It's All About...Last Weekend in Chi-Town

I have always thought that, if I were to want to relocate to a large city, I would pick Chicago. I've always felt comfortable there. Maybe it's just because I've been there several times and it's comfortable. Maybe it's the good times I've had while touring and visiting. Whatever it is, I love that town.

Due to some traffic issues, as well as some miscommunication about scheduling, I got to town late and had to skip YarnCon. This, though a bummer, probably saved me about $200 in yarn purchases, so I wasn't all that upset. I got there about 12:30 Illinois time, and found some parking (bad idea to drive, as it turns out, but super convenient). I walked around on Broadway and finally ducked into a little Thai place. I ordered a cup of hot tea and some Pad Thai. Lovely, quiet, good. Then I walked some more, found a different long term parking spot, moved the car, and went to the theater to see Julia Sweeney.

Allow me this aside: As I think I mentioned in a previous post, I'm a big Julia Sweeney fan. When it was announced that her latest show, "Letting Go of God," was coming to the Lakeshore Theater in Chicago a few months ago, I immediately went online and bought a ticket. The theme of the show is Sweeney's gradual change from Catholicism to Atheism. I've heard the story via a couple of different media: a radio show, the internet, and her CD. It is funny and beautiful and touching and smart and...it's just very, very well written. What I like best about it, and what touches me the most, is her respect for others' belief systems and for the Christian/Catholic community that shaped her.

She talks about becoming friends with one of the nuns who taught at her school and wanting to become a nun, loving "The Flying Nun," watching the movies with nuns and envying them. With Julia, it was Hayley Mills; I, however, aspired to be Maria from "The Sound of Music," before she got sent to take care of the VonTrapps. I think it was that Maria could be such a sisterly screw-up and still have a place at the Abbey that I found so very endearing and something to which I could completely relate.) I also loved the hippie, folky masses that cropped up around the time of my first communion. Hearing John Denver music played at mass in East Lansing when I was about 6 was a revelation for me -- pardon the pun.

As I stood in line to get her autograph and tell her how much I adore this piece, I was surprised (and very, very pleased) to hear both men in front of me, who appeared to be there separately, A) buy a CD; B) tell Julia that they were ministers; C) that they have used parts of her story in their own ministries. It made me happy because it was a conversation, it was a dialogue, it was finding common ground in beliefs that so often are seen to be so diametrically opposed that people KILL because of the differences.

Anyway, then I got to the front of the line and had her assistant take my picture, and she actually took three (how nice!) and after me gushing like a total dweeb (and having totally wrecked my hair while sitting and laughing like a fool during the show), here we are:

After that, the clouds had rolled in heavily and dark was coming fast. I decided to head back to the hotel and just chill and read and do a little homework. I did. I stopped at a Borders, and a Target, and crashed at the hotel. I ate egg rolls and drank part of a bottle of champagne that had been rolling around in my trunk for over a month. I read 2 chapters of "The Four Hour Work Week," wrote an essay for my class, surfed the net for a little while, and watched SNL (where the Andy Samberg video had me shooting champagne out my nose, which hurts, btw). The requisite hotel shots (and I just have to say, Marriott's beds are so FRIGGING comfortable...it's the main reason I stay there):

I got up at a reasonable time Sunday and went downstairs to hop on the treadmill. The place was deserted, which I suppose isn't too unusual for a Sunday morning. Then I got my continental breakfast (Cheerios, yogurt, and two cups of coffee...even though I wanted the danish, it seemed silly when I was still in workout clothes...), went upstairs and ate and showered, packed up, and headed back to Chicago.

Note to Self: The next time you want to go see a rockin' Star Wars Exhibit at the Science & Industry Museum, reserve ahead. Evidently, the exhibit is separate from general admission and "sells out." Which it did. So my big plan was put into the toilet. The rest of the museum, though, was incredible as ever:

The U-505 Exhibit -- completely amazing history here: "Capturing the U-505"

(The videos and audio in the exhibit itself are narrated by the "Cold Case Files" guy, who has the perfect voice for it!!)

The agriculture exhibit was interesting, but this display in the part about dairy cattle cracked me up:

I have to cop to the fact that I am 40 years old and I didn't actually know how a toilet worked until I saw this display and listened to the audio:

The Big Tease: The Star Wars exhibit was sold out, so I couldn't go through it. You can bet I'll be going back in November or December to see it before it's gone in January. Here's the not-so-busy-looking entrance to the exhibit:

Lunch, museum/Starbucks-style:

For Brit, a cyclotron from Univ of MI from the 1930's:

Not the best photo, but this has been one of my favorite displays for years:

My favorite parts of the day were: the genetics laboratory where I saw a mini-lecture on DNA and then wandered around to find some hatching baby chicks:

Talking with my cousin on the phone, even though I found out her plane wasn't going to be to Chicago in time for us to get together...

Playing Star Wars trivia with a really friendly, helpful museum employee who chatted me up for about 10 minute and told me the inside scoop on reserving tickets online, told me about the Star Wars exhibit, and then played a couple of rounds of trivia with me, which is what she was there for:

A huge section on how the brain works that I don't remember seeing before:

A beautifully laid-out display about evolution and how species evolved across the planet (which also gave me an idea about some Christmas gifts I want to make...but that's another story):

I stopped for more Starbucks along the Indiana Toll Road on the way home (which is probably why I was still awake at 2:30 in the morning):

I also stopped for gas and this was the first time I'd ever seen E85 listed on a regular gas-price sign -- how cool is that?!:

The sunset behind me was so unbelievably cool, I kept trying to get a shot of it while driving:

And this one finally came close. It was a great road trip.

