Steph's Adventures in Oz

Oh The Humanity!

2008-05-03T16:47:00.004-06:00

The May 1 march to Chicago's Federal Plaza caused quite the stir downtown, and while we didn't exactly have front seat to the action, the view from the 16th floor was pretty interesting. The news the next day said that the rally was significantly smaller than in years past, but the cheering and chanting passed our offices for more than 30 minutes, so I'm thinking the marchers were still able to make a point.

Here's the parade as it made its way down Jackson Boulevard:

I Felt The Earth Move Under My Feet

2008-04-18T04:35:00.002-06:00

An hour ago, I was shaken awake by an EARTHQUAKE! A 5.4 out of SE Illinois, it was definitely no big deal by the time it got to Chicago... but really? Of all the places that I have lived, I feel an earthquake in Chicago.

Weird, but I'll take it!

Museum Day Part II

2008-04-14T19:25:00.002-06:00

Last Friday, Dax and I went to the Museum of Science and Industry. The special exhibit was all about glass and featured sculptures by Dale Chihuly, who is now my favorite glass-sculpture-artist.

Just in case you were wondering.

The giant German submarine in the basement was cool too, but... I liked the glass better. Dax thinks I am such a girl.

Consequences, Shmonsequences

2008-04-01T20:25:00.003-06:00

One of my favorite people, (and bad influences) Jaci, came to visit me this weekend. Here she is looking windblown and lovely on our walk along the Lake after lunching in Hyde Park:

Jaci is my all-things girly-girl connection and somehow every time we go shopping, I end up buying something I never knew I needed. This time, we ventured into the makeup mecca Sephora, where I stumbled into some lady's makeup chair, got a makeover, signed up for the VIP club, and $95 later, I walked out with moisturizer, eyeshadow and red mascara. Red mascara. Who buys that?

Apparently I do. Now, pardon me while I go learn to use it.

Field Trip

2008-03-31T20:02:00.005-06:00

Last Friday I went on a field trip with Dax to the Field Museum (of Marshall Field's department store, which will never ever ever be called Macy's here in Chicago no matter how hard they try). He gets extra credit for class by checking out the science museums, and I get someone willing to fight the Disneyland-like lines in order to let me geek out at all the sciencey goodness.

That's Sue the T-Rex and... some elephants. I guess I forgot to check them out. Nevertheless, I was quite happy with our day exploring and since there are still two more museums to see, I'm sure I'll be helping Dax with his grades a few more times this semester.

Progress!

2008-03-30T20:15:00.003-06:00

The wee little green nubs that I got a couple of weeks ago have sprouted into beautiful (tall!) spring flowers. AND I saw quite a few little nubs peeking out of the brown while on a walk around Chicagoland this weekend. Soon Chicago will have some spring flowers of its own!

Happy Easter!

2008-03-24T19:29:00.003-06:00

The ears and photo op were for the kids, but don't those moms look cute?!

Is That A Mushroom?

2008-03-19T20:44:00.002-06:00

Yes, yes it is. Why a Leprechaun is wielding a mushroom in a parade is beyond me. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the only other balloon in the parade was Puff the Magic Dragon- because shrooms and dragons just scream St. Pat's.?!

The Future President (and some other guy)

2008-03-18T17:11:00.000-06:00

Happy St. Pat's!

2008-03-17T19:27:00.002-06:00

Here's the view from Michigan Ave and Wacker four hours after they dyed the river green.

It was still green on Sunday. That's a LOT of food coloring.

For The Record...

2008-03-13T16:13:00.003-06:00

...it's 5:30 PM, the sun is still shining, (the sun is shining at all for that matter), it's warm enough to play outside without the winter coat, and I just got some spring flowers.

Well, they'll be flowers soon enough.

Things are looking up.

Sing A Song About The Heartland

2008-03-12T20:05:00.002-06:00

Taking the train from Chicago to St. Louis is a great idea. Five hours of sitting back, enjoying the scenery and relaxing.

