Fall

I don't really have much to write about. I am sitting at work in the computer lab and its pretty slow so I am so bored and need to fill my time.

It's a super warm nice day today, which is weird for almost November. Soon enough it will be cold and snowy, so this is a welcome treat. One last hurrah before winter starts....

I am glad it's Fall, and I'm glad we've had such a nice Fall so far. I love the bright colors of the leaves on the trees in Chicago. I love walking home from the train and walking the dogs in the park during the perfect not to cold, not to hot weather. I love the way the leaves fill the sidewalks with color. I can't believe its already (almost) November, it makes me think about how another year has flown by. Time really does fly and I think it's going faster and faster the older I get. yikes.

I am excited for the holidays. Even though we wont get back to Omaha to see family for Thanksgiving, we will go for Christmas, as we usually do. I really love November and December in Chicago, the lights the holiday hustle and bustle, its so fun.

Larry Gets Lost in Chicago

Cathy was in Chicago visiting us this past weekend. We had a lot of fun... I will post some pics when she sends them to me...we mostly used her camera all weekend.

Yesterday, while we were out browsing I found the cutest book ever in a fun toy store in Lincoln Square. The book is called "Larry Gets Lost in Chicago".  I just love children's books, and don't even get me started on children's books about Chicago! This book was SO cute I almost bought it. 

I can't wait until we have kids and I can read stories to them. I picture a big book shelf, full of cute little books to read to them before I tuck them in.

STITCH 2010

This year I participated in a fun industry event called, STITCH. Myself and 6 other Harrington Alumni worked together to create an awesome entry for this years show. We were asked really late in the game by Kimball Office, an office furniture company if they could sponsor a team of alumni for this event. We accepted the challenge and met multiple times in only a couple weeks to conceptualize, design, and finally sew and create the dress. It was SO much fun. We had a great team! Our dress came out SOOO neat and our makeup and hair concept was just perfect. We got so many compliments on our entry, ours was clearly one of the most well-made and interesting garments on the runway. We found out later that we were only ONE point away from winning the coveted "Best in Show" Award. Oh well! We knew who the real winner was! Ours was AWESOME!

Here's the scoop on the event...
STITCH is IIDA-Illinois' biggest event that pairs Chicago's most talented Designers with industry manufacturers to create one-of a kind, wearable garments for the runway show of the year. The theme this year was "A STITCH in Time: Design for a Decade." So the idea was to take any time period or decade and create a conceptual (not literal) interpretation of anything from that decade or representing the entire decade.
The Harrington Alumni team created a wearable garment for our model out of Kimball Office's exclusive Maharam fabric.

Our official concept was:
Victorian Illusion. Inspired by illusion, transformation, and 1880's Victorian style.
Magic makes something out of nothing -- it transforms,
Transformation is mysterious -- or is it simply an illusion?

More about our design... Victorian fashion was characterized by large collars and bustles, corsets, tiny waists, and the use of birds and feathers in their hats and hair accessories. Magic was also experiencing its "golden age" due to the advancements in technology. many magicians created the illusion of pulling things out of their top hats or making birds disappear. Our model, Enza, emerged from a large magicians top hat (which we also created), she revealed herself by pulling the hat down. She emeged....a modern version of a Victorian "bird", complete with feathers in the hair, on her eyelashes, and feather-like pieces of fabric on the skirt of her dress. She walked to the song, "I Can Transform Ya" by Chris Brown

Here is the video that I made out of all the photos and video that myself and everyone else took. It was SOOOO fun!  You can watch it here (small) or click the link below to watch it large! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sul5f3qAnY Turn up your speakers and watch in 480p for best quality!!

Catch Up

I don't know why I've been so bad about writing lately. Anyway, time for a quick post to catch up...

On August 4th I saw President Obama, live and in person! Well...for a split second anyway :-)
I was coming out of my Turbo Kick class and I saw a whole fleet of black Suburbans and cops down the street.  I watched the news before I left for class and saw coverage of Obama getting off of Air Force One for his Birthday visit to Chicago. He was also in town to support a local senator, etc.

Anyway, I put two and two together and realized he was probably having dinner at the restaurant down the street (Graham Elliot, a very expensive, modern restaurant in River North). I walked over to the small crowd of people to check it out. I saw secret service everywhere, so I decided to wait. Not sure if he was just getting there, or if he was about to come out, but I waited....and waited......aaaaaand waited.  Until nearly 11pm!!  For 3 and a half hours I stood there with a growing crowd of people, behind a police line, in my sweaty gym clothes,... waiting. I watched secret service and Chicago police get in and out of their cars, I watched people going in and out of the restaurant (they were searched and wanded before going in). I watched the secret service people eat Subway and also watched them yell at people for pushing on the police line. Later on, they even ended up wanding the crowd with metal detectors as it got closer to the time he was going to come out. The news crews were there and everything. It was cool.

