate the soup I made at the beginning of the week, and turned on the TV to find the Hawks game about to start. Told Dan that life was good and meant it for the first time since the end of August.

Tomorrow? Looking to go chill with Audrey and then hit the gym again.

Saturday? Tryouts for a professional, co-ed roller hockey league. Could be cheesy, but if it isn't it could be a lot of fun; I got the invite from some people I skate with, so I thought I had nothing to lose by checking it out. I'm not really a roller hockey player, so if things don't go well I won't take rejection too personally. Also on the docket is signing up for the new gym's biggest loser competition with Audrey - we need to think of a team name; suggestions welcome.

Holiday update

2008-12-23T17:45:00.002-06:00

It's not even the main event, yet most of the madness has passed without incident. The Half Acre bike team party last Friday went really well; it was nice to meet the rest of Dan's team mates, and to see the ones I already knew. Sometime during the night I managed to smash my left ankle with the dishwasher door, but that didn't really diminish the fun; it turned a lovely, almost festive, shade of royal purple after I skated last night - just in time for rocking a skirt and heels at my in-laws Christmas Eve church thing. It isn't a holiday if I didn't look like an abused wife - right?

Saturday's family dinner at our place went awesome. Things were a bit hectic and tense leading up to the big event, mainly because I'd never been insane enough to prepare a dinner for 12 before, but Dan and I both came out alive with some amusing, mashed-potato-flinging moments to laugh about later. Everything turned out great: roast pork, sweet and sour cabbage, curried butternut squash, twice-baked potatoes, potato biscuits, asparagus with cheese sauce, salad, and gołąbki. I actually managed to forget the gołąbki warming in the cooler to the side, so we didn't eat them for dinner; no worries because there was enough food on the table that nobody noticed that they were missing. They will be making an appearance at Bernie and Jean's on Christmas day instead.
Desserts were also plentiful. I made my first successful cake ever (I'm a lousy baker): mint chocolate with mint chocolate cream cheese frosting.
It was a nice way to honor my grandmother, whose recipes I almost solely relied on for the entire meal.

Now it's time to regroup, wrap gifts, and get ready for brunch with my parents tomorrow, and a stay at the in-laws tomorrow night. After that, the morning of the 26th, I'm off to meet my best friend Claudia in Vegas for the evening, and then accompany her back to Chicago to surprise her family.

So, happy holidays and safe travels to everyone - catch you all in a few days.

Livid

2008-12-16T23:46:00.005-06:00

I love snow. Really, I do love snow. I even like driving in snow. However, what I had to deal with today was absolutely batshit crazy. I left my home at 12:45pm to drive to meet my mother-in-law up in the northwest burbs (usually about a 45minute drive) and there were some lite flurries coming down. As I turned onto the ramp for 90/94 I saw it was already gridlock - "no worries," I thought, "this always clears up after the exit for 290."

Wrong.

Dead wrong.

THREE HOURS LATER I limp into the parking lot where my poor in-law was milling around trying to keep busy while she waited for me. OK, I shook it off, figuring that it was a fluke that I hadn't seen a single plow or salt truck going either way on 90 the whole time I was creeping down it, and guessed that things would be more under control after a couple hours of hanging out.

Wrong again.

I didn't even have to wait to get to 90 to see that things were still completely screwed, if not worse, because it took me a full hour to get down 53 to get there; I watched the odometer and never saw it go above 5mph, with about 2mph being the average. Again, no plows.

I get to I-90, and it is a parking lot. There were ridges of snow literally two feet high between the lanes, and no ruts to speak of to drive on. Average speed again, 5mph. At 7:45pm I finally saw my first plow of the day!.... and then passed it and never saw another. There was a brief, mind-blowing ten minutes after the O'Hare turnoff and before 94 joind 90 where I was able to hit about 35mph, but that was it; parking lot resumed.

Fast forward to 10:35pm when I finally get off of I-90/94 onto 31st street - hey, guess what? SHOCK, the city streets weren't plowed either! W...T...F?!

So, did Rod go ahead and sell of all our plows and salt trucks while we weren't looking? What exactly are my taxes paying for? I'm absolutely furious. A total of over 7 hours in my car to go a round trip distance of less than 80 miles? You have got to be kidding me - get your shit together, Illinois.

As of 4:41am

2008-12-12T04:52:00.002-06:00

I was officially done with my semester. True to form, it's been another long night of last minute, semi-delirious paper writing. I feel like the post-bar drunk who has just kicked the evening's fling out in order to get some sleep before stumbling to work - I know I just did something, but I'm not sure if the 'beer goggles' made it look better at the time than it really was. I think it went really well, but that could just be the sleep deprivation talking! I guess the grade will tell me whether or not it was a good lay.... err paper, or not.

So, as of right now, I have only one more semester - about 5 months - between me and freedom. I will be so very glad when this is all over. I just interviewed for a graduate assistantship position as an archivist at The History Makers in Chicago and am waiting to hear back about that any day now; with any hope, my last bit of school for the foreseeable future will not only give me some cool classes, but some much-needed on the job experience. As always, fingers crossed...

Time

2008-11-29T16:47:00.005-06:00

I don't normally re-post the kind of stupidity that I wind up posting on internet forums, but today a thread on one of my regulars got me thinking; it was all about how people who had registered in 2001 had been posting there for 7 years (2001 being the general agreed-upon date as being an OG on this particular site). My first comment was something to the effect that it was kind of sad that my participation on that particular forum has outlasted pretty much every other 'constant' in my life, save certain relationships with family and a couple friends.