It's All About...Miscellany

As very few people will be shocked to hear, I have been busy, busy, busy. I’m taking an HTML programming class, and it is seriously kicking my butt. The homework involved is at least 3 times more time-consuming than most other classes I’ve taken, and it’s a real challenge. I love it – I almost always love the courses that really make me think and work and learn something completely new – but the late nights have been a little disruptive. Between that an a bout with the flu (or food poisoning…I’m still not sure) a few weeks ago, my sleep schedule is really wacky. I stay up until about 1AM, and take a 45 minute nap when I get out of work in the afternoon. Weird.

The walking/running is going very, very well. At least, I’m walking/running very consistently 5 times a week. My walking route is about 3 ½ miles long and I do short bouts of running in there 4-5 times per walk. So far, my farthest run has been just under ¼ mile. Not much, but it’s progress. (I even ran on the treadmill at my hotel outside of Chicago this morning…that’s commitment, I tell you.)

Went to see "The Heartbreak Kid" last week. May I please advise: Don't even bother renting this one when it comes out on DVD. I usually (though not always) like Ben Stiller and appreciate most of the Farrelly Brothers' movies.I have rarely, RARELY, ever felt like walking out of a movie. I am not easily offended by anything, and I will admit that I love a good dirty joke, but this was so far beyond dirty that it ended up just being creepy and rude. I was almost nauseous at parts and I spent the last third of the movie debating on whether or not to get up and leave. I've seen porn that made me less uncomfortable. So please. Save your money. Consider yourselves warned.

Saw “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” at the Sauk last Friday. Amazing. Not that I expected any less, as the group working on that show contains the best folks I’ve ever worked with. It was really quite nostalgic to see it – I played piano for the Sauk’s last production of this show. It’s the first time (I think) that I’ve been to a show that I’ve done before there where I’ve not been at all involved with the production. I was able to sit back and enjoy the music and the humor and, as is my nature, to absorb the reactions of those around me. The whole crowd just loved it, and I can’t wait to see the review – I think it will be in tomorrow’s paper. You should be able to see it sometime this week at http://www.hillsdale.net/ .(As a side note, my friend, Trevor, is playing Schroeder in this show. He has really been rounding up the accolades this year. He won the Jackson area Idol contest and a trip to audition for American Idol. He also was just named as one of 35 semi-finalists in a GLOBAL competition to be the "Voice of McDonald's." Picture from the paper is below.)

Scott gave me a pair of tickets to the Thanksgiving Green Bay vs. Detroit football game as a thank-you for helping him out lately with some of his bill-paying and stuff. It's been 4 years since I've seen a game in person and I am completely thrilled to be able to see Favre play one more time before he retires. They're 5-1 now, and hopefully on a big enough roll that they'll actually WIN when I see them play. They have never won a road game that I've attended. *sigh* I ordered a big cheesehead cowboy hat (as my old cheese wedge is getting a little decrepit and hard) and a new sweatshirt to wear to the game. W00t!

Because I can hardly do a post without one, here's a picture of my lovely niece post-face-painting (and actually, post-sleep) with a hornet on her face. She was unusually proud of it, as you might be able to tell:

And I guess that's about all the intermediary stuff I have for this entry...

It's All About...Going Home Again

Since I haven’t written in over 2 weeks (Where did the time go?!), I have a few events and entries to catch up on.

Last weekend, K & K and I went back to Concord for Homecoming. We pulled into town as the parade was getting underway, and we cruised into the Middle School parking lot (amid much deja vu) and ran to the road to make sure Kaelyn could see everything. The band was marching and it was cool to see people I knew marching at the back of the group.

On the American Legion buggy, the woman was a high school teacher when I was in school, and the guy was a year ahead of me:

The rest of the parade was fun, seeing flashes of people we knew. There were people there from the church we went to while growing up, and people from the old neighborhood. My sister and I spent a lot of time subtly poking each other and whispering familiar names from our past. And then there were the floats and groups and teams that seemed familiar just because they're in every parade, everywhere:

At the end of the parade, we met up with my high school classmate Susan, her husband, Robert, and their lovely daughter. (Susan, we really do need to get together soon...I'll try to call this week!) We wandered into the area around the football field and mingled and talked and exclaimed and chuckled all evening. My niece and their daughter made fast friends:

As you can tell from this shot below, Concord is still trying to field a marching band with under 30 people. When I was a high school senior, they made us march with 13. It was humiliating! I will say, though, that the band sounded great in the parade -- I could hardly hear them at halftime from where we were standing at the end of the field. One of my high school friends had been the substitute band director since the beginning of the year, and she really did a good job:

Homecoming, however, was not so good for the football team. Despite a couple of really exciting plays (and to be perfectly honest, I only watched a couple of plays), the visiting team trounced my alma mater with a final score of 34-59.

You know, it was fun going back. It's interesting to think about who I am now, as compared to who I was when I lived there. I have a completely different view of the world. But it's neat to know what helped to shape so much of my world view, and to be able to revisit it.

OK...on to writing the next post...