Cue scenery.
Hello? Is this thing on?

Another kind of corn to look forward to: King Corn airing April 15.

Nautical Nonsense

2008-03-11T20:25:00.003-06:00

One of the projects that I am working on is to basically help a town redevelop a piece of old industrial property into something useful, I mean, good for the community, I mean, revenue-generating. Their idea of the perfect something is a museum campus dedicated to the regional history, which includes boat building.

This means I am learning lots about boat building. (Me? The girl from the desert?!)

On my last trip, we got to tour around to some of the more active members of the nautical community, and our tour included a visit to the loft where they are giving boat-building classes. If I were a man living in mid-mitten Michigan, I would so be in this club.

Here's one they are working on now:

View From The Top

2008-03-10T18:08:00.002-06:00

View from my new office... if I could see through cubicle walls or stand on my tippy tippy toes. This is where I am learning new words like "sewershed," "pollutograph," and "antibacksliding." Yep, I have a feeling that I'll do well in this assignment-thingy.

A New Approach

2008-03-09T21:34:00.004-06:00

In the interest of creating a better blog to entertain/inform/enable your worktime procrastination with, I'm doing a bit of a blog makeover.

I really do like sharing my adventures with you all, really. It's just that lately, it's really not that exciting. And if it's not that exciting for me, well... all I can say is that you're a loyal lot.
All 6 of you.

So, I'm going to try to increase the postings, but decrease the content. Kind of a twinkie-ifying of my blog, if you will. ( Twinkies were invented in Chicago after all, did you know that?) We'll see how it works. As always, I'll expect you to weigh in with your opinion. Loyal you are, but meek... not really.

As promised, an update on the fate of the ice wall displayed in Millennium Park through the month of February. Here's a chunk in its final days:

Slouch

2008-03-02T20:40:00.003-07:00

So I just realized that it's been quite a while since my last post. I have no excuses.

I hope to get back to you soon and update you on all the recent good stuff... sometime after my trip to MI this week. In the mean time, I can say that I've resumed my quest to get through all those "classics" they tell you to read in high school and college. This week I read Voltaire.

I'm pretty sure he is the reason that country music is alive and well today: drama, drama, drama.

Happy March!

Slumming it Grad-Student Style

2008-02-10T20:52:00.000-07:00

Saturday night Aimee and I headed back to the University of Chicago for the 48th Annual Folk Festival. This festival is put on by the same crowd that runs the monthly contra-dances on campus and since we were first-timers for the festival, we volunteered to help out instead of actually ponying up some cash to see the bands. (That way if it was boring, at least it was free.)

The helping out turned out to be ushering for the show, which caused some major college flashbacks. I was completely at home there in the back of the house, and it was great to see that every school theatre has an uptight theatre manager running around dealing with mini-crises that are only really crises to him. The ushering gig wasn't so bad after all though, because once the crowd was seated, we were pretty much finished. We got to hang back in the back of the theatre and watch the parade of performers as they completed set after folksy set.

It was a great mix of music: we had a bluegrass band (Junior Sisk and Ramblers Choice), an Irish band (Chulrua), a banjoer (Paul Brown), a blues band fronted by that guy who sings "Tough Enough" (Kim Wilson Blues Revue), a cajun dance band (The Lafayette Rhythm Devils) and a couple of random guys from a couple of different bands who just wanted to jam onstage. It was a pretty amazing show really.

Then, since we were volunteers, we were invited to the after-show party. The party was down the street from the theatre, in the grad co-op housing. It was the most ginormous college house you've ever seen. It was also right next door to the fraternities, so maybe it wasn't the biggest you've ever seen, just the biggest you've ever seen for students who actually attend every class. Seriously, there were like five fridges in there. I counted 24 mail slots. I think I would have seriously gone insane trying to do grad work there, but I was never really a hippie, so there you go.