My second post, once someone agreed with this revalation, went into more detail and merits the re-post in here:

I know, right!? Let's see, since 2001:

5 boyfriends - converted one into a husband (been with him 5 years (give a little); he's on DOA rarely but we didn't meet here)

quit drinking caffeine 3 times - drinking my second pot of earl gray today

3 universities to finish my undergraduate degree

1 university, almost done with my graduate degree

lived in 5 different residences

held 4 different jobs - currently unemployed

haven't been to a non-old-school jungle/dnb night since about 2003

switched phone companies 4 times

had 3 cars

had 1 dog die, 2 more dogs come into my life, and my first cat

started 3 different blogs; keep up with 1

quit drinking once - lasted about a year

went through 1 film camera, 3 point-and-shoot digital cameras, finally bought a dslr

went through 2 PCs, 1 dell laptop, finally bought a macbook

had two DOA usernames, many aliases, but only one loyalty

Response from other user: can safely say i'm probably the most inconsistent person on the planet ,I can't stick with anything, music ,relationships,jobs,diet,friends,all seem to come and go
:constant drifter:

apart from doa it seems? its been the longest thing ive stuck with ,even though I said to myself on many occassions maybe I should post less! its kind of crazy really.

My final thought: I guess DOA is more portable and easier to tailor to your needs than most other things in life

Ah the odd realities of being a 20-something and living life on the internet.

Thanks

2008-11-27T01:45:00.002-06:00

It's that time of year again - really the start of the countdown to the new year and new beginnings - when people start taking stock of what they're thankful for (and often times, as a result, what they're lacking).

This year seems to have become more about what I've been going without than what I actually have, so tonight I'd like to focus on how good I really do have it.

Losing my job was perhaps the biggest blow I've received in my relatively-short adult life; to me it marked the end of an era - a position in life - that I had worked for almost a decade to achieve. In this time, my friends and family, and even acquaintances, have really stepped it up to show me how much they value me and want to see me succeed. Immediately after I left the museum for the last time, I was getting emails forwarding me job descriptions, sent from friends, coworkers, family, and even friends of friends and family; it was completely awesome to see that so many people had my back.

When I decided to take on a full course load of classes rather than getting a part time job immediately, Dan was 100% supportive of my move and told me he was happy to shoulder the burden while I took care of what I had to. Throughout it all, he has been constantly patient and understanding about the mayhem going on here. My parents have also been great sources of advice, and my mother-in-law a nice confidant to vent to from time to time.

At this time I am also thankful for my own health and drive; I have been under a ton of stress, and have been amazed at my ability to keep it together. Being able to go out a night or two a week to play hockey has been an absolutely invaluable luxury and stress release; I'm thankful for my dad who loves hockey so much that he helps cover the costs so that he has an endless supply of hockey to watch.

Finally, though it may sound silly - I am thankful for my kitty, Hunter S.. Now that I'm a complete shut-in, we've become great pals. Thanks, kitty, for snuggling up to my head once Dan leaves in the morning to keep me warm. Thanks for following me around wherever I go, curling up, and keeping me company. Thanks for providing ample laughs; at a time when real human contact is rare, it's nice to have a kitty like you with a lot of personality to make me feel like I'm not a total hermit.

So, for those of you reading, I hope you all have people, pets, and other things in your life making the bad times as good as they can be.

As nerdy as it gets...

2008-11-25T07:38:00.008-06:00

It's 7:30am, I've been up all night slogging through my final Cataloging and Classification I assignment on Dewey and LC, and I have the nerdiest mental comparison of what my struggle felt like to me. The imaginary conversation goes a little something like this:

Me: "You know that part in that LOTR movie where Gandalf fights that fire demon, you know... the Balrog?"

Nameless/Faceless Person: *Blank stare - clearly wondering where I'm going with this*

Me: "Well, anyway, I felt like my night-long battle with Dewey Decimal number building and Library of Congress classification numbers were analogous to Gandalf's struggle with the fiery entity in the dark pit deep in the Mines of Moria - Nobody knew that I was still awake and struggling with it, but in the end I triumphed and became a more powerful wizard... errr librarian..."

Nameless/Faceless Person: *No response except for generally shunning me for the embarassment I have become*

Hopefully my prof. doesn't write "You shall not pass!" on my assignment...

There we have it, blog friends; possibly the nerdiest thought to have ever crossed my mind, and that's saying a lot. Damn you, library school... damn you!!!

Stroll through Kenwood/Hyde park

2008-11-23T01:33:00.002-06:00

Some pics from the Kenwood / Hyde Park area.

The Godfather at Zaleski & Horvath Market Cafe

Details on the residence of Louis Farrakhan

Lovely entrance gate

Side entry

A bit of color

Professors Row

Woodsy Porch

Sunset

Click on the photos to enlarge them. The rest can be found here.

"We don't know what the f*ck you want from us"

2008-11-20T01:31:00.004-06:00

That was Billy Corgan's 'rant' (though I would call it a lament) from the Tuesday night concert at the Chicago theater; the show received confused and otherwise tepid reviews from the local news sources; I had my chance to check it out for myself tonight (now last night). After watching the near two-and-a-half hour show, I think I may have some answers for Billy.

First of all, Corgan was in a much better mood tonight, but made it clear that he was under the weather - coughing a bit between songs and taking a bit of a breather at one point to talk about the Cubs and the Sox (amusing, to say the least!). As the show progressed, I started realizing that the problem has never been Billy Corgan, or The Smashing Pumpkins, it has been the fans. Like any great, generation-defining rock band, the Pumpkins meant a huge deal to the people who grew up with them.

I fell deeply in love with my first boyfriend to the soundtrack of Pisces Iscariot, Siamese Dream, Gish, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness; as a matter of fact, I had my heart broken for the first time by him to those as well! I grieved the for the death of my grandfather to the sounds of Adore, and helped my best friend over a huge loss of her own driving around at all hours of the night, talking and listening to the Twilight to Starlight disc of Mellon Collie. Dan and I bonded over the Pumpkins when we first met, and even walked in to the banquet hall to be announced for the first time as husband and wife to 1979.

