Things I learned

I learned a few things from my blogging every day challenge. First of all, I learned that there isn't always something to write about. Some days don't need to be blogged. However, I also learned that blogging doesn't need to be a big-to-do. Sometimes even just a little thought here and there is better than being out of the loop for weeks at a time. I also learned that people like photos on blogs, and even though this takes a little more effort, I think it's worth it. And I found out that more people than I thought are actually reading this little blog. Thanks for the comments and emails!

So I guess, overall, it was successful, even thought I didn't get to do it every day, I did learn something which is always good. I hope you all enjoyed it, too. Here's to better blogging for the rest of 2008 (and beyond)!

Chicago Weekend!

OK, so I really fell off of the blogging-every-day boat, but for good reason. I was in Chicago this past weekend and classes started on Tuesday. So here's all about my weekend in the Windy City:


Anyone who ever visited me in Chicago, undoubtedly had the pleasure of eating at Huey's Hot Dogs. Above you can see the remains of my Veggie Dog (No Onions, No Hot Peppers!) with Fries and a side of cheese. The fries are the best around and the hot dog was great, too. Jerri, Suz and I started there and Mark and Dan showed up shortly thereafter. Everything was going smoothly until Jerri, with her ever-expressive arms, accidentally spilled a full glass of water all over me. When I asked what she was trying to say, she commented on one of the buttons on my bag. It says "Future Librarian". Jerri's always creative mind thought that is said "Future Lesbian". Hate to break it to you folks, but I'm really a future librarian, not a future lesbian.

After Huey's, Suz and I headed down to Intuit Gallery to see a show of Henry Darger's work. If you don't know anything about Henry Darger, he was a reclusive artist who lived in Chicago and created a 15,000+ page graphic novel about seven sisters called the Vivian girls. You can check out the movie In the Realms of the Unreal to find out more about him. The show consisted of some of his watercolors, pages from the book and a re-creation of his apartment. It was great to see. There was also a collection of mug shots that was pretty interesting.


Suz and I then headed down to the Loop and paid $0.25 for every 5 minutes of parking in order to run around Millennium Park for 25 minutes. One of my favorite things in Chicago is the public sculpture known as The Bean. It's officially called Cloud Gate by Anish Kapoor. Above is a photo of just a small part of it with ice formed on it.

That night we got to have dinner at Yes Thai and I got to eat two of my favorite things: Tofu Satay and Rama Special with Tofu. It was wonderful, and Jerri and Mark and Dan and Ali joined Suz and I and we had both good food and good conversation. After our meal we headed to The Hopleaf to meet up with some of friends and finish off the night.

Sunday started out with a trip out to Oak Park to meet up with my good friend Nate. I got to see his beautiful house, meet his new wife and their kids! It was a relaxing morning with a great breakfast, good conversation and good laughs as always.

After Oak Park, Suz and I headed back into the city and straight to the Old Town School to enjoy the rest of the day immersed in Jug Band music. At 2pm, we saw a new documentary called Chasin' Gus' Ghost. It was great. Once that was over, we went to the Jug Band Jam in the basement. There were so many different instruments in attendance: banjos, guitars, fiddles, washtub bass, jugs galore, kazoos, a banjo uke, mandolins, washboards (yes, plural), and too many homemade percussion instruments to talk about. It was just great.

The highlight of the day was the evening benefit concert. Our good friend Arlo put together the Will Shade Gravestone Benefit Concert. It brought together a collection of great Jug Band performers including what for me was the highlight of the show: The Carolina Chocolate Drops. It was awesome to see them live.

Here is Suz, Sally, Me, Jerri, Mark and Arlo after the concert. We then headed over to The Grafton to finish off the night with curry fries, drinks and more good conversation. For me it was the end of a perfect weekend. Suz and I headed back to her place and my flight left early on Monday morning. Overall it was an AWESOME weekend! I'm so glad I made it out there, even if it was for such a short time.

Sick Day, numero dos

Yes, I took today off, too. I went to the doctor and she verified that I do not have strep throat, I was running a fever (100.8!) and that I need rest and fluids and lots of it if I think I'm going to make it to Chicago on Saturday. So that's what I'm going to do.

Sick Day

I stayed home from work today. I woke up yesterday with a little scratchiness in my throat and it just got worse throughout the day. I didn't sleep well last night, and decided I should just take the day to rest and feel better. The bummer of all this is that I am traveling to Chicago this weekend and I really hope I'm feeling better by then!

Veggie dinner & vegan cupcakes

Last night I had the pleasure of once again getting together with my veggie dinner club for a great dinner at Ann and Lee's. We had homemade gnocchi, Parmesan encrusted tofu, green beans and carrots, and the most amazing vegan cupcakes. Ann is a super-fan of this one cookbook titled Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and I have to say, I wish they would. I've had maybe five different varieties that Ann has made and they've all been great. It has totally changed my perception of vegan baked goods. It was a fun night, as always, and I'm already looking forward to February at Paul and Trinity's!

Good Day, Yesterday...

Well folks, I did it. I missed a day of my "blogging every day in January" goal. But (I think) it was for a good reason. Basically, I didn't want to turn my computer on last night.

I had a great day getting some stuff accomplished around the house in the morning. And then around 1pm, Sylvie picked me up and we headed to Salem to go to the Peabody Essex Museum. The exhibit I really wanted to see, Accidental Mysteries, was wonderful. It is a collection of vernacular photography, or people's snapshots, but ones that had a story to tell. One of my favorites was this:All of the photos are from the John and Teenuh Foster Collection of vernacular photography and this one is titled Girls with Watermelon c. 1955. In the gallery, it was enlarged to probably about 2 x3 feet. The expressions on the girl's faces are priceless and it's just funny to think about what's going on here. It also made me wonder who took this photo. It obviously had to be someone close to these girls, and it made me think that it may have been one of their friends, another girl at the same party or summer camp just excited about photography and taking photos of everyone and everything. To read more about the show, you can get the original press release here.

After to museum, I got to see the hotel where I'll be staying for Sylvie and Miriam's wedding. It's beautiful and right in downtown Salem, only a block from the museum. After that Sylvie and I headed to a DSW that we spotted on the way up to Salem and both got some great deals on shoes. I got 2 pair for $22! and Sylvie's one pair ended up being less than $5. Totally worth stopping.

After a nice day of shopping and museum-going, we picked up Miriam, headed back to my place for dinner, Yahtzee and watching the finale of The Amazing Race. It was a wonderful evening. So wonderful, that by the time they left I didn't even think about turning on my computer to write about it. So here I am this morning, writing about yesterday...

Volunteering

Today some friends and I decided to volunteer at the Prison Book Program in Quincy, MA. The program provides books to prisoners who write letters to the program requesting some titles that they might like, or genres that they enjoy. Many of the letters requested dictionaries, GED study books, yoga and meditation guides, classic fiction and books on law. The letters varied greatly. Some were wordy with lots of requests or describing the prison library (generally in a negative way), or the ones asking for legal texts went a little into detail about the poor representation they received and that they wanted to gain a better understanding of the legal system in which they are so intimately entangled. It was fun to fill the orders, but I felt really bad when I couldn't quite find what they were requesting. I did my best and I know that my few hours of volunteering touched quite a few people's lives.