The highlight of the party was that practically everyone who came brought their instrument and folksy jam sessions broke out in every available space throughout the house. People were wondering around with their banjoes and violins like gypsies between breaks to sample the grad-student gumbo (smelled delicious, contained unidentifiable ingredients) and the rest of us wandered around glassy-eyed at the idea that ten people all knew the same obscure but entertaining song for violin, bass, banjo and mandolin.

Since we are both girls with jam packed social schedules, (and okay, really just because of my impending trek back to the burbs) Aimee and I called it a night at the young hour of 1AM, while the party had lots of hours of jamming to go. It's definitely something that I will try to catch again. Maybe next time I'll even pay for my ticket.

The Dim Adventures of Steph and Mandy

2008-02-09T21:46:00.000-07:00

Since our 30th birthdays, my BFF Mandy and I have tried to observe a traditional birthday visit to the birthday girl in question. As we all know, in years past I was prone to work-related traveling, so my visit to her on her birthday has been sporadic or at best, on her husband's birthday instead. (I still maintain that it's the thought that counts!) However, Mandy has kept her end of the bargain and despite the grueling traveling conditions, my getting lost on the way to the airport (Hey- blizzard! Enough said.) and she being the only person to voluntarily leave greater Phoenix on Superbowl weekend, Mandy made it out for another attempt at my 29th.

Our plan was this: Friday was to be Ferris Bueller's Day Off Day. A favorite movie of our highly impressionable teen years, we set out to conquer Chicago, Ferris Bueller style. Unfortunately, our mid-winter day was not quite up to the John Hughes-summer day set and so we had no Cubs to watch, no Sears Tower to peer from (it was socked in by clouds), no Chez Quis for lunch (OK, so it didn't really exist anyway), and no Chicago Board of Trade gallery to make rude gestures from- 2008 tours don't start until later this month... So really all that was left was the Art Institute.

We found Cameron's painting "Sunday in the Park" by Seurat, we found that sculpture with the guy with his arms crossed, we made lots of lewd comments about naked sculptures... we didn't find any kids on field trips, but all in all, a successful trip to the Art Institute. Maybe we'll give that Day Off idea another try when the sun is actually out.

Saturday night we had plans to go to dinner and see Wicked with the girls. Dinner was, uh, not exactly planned out (Hey again- I am a very busy person!) so the only place we could find a table was the Walnut Room, on the 7th floor of Macy's on State Street. It was completely empty, but we had a good time and it was right across from the theatre, so it worked out really well.

The show was great. I haven't read the book, and I had heard from a trusted source that there was a lot of politics in it, so I was braced for some underlying themes. Politics had made it into the show, but not nearly as much as in the book (from what I understand) and so the story we saw was more a great story of friendship- with excellent special effects. I'd definitely recommend it, and definitely recommend seeing it at the Oriental Theatre here in Chicago. It's a beautiful, ornate Asian-themed masterpiece. And they don't allow photos. Rude.

Afterward, the group of us went in search of a cocktail, but the loop is not exactly known for its nightlife. So we crossed the river and headed to House of Blues, where we balked at the cover of $43 to see Queensryche. Queensryche! Playing at the bar! It was weird and I really felt old when one of our group hadn't even heard of the heavy-metal rockers of the 80's. Instead we headed next door and found a bowling alley on the second floor (who would be under a bowling alley?!), which had a bar mixing some mean cocktails and had a never ending loop of good music and people watching.

Sunday we headed up to the northern suburbs to go watch the Superbowl at Mandy's husband's cousin's house. (Got that? I'll wait... OK?) Doug and Laurie had a small group of us over for a party where we dined on experimental food and learned some highly random Velveeta trivia (since they both work for Kraft) between plays, and since none of us were really tied to either team, we were all super excited to see the Giants take it at the end.

After the game, the weather came in again. We struggled to drive in heavy snowfall back to my house and even though the snow gradually let up, the fog rolled in on Monday, canceling all flights out and stranding Mandy until Tuesday morning. With our bonus time, we went to go see the newest chick flick out right now, 27 Dresses, which was uh, really chick-flicky. Mission accomplished.