All those songs have vivid memories, emotions, mental pictures, and a whole lot of baggage attached to them; judging by the reactions of the crowd at the show, everyone else had their own strings attached to them as well. The Chicago Theater rocked when the Pumpkins were playing old materials, but the energy waned and the crowd sat down as the material got newer or more obscure. I was sitting there listening to the material I didn't know, and would find myself waiting for it to end in the hopes of hearing one of 'my songs' - then I'd come to the realization that the music was actually really good but it just wasn't getting the emotional response out of me that I had come there to experience.

Everyone got old; we were there to have those emotions served up to us on a platter. Just like how everyone my dad's age seems to hit the bathroom at the Rolling Stones concert when the post-1980s tunes come out, or Keith Richards has his token songs, we all just want to get nostalgic at this point. I looked around the crowd and saw virtually nobody under the age of 23 - the majority were actually into their 30s and older; for many people in this demographic, we've hit the point where we're no longer picking up new music like we used to. Sadly, we've stagnated and love the things that moved us back when we were busy becoming the individuals we are now; we used that music to help define us, and once that identity was put firmly into place, it was hard to knock down that scaffolding and move on. Also, for a lot of us, we're at the point in our lives where things aren't nearly as dramatic as they seemed to us as teens; it's not such an emotionally-charged situation where the sights and sounds around you become the backdrop of amazing or horrible memories later on. When the going gets tough now, we just return to the 'comfort food' music anyway.

I know this isn't everyone, and I have a lot of respect for those who keep finding new bands to love, but there's a reason our parents started having oldies channels on the radio about the time they hit their late 30s, early 40s; for those of us who were children of the late 70s-late 90s, we're getting there.

So Billy - to answer your question - we want you, and us... 10-20 years ago. You are still an amazing musician, but we have gotten soft on you. Never think that your lack of sales has anything to do with your lack of talent; I still believe you're one of the true musical geniuses of my generation and I think all your work (even up to now) demonstrates that. Sadly, you are stuck in the no-man's-land of musical greats between the era where you made it big, and the revival where our kids are old enough to find 'our music' cool. Hang in there Billy - you will have that young crowd again, and maybe they'll even be dragging us there with them, the way I brought my father tonight (and to the Adore tour way back when) - you have much much more to give the music world before you give up in frustration.

Charged up

2008-11-19T02:10:00.004-06:00

This may sound silly coming from a future librarian, but my resolution as of right now is to use the library system more. For ages I have been an Amazon addict, having to buy every singe title I wanted to read because I've always valued having a good collection at home. Thing is, even when books are priced at under a dollar, once you factor in shipping and all that, it gets pretty expensive when you have a habit like mine. Ordering all those books, and having them shipped also creates a lot of garbage in packaging and paperwork, not to mention the fumes from the planes and other vehicles that get them to me in a matter of days.

Aside from the mess and the cost, having an actual due date will make me actually read what I've ordered up. I have shelves of books that I know I'll get to, post grad school, but it doesn't make them any less of a space-waster as they sit around collecting dust. So, now is the time to end my own hypocrisy - to stop complaining about librarians losing their jobs, and to start making them work for me. If even future librarians refuse to utilize the services offered by their peers, how can they expect there to be jobs waiting for them when they graduate? Time to do my part in keeping my industry a valued one.

What's first on the list? I am not ashamed to say, my inner dork just put a copy of Twilight on hold (thanks Em).

Fall in the non-profit world

2008-11-18T17:45:00.002-06:00

This season it's not just the leaves that are dropping rapidly around Chicago; it seems that the sizes of the professional staffs at local cultural institutions are as well. Just today I got word of a special meeting called by the president of The Field Museum addressing new measures to fix the same broken budget that cost me my own job. This time there is a call for 50 positions to be vacated as soon as possible, preferably voluntarily by early retirement and general atrophy. For those facing the 'choice' of early retirement, apparently a statement was made to the effect that if they chose to stay on and refuse the 'early out,' their jobs wouldn't be guaranteed to be there in January. Lovely.

This seems to be a silent crisis going on in tandem with the much louder calamities occurring in the larger industrial sectors of the nation; non-profits freezing positions that have emptied, not renewing term positions that are about to end, and generally sucking the lifeblood out of all the work that they are trying to accomplish by depleting their staff of ground soldiers. What's left? Anyone with a PhD or a six-figure salary; how messed up is that? It will be interesting to see what kind of work gets done once these folks have to jump down from their pedestals and do all the leg work they formerly assigned to their minions. How much money will these museums be bringing in when the staff that help to physically create (not just the intellectual parts that curators come up with get it done) exhibits and events are gone and the work grinds to a halt?

Yes, I understand that times are hard and the money is short, but how about turning the gaze on some of the non-productive members of the staff at higher levels? It's not my place to name names, but there were no secrets about what curators were virtually dead weight at The Field Museum, yet they remain safe as this all goes down. Yes, this is an angry post, but this news has made me very angry. People, USEFUL people, friends who have given their lives to The Field Museum are being forced out like they're nothing - as though decades of service, and years more of viability mean nothing because it's harder to let go of someone with extra degrees and a mistaken assumption of tenure. There is no tenure track at The Field Museum, and therefore no good reason why curatorial staff couldn't be laid off as well. Plain and simple. But it's always the grunts that get cut in the end.

K9 gets props

2008-11-13T00:17:00.003-06:00

From the guy who runs the "Things My Dog Ate" site:

Classic! No, Legendary better defines it! I absolutely loved it! Very well told! She has deservingly earned the key to the "Things My Dog Ate" castle - her own page and everything! I'd be honored to feature her story on my site. I'll let you know first thing when her page is up... should be by the end of the week.