People came and went, a mom and her boys from out of town waited near me for a couple hours before finally giving up because the kids were so bored and tired of waiting.

Finally at about 11pm, they backed up one of the suburbans right up to the sidewalk in front of the door to the restaurant and people started coming out. We were kept so far back it was hard to make out who was coming out, but the photographers were flashing, so we new it was someone good. Finally, Obama came out, I saw him and the whole crowd started cheering... he turned toward the crowd, gave a quick smile and wave and got into the car.

The secret service hopped in the other cars and there went the big motorcade, out of sight in about 1 minute flat. Here is the photo of what I saw that was in the Huffington Post the next day... YAY!

Later, I found out that he had dinner with Oprah and a few other people, so that must have been one of the people who walked out before him when the photogs were going crazy! :-) 

Anyway, it was fun and I am glad I waited!

Here are some of my crappy phone photos from when I was waiting.

         

Here is the link to the full article with photos from his visit: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/05/obama-in-chicago-friends_n_671678.html#s123197

Kayaking

This post is far over due, but I am sitting here wasting time on the computer so I thought I would do a quick post since I've got a minute (OK...I really don't have a minute...need to shower and get to bed, but whatever...)  SO...we ended up getting our friends Megan and Scudder to take Ben and Andy's spots in the kayak tour on the Chicago River. It was supposed to happen when Ben and Andy were here but was cancelled due to weather. This time it was hot and humid, so the tour was a go. Megan and I were a little nervous before we started, mainly about it being too hard, or falling in, or getting infected with disease from the sewage in the Chicago River. yikes...

However, once we got in, I felt a lot better. I figured, at that point I had gotten into the kayak, in the water without getting so much as a drop of water on me. Then, when I started to paddle I realized it wasn't as hard as I thought...And...the water didn't look so dirty or smell bad where we got in, so I was golden at that point, I was ready to go...

It took a few minutes to get situated and off we went. Joe and I were trying to keep up with the group (of EIGHTY people!) so we took off and unknowingly left Megan and Scudder behind. We ended up catching up with them when we got to Navy Pier before the fireworks started. Needless to say, the entire way down the river was bumper boats with the other kayakers, and other random things. I ran into some tree branches, the wall, and lots and lots of people. Hey, we were all learning as we went and most people had good attitudes about it. It was pretty easy to paddle, but when a boat would go by or when a rogue kayaker would swerve in front of me, it was hard to control the kayak and keep it on track or going straight. Also, maybe it was just me, but the whole time I felt like I was in a race and that was annoying. It was my own fault, I think it's just my competitive nature...I wanted to WIN! hahaha! I was also worried we wouldn't get to Navy Pier in time for the little fireworks show, but we did. whew!

By the time we got there, tired and ready to be done with the tour...that's when I started thinking about the fact that we had to go ALL THE WAY BACK. We had already paddled 3 miles (probably actually 6 with all of the back and forth swerving!) and we had to paddle all that way back, in the dark, with sore shoulders and hands setting in??? Ugh!  At least we all got a break while we watched the fireworks. 

Once we were given the go ahead to head back I was just trying to get back as fast as I could. Yeah, yeah...neat Chicago skyline..whatever. I was just ready to get done! Burning shoulders and two blisters on my hands, one ripped open (which I was also worrying about getting sewer water in) were not making it easier. But I kept going.... I plowed past most of the pack and got back to the dock as fast as I could. I like to think I was the woman version of Lance Armstrong...if he was a kayaker. ;-)  I was going to get done and get done, fast!  So, I was one of the first few people to get in and it felt great! Thank God I was done! The last leg of the river I was all by myself, I could see people a little bit ahead of me and I am sure people were a ways behind me, but for a minute there I was a little freaked out. It was dark and scary and I was alone...and apparently 10:30 pm is when the trash and debris likes to make it's way to the surface so that the unsuspecting late night kayakers can get grossed out on their way back. Ewww.

But we all eventually made it. Joe wasn't far behind me (I beat him in our personal race...hee hee) and we were all wet and smelly....and GLAD it was over.

All in all, it was a cool experience but it was way too rushed and way too long of a paddle for a first timer. I would do it again on my own terms with my own time frame. It would be fun to paddle around the lake (when it is still) or go on the river after they clean it up more (if that day ever comes) or if I could wear a hazmat suit.

At least none of us fell in, or got gangrene in our ripped open blisters, or pinkeye in our eye. We survived the kayak adventure on the Chicago River...and we weren't even that sore the next day....

Photos: Watch the slideshow or click to watch the slideshow in a seperate window or look at the pics individually. :-)