The drive from the movie theatre was yet another adventure in weather navigation, and at one point, we had the horror-movie epiphany that happens when the heroines feel all alone on a foggy dark road in the middle of nowhere. We locked our doors, proclaimed not to pick up hitchhikers or light any cigarettes (since neither of us smoke or pick up strangers, this was easy), and considered ourselves protected from the horror-movie gods until we made our way to a more populated section of road. Really, it was only the matter of a block, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Ice, Ice, Baby

2008-02-04T21:22:00.001-07:00

The month of February means the first-ever (American) exhibition of the Museum of Modern Ice.

Or just MoMi. Clever, eh?

The 95-foot long, 12-foot tall wall of painted ice is installed at Chicago's Millenium Park and is behind the "bean". The Michigan Avenue side is supposed to mimic the city's skyscraper-clad skyline, while the Lake side is supposed to represent an advancing wall of a glacier.

Apparently, I wasn't so impressed with the skyline side, because I just realized all of my photos are of the glacier side.

Must be my daredevil character, taking nature head-on and everything.

The wall was a bit snowy this day since we had something like nine inches of snow the day before. I plan to head back to the wall during the month, so I'll keep you updated on its icy progress.

Baker's Dozen

2008-01-31T20:06:00.000-07:00

As I was recently pleading for friends to keep me clued-in to their own personal myspace vs. facebook crisis (endemic of the nation at large) so that I can actually keep up with them, I realized that I am on way too many places on the internet.

My computer must have so many cookies on it that I could make a killing as a baker in SecondLife, (had I the lack of a real life and actually wanted to try again or whatever it is that they do there).

I gave a quick think to the numerous places the interweb has a piece of my identity, and it is terrifying. Not terrifying in that paranoid Dick Cheney way (even though he's one mere pretzel away from being my boss), but more in that "look how compartmentalized my life has become" kind of way.

...email (4), credit cards (3), bank (3), utilities (3), library (2), google maps, weather channel, blogspot, feedburner, family album-like website thing for college friends, myspace, facebook, meetup, youtube, classmates, craigslist, drug store, target, ebay, amazon, the commuter train, the city train, the bus pass, the highway toll thingy, travelocity, expedia, hotwire, airlines (4), hilton, job searches (3)...

I have over 40 different identities out there. Floating around. Just out there, waiting for someone to ping me so they can report back.

The most disturbing part is that I would freak out if I had this many pieces of paper coming through my mailbox, and so I would actually prefer this to the alternative. And even more disturbing than that is that I can barely keep up as it is. What on earth was life like before? I don't know, and I want no part of it!

Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone

2008-01-24T16:57:00.000-07:00

I would say spring is in the air, but since it was 4° outside today, I can't.

Spring was definitely on everyone's mind today though, as the Cubs announced that tickets will go on sale Friday- which definitely means that warmer times are ahead. Never mind that opening day, this year on March 31, usually has snow. (They even have planned a day off the very next day just in case they have to have a snow-day makeup game.)

It must be the knowledge that eventually, those Cubbies will be playing in the heat of summer that keeps us going.

News also spread today of first sunlight in Barrow, Alaska.

Just a little perspective on that one- all that latitude and only seven degrees warmer. sigh Still, we get the sunshine all day and today actually marks the first day that I had light for my walk all the way to the train station. YAY! We even got to pull out from Union Station in the post-sunset twilight. Not the dark.

I think things are looking up.

Preaching to the Choir

2008-01-23T22:50:00.000-07:00

This evening, after work, Aimee and I set out to the Jefferson Tap for Green Drinks.

No, there's no colored beer, (I know we're in Chicago, but this isn't St. Paddy's Day!) there's 80 environmentalists squished into a bar (and that kind of sounds like the first line of a joke, but there's no punchline that would do justice to 80 people suddenly busting out into conversations about how to get your hands on a cheap LED light bulb just yet) and some kind of discussion or presentation of the sustainability/environmental issue du jour. With cocktails. Don't forget the cocktails.