Thanks so much for sharing K9 with me (and her pics). It's truly one of the more memorable stories I've received. And I've received a lot :)

Best,
-Matt
www.thingsmydogate.com

The Legacy of K9

2008-11-12T00:53:00.006-06:00

Submitted by Lisa L. for the approval of Things My Dog Ate

The late, great K9 had a very refined palette, but she never walked away from a challenge. While K9 had a preference for beef almond ding, delivery containers and soy sauce packets included, she also never turned her nose up at the garbage, cardboard boxes, TV tables, hockey sticks, retainers, or mouthguards. One thanksgiving K9 and her partner in crime, Mittens, made a whole turkey disappear from the back of the stove; we never even found the bones. When the cicadas hit Chicago in 1990, K9 spent hours in the backyard, crunching away on her new favorite high-protein snack.

K9's biggest hurdle to greatness, and ultimately finest hour, was her battle with the bar of Clinique soap... and the soap dish; she had a few rough hours after we came home to find her passed out on the hallway floor and realized what she had gotten into, but eventually the emergency vet gave her the clean bill of health and sent her home. K9 often would find bottles of TUMS in my hockey bag and eat those, plastic and all - I figured that she needed to sort out all the randomness that she ingested on a regular basis.

Only once did K9 fail to conquer a challenge she set for herself, and that was the 5lb bag of gummy bears that she found hidden in my brother's bedroom - we found K9 sprawled on the floor next to the bag, which had been 2/3 eaten (including the plastic), completely sated. She pooped in color for almost a week.

K9 died in 2001, at the ripe old age of 13. The dog, the myth, the legend - she was born somewhere in the backwoods of Kentucky as a stray, and like any hobo worth her salt could never pass up the opportunity for a meal, good or not. She was loved by all who met her, and gave her family the inspiration to try just about anything, at least once.

Photos are up!

2008-11-05T02:47:00.005-06:00

Check them here

Some previews though (click on them to see them larger)

Andrew on the train, heading to Kasey's Tavern

Dan and me at Kasey's before the rally

Victory is declared in Grant Park

Obama speaks - I couldn't see him, but hearing him and feeling the energy in the park was enough!

Simply amazing

A beautiful fall night, blurry or not!

Energy in the streets

Walking past my favorite view of Chicago on our way to the Halsted bus.

I love my city.

Yay!!!

2008-11-03T19:05:00.001-06:00

The tickets have arrived :D

The final hours

2008-11-03T18:30:00.004-06:00

I can feel the tension mounting as we are hours away from the start of election day and the massive rush to vote; wow am I glad I got in on the early voting because I have a feeling it's going to be insane. For the first time in a long time I have genuine butterflies of anxiety in my stomach, not wanting to believe news from either side - not wanting to count my chickens before they've hatched but also never wanting to doubt for an instant that things will go well tomorrow. We are on the verge of something historic; well, the historic has been happening for a while now, but the final act is about to play out. Hopefully I will be there, front and center, to share in the making of history at the Grant Park rally - camera at the ready - I'm nervously waiting for my tickets to be emailed, hoping that they actually show (I need to see them to believe it!).

Everyone who still reads this, please go out and vote; take part. Even if you don't agree with me and are not an Obama supporter, it's important that you have your say. It's been a long 8 years, and I feel like tomorrow will be a big day for national closure of some sort or another, and hopefully new beginnings. Fingers crossed - waiting on pins and needles in Chicago

-YD

Hello blog, it's been a long time

2008-10-22T02:24:00.002-05:00

Sorry I've been neglecting you, this semester has been a bear. I hope everyone who checks this from time to time is doing well; I'd like to say I'll be doing a better job of updating, but I think that'll be pretty unrealistic until the end of term.

Note to housekeeping

2008-10-03T17:25:00.002-05:00

First of all, thanks for cleaning up the big mess we made last night; the place looks awesome. One thing I'd love to ask you to not do in the future is continue putting those stickers on the lose end of the toilet paper roll. I'm OK with the usual bathroom origami that housekeeping seems to like to do with the free end of the TP roll, but this sticker thing isn't making a lot of sense to me. Today I got the feeling that you were trying to spite me for my mess because you put three stickers on a brand new roll, making it virtually impossible to get some sheets off. Please, allow me the easy access to the roll that we've all come to expect, and spare the usage of those stickers!

Thanks.

Master debaters...

2008-10-03T02:25:00.003-05:00

Urbana = drinking games with debates. Notable challenges include the following:

maverick
pipeline
name of average American
blank stare
words lacking 'g' and ending in '
nu-cu-lar rather than nu-cle-ar
references to bush
mentions of immediate family members
the phrase 'hockey mom'
wallstreet
mainstreet
more that i can't remember for obvious reasons

got to love librarian parties...
needless to say, it's time to sleep....

What a difference

2008-10-01T23:07:00.003-05:00

Back in Urbana for classes (the kitty's butt is ok, but that's another story), and staying at the Hampton Inn this time instead of the dorms. I had a great time getting dinner and some beers at the Blind Pig with my friend Tracy from my archives intensive, and now I'm lounging in the most comfortable hotel bed I've been in a while and watching some baseball. This is a long cry from the lofted bed, clammy walls, rogue pubes, and 5am fire alarms of the dorms I've stayed in previously. This may be a bit more expensive, but throw in a hot tub, pool, cable, and continental breakfast and it's totally worth it!

Reluctant researcher

2008-09-25T15:25:00.005-05:00

(Quiet before the storm - unsuspecting kitty on the smelly carpet)
I am a newbie to the world of cat owning. New facets of cat ownership that have been brought to my attention, quite frankly, have shocked me. Lately I've been noticing bad smelling patches on the carpeting when I have been laying on the floor watching TV. A friend of mine commented last night that perhaps I needed to expel my cat's anal sacks.

Come again? (no, brother-in-law Dave, not anal sex)

Yes, I heard correctly, so I guess it was time for me to do some google searching. Apparently, like skunks, cats and dogs have something called anal sacks below the business end that they use to mark their scent while pooping, and even to spray while they're angry or feel threatened. Most of the time these things aren't an issue, but they can become clogged and infected, and in need of expressing. Owners know this is an issue when they see their pet 'scooting' their bottoms across the carpet, or frequently licking the area in question.

Well, I've never seen Hunter scoot, nor have I noticed any obsessive/compulsive booty licking going on, but the fact remains that my carpeting still smells bad here and there. I haven't worked up the nerve to follow the internet's suggestions that I probe the area to see if they're swollen (at least not without a large amount of booze consumed by both me and the cat), so I think we'll have to wait in uncertainty until he gets to see his vet.Luckily I have him booked for a vet appointment for tomorrow, so any over-familiarity with my cat's anal region will fall into the more gentle and trained hands of a vet tech, but it may be that his smelly sacks need to be squeezed or lanced. So, more info and possibly pics of an embarassed and enraged (but relieved) kitty to follow.

Photoblog - how I spent my summer.

2008-09-21T21:46:00.003-05:00

There's not much to write lately, so I may as well share some of my images from the summer with you all. Sorry for my inactivity of late; I've been away from my laptop a lot. I do solemnly swear to try harder as the seasons change and we head into fall.

And now, my summer (click on any pic to see a larger size img):

After the rain comes the sun

2008-09-14T23:38:00.003-05:00

and the runs. It finally stopped raining long enough for the Sox to win their double header against the Detroit Tigers tonight; happily Dan and I were in attendance for at least half of the spectacle. Big ups to my man DeWayne Wise for hitting a huge grand slam to put the club ahead after they blew a 7 run lead, leading them to an 11-7 win (and a sweep of the odd two-game series)- he's one of two guys I had a feeling would be good this season (the other being Carlos Quentin). This was out last set of tickets for the regular season; hopefully we can manage to scalp a couple more before the snow flies - I don't think I'm ready to say goodbye to my first season living in Bridgeport.

Waterworld

2008-09-14T12:17:00.004-05:00

Well, Mother Nature intervened in a big way and canceled my morning race plans; I'm sure many hardcore runners braved the torrential rains to run the Chicago Half Marathon, but I just couldn't find the will to run through all that in me. Yesterday was determined to be the rainiest day in recorded Chicago history, with over 6.63 inches of rain falling; local rivers have swollen and even crested. Some Chicago and suburban neighborhoods have been evacuated. The Sox have been rained out twice in a row, and things aren't looking much better for the makeup game this afternoon and scheduled game this evening. Dan had managed to lose his second wedding ring during cross practice (the other is somewhere at the bottom of the lake in WI).

Overall, it's a disaster.

What's worse? It's still raining. A lot. Now we're dealing with what remains of hurricane Ike, and will probably still be seeing heavy downpours into the early evening. Rains are supposed to continue intermittently into tomorrow sometime, after that it's supposed to be mercifully sunny and dry.

Dear rain -

2008-09-12T23:53:00.003-05:00

please stop falling for a bit. I would really like to run my half marathon this Sunday, but from what my friends on the weather channel have been telling me, you've called up reinforcements from Ike's arm and they'll be arriving around start time. I know I'll come run with you if you're drizzling - I don't think I'd mind that - but I really don't think I want to join you if you decide to follow through with the deluge you seem to have planned. Oh, and can you take a bit of a break during the two Sox games I'm supposed to go to this weekend? That would be very thoughtful.

Thanks in advance

~Me

Much better

2008-09-11T00:03:00.002-05:00

I had my second men's league game tonight and felt 100xs better - perhaps it was due to my awesome cheering section in the first period. Thanks Ben and Julie for giving me some motivation out there! I actually felt a lot more confident than I had last week, mainly due to the absence of searing pain in my throat and lungs; it's amazing how quickly it all comes back with a couple nights of hard skating. We wound up tying 5-5 and neither team managed to put one in the shootout. I felt like we looked a lot better this game as a team, generating a lot more offense, and clicking a lot better with the defensive pairings. I really like my new partner, who also happens to be the guy who hooked it up with our scrimmage last season at the United Center (we'll be getting t to it again on the 27th of this month, which I'm really stoacked about!).

Amazing how much better I feel right now though; nothing cheers me up like feeling satisfied with how I played hockey. My attitude has improved towards my race this weekend; out of training or not, I am going to go out there and do what I can. I absolutely refuse to end a summer's worth of training on a downer because life took a U-turn and put me into a funk; if anything it's more motivation to get out on the path and have some mindless exercise to lose it all as the miles add up.

Yay Dan!

2008-09-09T14:08:00.002-05:00

Congrats to my man Dan for getting back on his bike and kicking some booty at Palos last weekend; that shoulder is looking good! Not sure to whom I can give credit for this pic to as it was emailed to me by Dan, but I'm a big fan :)

Back on the ice - and White Sox action

2008-09-06T23:00:00.002-05:00

Had my first game back on a men's league hockey team this afternoon and things could have gone a lot better. I felt as though I hadn't skated in ages (I guess in reality I haven't skated at that level in ages). Sure, some of our women's tournament games can be fast-paced at times, but for the most part I haven't had to put much effort into playing my top game; tonight I felt completely out of shape and in dire need of some conditioning. It's amazing to me that I can spend the entire summer being more active/healthy than I have been in a long time, yet feel completely out of shape when I step on the ice. My legs felt fine, thanks to the running, but my lungs were absolutely shot; I guess my theory is that I've been running in the warm weather and used to being active in that environment, but that they weren't ready to make the transition back to the cold rink air. Every turn on the bench my throat and lungs were burning and it took a bit to get my air back; I definitely wasn't prepared to feel so shitty!

We wound up losing the game 4-2; hopefully I can get back into the swing of things quickly so that they don't regret bringing me on.