This is only the second meeting of GDs that I've been to, and I have to say, the first one... was better. My first GDs was a "business edition", which, as far as I knew, only differed from the regular version by a two dollar increase in the cover charge.

The first event had a great crowd of mixed ages and disciplines and we had one of the vice presidents of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) talk about the history of the exchange and how this system will inevitably come to be the norm as it is in Europe, how it will enable regular consumers to choose their spending more wisely, how if the EPA knew what was good for us, they'd make it regulated. You know, all those really intense tree-hugger principles that appeal to the disciples of climate change ideology. But interesting, and surprisingly more scientific and less touchy-feely than one might imagine.

This event, however... Apparently, all it takes to separate the wheat from the chaff is a lousy two bucks.

The crowd wasn't as good, not really networking but trying to get dates. (With the exception of the girl who has her own candy-making business that could tell you lots more than you knew possible about recycled, organic, sustainable candy wrapping papers.) And, the panel wasn't as good. It was advertised as a presentation on the state of Chicago's sustainability efforts or somesuch theme. Nobody from the City of Chicago actually made it to the event, which I imagine was not exactly what the organizers had in mind. (But no matter, we're modern day hippies! We're adaptable.) The panelists were all from non-profit groups around Chicago, which wasn't really a problem until I started realizing that we were getting preached to.

I mean, really? This was probably the only audience in town that knows exactly what is happening. I would have just liked to hear more about what these groups are doing about it. THEN I'll decide if it's a method I'd like to get behind, you know?

Maybe I should give it another shot. After all, I really did like the first event. Maybe I will luck out and there will be one on a night without blizzard-like conditions which cause train delays. Maybe I just need to cough up two more bucks.

A Whole New Level

2008-01-18T09:56:00.000-07:00

By now you know that due to my complete astonishment and, let's face it really, envy of how Aimee managed to move here and be completely dialed-in to the social scene in like a week, I've been trying to get out and meet more people.

I joined the band. I went dancing. These were relatively safe things to try since, you know what you're getting into before you go. (Well, not entirely with the dancing as per the previous article, but Aimee was there to guide me.)

Next up: the meetup.

Meetup.com is a website much like a bulletin board, where anyone with an interest can create a group that will eventually (once there are enough people interested) have meetings to discuss/do whatever the interest may be. For example, say you are into UFOs. You can go on to the website, input UFOs, and there are 44 meetup groups that meet regularly to discuss UFOs out there somewhere.

The beauty of this is that you know that the people you are meeting have the same interests as you, you meet in some public place so there's safety in numbers, and people create a little profile to get on the site so you kind of have an idea of who you are meeting and what they look like (less stranger danger).

Where it gets weird is that yes, these really are strangers and other people really are strange.

So, with a deep breath, I went ahead and joined:

The Indie Rock Fans meetup. Their next meeting/concert is on Saturday, during the day, for which I already have plans. After that, it's a Monday night and I haven't decided if I am dedicated enough to indie rock to want to be a slug at work that Tuesday. Oh, and I may be facilitating a workshop in Wisconsin that day, so that is out.
The Urban Explorers meetup, where I can "Meet other locals who are interested in Urban Exploration, Photography and Abandoned Buildings." OK, so that's kind of my thing. The problem is that the organizer isn't that, uh, organized, and there are no meetups planned anytime soon. Dang! This leaves...
The Board Games meetup. I know. So not exciting. But it's close to my house and they meet at a Barnes and Noble twice a week (twice!), making it way more convenient, and if it was lame, I was planning to just go drool over the new books I would like to have.