In more positive news, Dad and I went to get dinner and saw the first inning of the Sox game on the way home I suggested that we scalp tickets. We got in after the second inning, but we wound up getting our money's worth as the game went a full 15 innings (7th and 14th inning stretches observed) and resulted in a White Sox winner at the hands of a homer-hitting Jim Thome. After the game we were treated to a fireworks show, and a nice walk home. Tomorrow? 16" softball with my dad - the last game of the season.

Iron chef - leftover CSA produce challenge

2008-09-04T21:27:00.003-05:00

Ingredients:

1 large eggplant

1 can of chopped tomatoes

1 large green pepper

4 stale hot dog buns (butternut I think)

salt

pepper

olive oil

some fresh garlic

sharp cheddar cheese

Method:

Throw old buns in the toaster oven until crusty, then crush them into crumbs with the meat tenderizer, add salt and pepper. Cut up eggplant into discs (I left the skin on), dip both sides in olive oil, then in the crumbs. Put into lidded baker in layers - covering each with the tomatoes and then grating a layer of cheese; repeat until out of eggplant. Garnish with sliced green pepper, tomato, more pepper, and minced garlic. Bake at 450 for ~25min.

Let cool off, enjoy. When Dan heard I was trying to make faux eggplant parmigiana with hotdog buns he said I should blog about it; I thought that was a good idea, but unfortunately it was ready to go into the oven to cook before we brought out the camera to document. Here are before oven, and after oven pics (note Dan's arm hovering over the finished product; his cam wasn't focusing well and he was about to fork me in the arm to make me let him eat!)

Eggplant Macgyver:

(Posted with my brand-new macbook!)

Back

2008-09-02T14:45:00.002-05:00

Back in Chicago after a long Wisconsin lake house stay. We had a blast over the weekend, lazing around, and then heading to Madison for what can only be described as a rave. Saturday started off really well; we decided to do the brewery tour thing, so we hit up New Glarus (located in a really cute touristy town with amazing good), and Capital Brewery in Madison. From there we went and saw the latest Batman movie to kill time, checked in to our flea bag motel (room actually came with a free copy of Penthouse which was placed right next to the bible and the phone book). We lucked out and got two single rooms because they messed up with our request for a double, so Dan, Bill, Wendy and I went out to Great Dane to get dinner and celebrate our good luck. Good food, good beer, and a base built for the rest of the night, we returned to our rooms, collected our party supplies, and headed out to the venue.

Once there, we found a decent amount of gutter punks, goths, and aged former ravers in plain clothing gathered at the back of a machinists shop, filing into a small, hot, humid, and extremely bassy single-room event. Enpromptu cooler fashioned out of a motel trash can in hand, we set up camp in the back on some mangy couches and got down to business. The entertainment on the evening was all hardcore/gabber/musical ruckus - never really my thing - but it turned out to be a really fun night. At some point the thought crossed my mind that I was 27, unemployed, really drunk, and at a rave, and that I was mentally regressing to about age 16, but that was laughed off and the night went on. We stayed until about 4am and then decided to pack it in because a friend of ours was heading out past our hotel and could drive us home; everyone else literally raved till dawn, but we were feeling old and out of practice and wanted our grimy bed.

The rest of the weekend was filled with sloth and gluttony, which of course meant it was a good one. Now I'm back at home, studying and sending out resumes - waiting for class to begin for the evening.

To Dan - happy 2 year anniversary! I think we celebrated in style last weekend :)

Escape

2008-08-29T00:29:00.003-05:00

Sitting here at the lake house, crickets for my soundtrack as I write this. Today I fled the scene of my disappointment; grabbed my faithful companion, Daley (alias Whaler) from my parents and hit the open road. No, this wasn't the coast-to-coast aimless road trip my soul really desired, but I think it's the familiar flight to a comfortable place that it needed.

I carefully chose my driving music and got onto the highway, headed to Wisconsin. I wanted music to yell to, to sing to, and to remember to. I started things out with Fugazi-live in Heaven, which definitely gave me the shouting and singing portion of my lineup to get me through the gridlock that was pre-holiday-weekend/road construction traffic. From there, I got off the highway in Kenosha, grabbed some Starbucks (I know, I know) for me, and the proffered doggie biscuit for Daley, and switched to the Violent Femmes to lighten the mood a bit with an off-key singalong. Feeling refreshed, I visited Jeff Buckley for a bit as I wound through the country lanes; Live at Sin-é really hit the spot until the shuffle got to "Lover, you should have come over," and I got a little more misty-eyed than I needed to be while driving. An old favorite brought me the rest of the way; nothing brings me back and makes me feel more calmly-happy and myself than listening to some old Pumpkins - Pisces Iscariot being the absolute best of albums to achieve this result this. With all the great memories, friends, and emotions wrapped up in each track, it's really hard to feel bad about present discontent while listening to them.

Some women resort to chocolate to mend mental woes, while some men hit the bottle - some people do a little of both. Well, I've tried having some drinks with friends and that's just gotten me a headache; I tried the eating thing, but I just felt gross. I guess all I really needed was my music, and a little activity; a change of scenery and stimuli to take my mind of things. I'm tired of the laziness and self-pity. Tomorrow I'm off to get a run in, combining that with some of my favorite tunes and some beautiful scenery. Hopefully everyone else has a very nice, healing, healthy holiday weekend, and that we can all come back home a little bit better than we were when we left.

Wound Licking

2008-08-27T01:57:00.004-05:00

Day one of unemployment. Woke up at 1pm - nice start there. I went to lunch with my dad at Manny's where I had him look over some documents related to my layoff that I needed to sign and return. Everything looked on the up and up, so I sent them off - I really couldn't imagine all that would have been involved with bringing them in in person: asking permission to bring my car into the lot, having to have someone escort me to the main office area because I would need someone with clearance to swipe me in, having to sign in and out as a guest where just yesterday I was an employee. No, I took a pass on that.