Wednesday night comes and that means game night! (They also meet on Thursdays, but I think one night of games is a good starter, don't you?) I made my way over to B&N, and as I walked up to the group of people collected at the cafe, I realized that I am the only person over the age of 25. (OK, there was one guy who was 50+, but let's call him an outlier.) I am also the only girl. Yikes. Too late to cut and run for the fiction section, I grabbed a seat and met the crew of about 8. Turns out that they are all nice guys, and more trickle in as the night progresses, including guys more my age and (thank god) a woman, who also just happens to be older than me (thank you thank you thank you). I feel significantly less nerdy as the evening progresses.

The nerdy feeling returns, however, when I realize which games we have been playing. None of which I have ever seen, they are described to me as (and I'm serious here- actual words)"Like chess, but not", "Like Othello, but not", "Like Tron, but not" (Like Tron?!) and Scrabble. Oh, there was one in there where we built a zoo, but that was like nothing else, apparently.

And you are right, I have played Scrabble before. That was the consolation game we had to play because at least three of us had, you know, jobs to report to on Wednesday and we couldn't start the next game which was like the knights of the round table, complete with "health points" (I'm having scary ex-boyfriend flashbacks here), which would require us to close down the Barnes and Noble. Jeez. Closing down the bar I've done, but closing down the bookstore? I am experiencing a whole new level of geekdom.

Yes, I'm throwing out the "geek" and "nerd" labels pretty liberally here. I just... really think it applies in this situation. The thing is though, that I had a lot of fun. My fellow game players were all fun (the ones I got to play with- yes there was more than one game happening at a time) and they seemed to genuinely want me to return (obviously) so I think next week I'll be back.

But not Wednesday. Wednesday I have Green Drinks.

Good Wholesome Fun

2008-01-15T16:44:00.000-07:00

So last weekend I went to my first contra dance. Contra dancing is something like a hybrid between the square dancing we learned in third grade and the old English dances portrayed in period movies with the long rows of people moving up and down the hall. There's a caller who makes up the dances and a band on stage. This time it was a fiddle, a guitarist, and an accordion player. I danced to the accordion.

The dancing itself was pretty fun. Aimee and I went early so I could get in on the lesson before the dance started (Aimee is a veteran contra dancer, having begun this hobby in full force last April) and while no one move is complicated, I found that just remembering where my hands went half the time was a challenge. Oh, and that whole knowing your left from right thing comes in pretty handy.

Soon, the time came for the first dance, and I found a very nice (patient) guy who knew what he was doing to be my partner. It went something like swing around in a circle with your partner, go around the big circle (4 people or two couples) 3/4 of the way, girls do-si-do one and a half times, move up the row and then start over again. I was dizzy for like 20 minutes after all of this swinging around stuff!

Here's a video I took of one of the next dances, it's not the same set, but it still has the whole one partner and two couples make a square thing going on. You can hear the caller and the band...

I think there's a move called the half-hey in there and there's also a gypsy thing too, so... yeah. I'm going to need to go back just to understand what the heck they're saying!

The dance was held at the University of Chicago Ida Noyes Hall, which was just one beautiful building among many at that campus. (I will definitely be going back in the spring to take some photos.) Apparently, the folklore society holds these dances every month (that seems like a pretty active club to me- what the heck else do would they do though?) and since it was the first dance of the year, there were a lot of novice dancers like myself. I suspect that there were lots of people who had made New Years resolutions to go and be more social, or to try something new, or to actually touch a girl... yeah, there were some pretty socially awkward people there, but let's face it, I was not on my A game either, being dizzy all the time and everything.

So all in all, it was a pretty good night. Aimee and I ended up volunteering to be ushers for one of the concerts in the upcoming Folk Festival (maybe that's what the club does!) so that we can get into one of the dances for free...

I think I just got sucked in.

A TV Classic

2008-01-10T20:52:00.000-07:00

I know it's a total cop-out of a post, but besides kicking ass at work (obviously), I have nothing interesting to report.

So, here's a little blast from the past I was reminded of when my friend Trina developed a sudden fascination with llamas on her myspace page.