The rest of the day was spent getting ready for my first class, taking said class, and then cooking gołąbki for the dinner we're having tomorrow for my inlaws. It really wasn't a bad day, but obviously something major was missing. Throughout the day friends from work got in touch in one way or another as the word reached them to see if I was doing all right; one of them is arranging a proper sending off get together for next week because she felt I deserved something better than being sent off without notice. In total there were six of us laid off, but only five left because one was found a last minute term position to fill. A huge part of me was hoping that there were more because being one of five in such a huge place makes me feel singled out, even though that's silly. Sad thing is, the museum only saved about 100K cutting our salaries while there are some bigger fish that stay on worthlessly sucking up funding. In the end, it's far easier to cut off the grunts than those with more clout; eventually they will have to make some of those more difficult decisions if they want to make any real strides in fixing the budget, but I have a feeling that won't be for a while.

So now I move on, feeling slightly like I've been dumped by a boyfriend that I should have known all along didn't care as much about me as I did him. My well-meaning friends and family are already trying to help me - sending me job descriptions for sexy new positions that would treat me better, but I know I need some time to grieve and improve myself to be ready to take those on. Hopefully in the meantime I'll post some less emo entries and have some good experiences to keep my mind off it all!

Seriously?

2008-08-26T01:05:00.003-05:00

"Congratulations! You have finished filing your online unemployment insurance claim."

I don't think I've ever wanted to strangle someone through my laptop so badly before. Whomever wrote that glib completion message about having just completed filing unemployment needs to be fired themselves... Congratulations! Your entire family died in a plane crash, all your stocks went down, there is raw sewage backed up into your newly-finished basement, and your dog has crabs (we don't want to know why).

Fin.

2008-08-25T22:58:00.003-05:00

So that's it - as of about 3:30pm today my work with The Field Museum ended. Needless to say, it wasn't personal - 'it's not you it's us' - etc.. They needed to lay off some people, and I already knew I would probably be one of them. Touchingly tears were shed on my behalf, not only by myself. I managed to make it 3/4 of the way through the speech by the HR personnel, but I'm not made of stone. They were nice enough to have a person from a career service meet with me, offering me three months of free resume building, coaching, etc. to help me get back on my feet - something I didn't expect. I also will be getting a severance payment in addition to unused vacation time, which was also an unforeseen bonus.
So, here I am - waiting for the minutes to roll over to start Tuesday and the first day of joblessness so that I can register for unemployment online. It's hard not to feel deeply embarrassed about this one remaining act, even though I'm forced to take it through no fault of my own; as far as I know, nobody in my immediate family has ever been on unemployment. I know the economy sucks for people with professions like mine, but I was silly enough to think that maybe I'd never have to be here either. I take comfort in knowing that at this time I am collecting these checks with a handful of close friends who have found themselves in the same situation, though I hope we all can set things right asap.

What's next? I have bumped my course load from 8 hours to 16 for this semester because I know I'd be able to land a better job as soon as I'm done with this degree. If I manage that number well, I might do the same next semester, and will consider looking for something part time. I've applied for a full time dream position, but I'm not currently holding my breath - needless to say I don't have the confidence to count on my resume as it is now.

I have also started to plan a trip with my best friend and traveling partner, Claudia, who just moved to Hawaii this summer with her man. She will be meeting me in either San Francisco or Los Angeles the day after Christmas, and from there we will be road tripping back to Chicago by way of AZ, NM, TX, OK, MS, and IL. I'm thrilled about the prospect of getting back onto the open road, seeing Claudia again, and sharing the experience of travel once more - I love a good journey, and I know this could be what we both need. More about all that later, after I've licked me wounds a little more.

Sour times for non-profit folk

2008-08-20T08:34:00.002-05:00

We all know, or at least should be vaguely aware, that our economy is hurting; nowhere does this seem as glaringly obvious than within a sphere where everyone's livelihood depends on the generosity of others. Economic hardships within the greater society of our country have hit home recently with force: term positions aren't being renewed here, funds have been frozen, jobs that have been willingly been vacated have been frozen, and over a dozen proposed layoffs were announced a little over a week ago. All this and more have led me to feeling like I am teetering on the edge of momentous change whether it's welcomed or not.

It cannot escape my notice that regardless of how hard I work, how much I like my coworkers and are liked by them, and how valuable what I do may be to the daily operations of my department, I am the lowest rung on the ladder; if anyone goes from the library, I'm 99.9% sure that it's going to be me. This brings up a difficult question: do I start shopping myself out now on the chance that I get the ax at the end of the month, or wait until I hear something more definite? If I do choose to shop myself out, don't get laid off, but get offered another position, do I go? The answer to this second question may seem like a resounding 'yes' to those unfamiliar with my position, but for me it's not so clear. I love my place of employment; the work I do may be completely mind-numbing, but I love coming in here every work day nonetheless. I have been here in one way or another since about 2001 and have done all I could to stay. Out of all major constants in my life, The Field Museum is one of the most enduring. In the back of my mind I've always known that I would eventually have to move on, especially after getting my masters degree, as I'd most likely become overqualified for the jobs that become available (the 'lifers' will never relinquish the good ones, and who could blame them?). As of right now I am in the middle of that degree with no chance of being done before summer, unless I do get laid off and live off unemployment while I take on a heavier course load. My boss here has been more helpful than any employee could ever hope for in terms of helping me get the time off I've needed to travel for classes, and working with my class schedules during the day time; I could never expect such support anywhere else... or could I?

These are all the things swirling around in my head right now. I've just submitted a resume for a position that, about 6 months from now, would be the absolute perfect job for me to get involved with. Needless to say that at this moment the waiting for a response is leaving me wracked by insecurities and second guessing about my qualifications to fill this position, but others keep assuring me that it's something that if given the chance, I could grow to be great in. I guess it's a moot point until I get a response, but I can't help but obsess over it. A part of me wonders if this is just the push I need to step up my game and become a real professional, but an even bigger part of me wants to stay in this familiar womb of a position where I know I'll never be challenged. Time to figure out what I'm really doing with my degrees, ambitions, hopes, and efforts.

2008-08-19T08:52:00.003-05:00

Last night's run felt pretty good, except for a couple twinges in the shoulder when I first started. I'm going to break things up with some easy cross training today and then have another run tomorrow evening. Now it's off to work on shifting stacks (wow, that sounded kind of gangsta) and trying not to think of that unlucky number 15...

1 week on

2008-08-18T08:45:00.003-05:00

It's been slightly over a week since I ran the CDC and the shoulder still hates me. There has been a little bit of progress in that it doesn't go nuts when I look left anymore, but I still have to be careful about how I put pressure on the left arm. I'm getting back to running today, but I'm going to take it easy and make sure I pay careful attention to how I'm feeling and how my upper body posture is. I can't deal with being inactive any longer, so now is the time to get out there before I lose it!

meh

2008-08-15T11:33:00.002-05:00

Uneventful week - uneventful Friday post. I'm off to sit outside where I can watch the planes practicing for this weekend's air and water show. Good times!

Dr recomends drugs and massage

2008-08-12T11:46:00.002-05:00

Fantastic! So as all suspected, my water bottle probably DID do me in. I have a badly pinched nerve and a huge knot in my shoulder area that my doctor said she could feel 'click' when she manipulated it. The cure? Muscle relaxants, heat, massage, and immobility for a few days. I think I can do that. Thankfully I'm cleared to still do cardio as long as I don't try to do anything that involves neck or shoulder strain (no pull ups, pushups, etc), so I won't be getting fat and lazy while I'm having some down time.

2:23:13

2008-08-11T08:58:00.006-05:00

Well, it's over and done with - the Chicago Distance Classic and its 13.1 miles are behind me (photos to come when they upload them). I couldn't have asked for better weather; the route was a beautiful loop down the lakefront to the Museum of Science and Industry, and then back up the lake path. I ran with my brother, Bill, an experienced distance runner who has two marathons under his belt and is training for his third. To be honest, running with Bill was both a blessing and a curse at times, though more of the former than the latter. I had a hard time keeping my own pace, and often ran myself a bit harder than I should have; I'm sure this would have been an issue even alone because I often found myself speeding up to the pace of others around me. There were definitely times, especially after mile 11, when I thought of walking the rest of the way in - however, though running with a faster runner got me there in the first place, having him with me when things got hard motivated me to finish strong; the thought actually crossed my mind that because he'd stuck with me the whole time, I owed it to him to finish running as we had set out to do. Throughout the whole event Bill was great at calling my attention to the fact that I was speeding up, and asking me if this was something I was consciously doing, which, most of the time, it wasn't and didn't desire to do. When I got fatigued and wanted to slow down I didn't feel too embarrassed to ask him to slow a little, and he always responded immediately. I know I said 'sorry' almost every single time I asked him to slow down, but he always reminded me that I didn't need to apologize, and that he knew that I was most definitely running faster than my normal pace.

In the end, running with Bill gave me the best long-run pace yet, ~10min miles, with a finish time of 2:23:13 - only ~3 minutes longer than it took me to run my 12 mile long run a couple weeks ago! I know I would have finished had I run the CDC on my own, but I am absolutely certain that my time would have been much slower. Next year I'm considering running the full marathon with Bill - this experience has shown me that I have a long way to go with my training, but that I have a great motivator on my side to help me achieve what I want to. So Bill, if you're reading this today, thanks for all your help yesterday; you made me push my limits, and thankfully I was able to respond to that well. I hope we get to do it again next year!

As for how my body responded to this experience - the rest of Sunday was spent icing some very sore knees (I trained most of the time on gravel, so the pavement abused them) and laying on my parents' couch with the dogs; today my muscles actually feel completely fine, though my right knee doesn't like me much when I make it walk down stairs. The odd thing is, somehow while I was sleeping last night I managed to pinch a nerve in the area of my left shoulder blade, and now every movement with the left arm, and some movements of my neck cause excruciating pain in that area; it's like my body wants to reward me for what I did this weekend by not making any of my running parts hurt, but is sending me a message that I need to be a bit kinder to it next time by giving me a painful warning shot to remember what it can do to me if I don't play nice.

So, on to the Nike + Human Race 10K at the end of August, and then the Banco Popular Half Marathon on September to complete my running season- in the meantime, more conditioning, and a lot more stretching!

...

2008-08-08T09:01:00.003-05:00

So it's Friday, and here I am as usual - at the desk, waiting to go meet friends for that morning tea and croissant. This weekend is a big weekend for me, though I don't feel it yet. I am dropping in on a couple games in a cancer awareness/fund raising tournament with an elite team, and on Sunday I run my first half marathon, the Chicago Distance Classic. Up until now I hadn't been nervous, but now when I actually think about it all I get a slight flutter in the belly. Thing is, none of it is anything I haven't essentially done before (I've done the 12 mile run and felt I could have gone on), but there are always those nagging doubt and over-analysis of physical sensations preceding an event like this - at least for me - that make me feel that when the time comes I won't be able to perform. It's as if I'm mentally inventing blisters, sore knees, chafed areas, and more - I've noticed this kind of mental handicapping before when I've planned on hitting the gym and about 1/2 hour before leaving I get a phantom pain in one of my knees - somewhere in the back of my head someone thinks I can't do these things. Thankfully the rest of me knows that person is a moron.

So, here we go - hopefully I'll have some good pictures to post up after this weekend, and some happy news to report to boot. Have a good weekend.