lots of stuff

so, it's been a little while... what's happened since last week thursday...
on friday, we had a movie night at the boys' apartment. we watched a really interesting german movie called run, lola, run. i like it. also got entertained by some drunken misshaps of one of the guys trying to catch a bus home. that was funny. saturday was a progressive dinner, where 9 rooms provided parts of a meal (3 appetizers, 3 entrees, 3 desserts) and you go from room to room eating. it was so good. made me realize, though, how many chicago semester students i don't know, or don't see anymore. especially the student teachers. sunday i went back to improv olympic with a girl named heather to see a friend of hers perform. it was awesome! 3 hours for $5. doesn't get much better. and it was good to spend time with heather cause i rarely see her, even though she lives across the hall. she's a student teacher.
on thursday this week we went to see Disavowel, a david dorfman dance thing. it was supposed to be about john brown, a white civil rights activist/borderline terrorist who was hung for his actions. the dance visually was really good. very modern/post-modern and improv/freestyle. they had this one bit where each dancer had a bucket with a light in it. beautiful. actually, the lighting for a lot of it was good. lots of silhouettes and shadows. no color though... and i liked how the dancers came into the audience, tied people together with string, pulled people on stage. and when there was "dialogue," it was very poetic. that was all good. but it was also very very abstract. i like abstract things most of the time. (i.e.jackson pollock's paintings, or small change that i saw in london). but as a dance that was supposed to be telling us about this man's life, it left nothing for us to grab onto. there were themes that could be pulled out of it relating to the civil rights movement. but it was completely over the heads of most of the people there. i'm not sure i liked it. i can see the value of something like it. and i don't think they should have to force feed us meaning. but i just don't think a show that is supposed to be about a specific person should be so undecipherable. it does generate discussion. it does cause us to think. but it was frustrating to not know what was going on. i wish i knew what the concept was originally, what they were going for. did they feel like they succeeded?
yesterday, though, a group of us bought tickets to see mama mia! it was wonderful! the singing was beautiful, especially the woman who plays donna. the set was cool, rotating walls. and the lights! brilliant. very saturated colors and disco-y for dance scenes. loved it. and at the end, after the curtain calls, they basically had a mini-concert, as if we were actually seeing abba perform. it was really cool. we all stood up and sang along. it was a really happy, feel good musical.
tonight, some of us went out for chinese (in Chinatown, of course), and then to a jazz festival. awesome night! just a small group of six. talked a lot- about everything. especially waiting in line to get into the jazz thing. the place was packed! we had to wait for over an hour. but it was so worth it. great musicians. and then we went to baskin robins for ice cream. it was a good night.
work is going really good. i'm doing a lot of copy-paste work into excel files, scanning slides still, etc. but we are also starting to get a lot of pieces for the next show. so whenever the ups guy comes, it's like a birthday and we get to open up the packages and find the artwork inside! i've visited some really good galleries for work, seen a lot of good art. museum of contemporary photography is my fav so far. for anyone who remembers the central photo for the grapes of wrath design- that was a photo by dorothea lange, and she had a lot of work at mocp while i was there. although i was interrupted by the fire alarm going off. had flashbacks to the tate britain...
classes are pretty good. have to write a 5-7 page paper by wednesday. i haven't started. it's on frank lloyd wright. not terribly exciting. but we have really good discussions in my art class. i love it.
so for one of my classes, we have to keep a journal. this week's entries are based around our relationships... i'm gonna pick a few things out of those entries and put them on here as well. (can't put the whole entries up cause that would make this exceedinly long!)forgive me if i'm repeating things from past entries.
i really like the group of friends that i have accumulated here. we seem like such a random collection of people: nerds and socialites, business and arts, sporty jocks and quiet wallflowers. but somehow we all came together. three of them are actually from northwestern. i knew and liked one of them at school. i worked with her. the other two i didn't even know. we had completely different circles. and now we hang out at least once a week. it's great. movie nights, weekly meals, sometimes dancing or going to a bar. music festivals happen all the time.
having a bit of a hard time with my roommate. we get along okay, but there are things that annoy me. (it's getting better since i originally wrote this in my journal!) it's a lot of little, petty things. like how much perfume she wears, the way she calls everyone scooter, laughing at her computer... there are bigger issues, too, like the fact that i am always more interested in her day than she is in mine. she talks forever about her day and rarely asks me about work. and we never really talk at all. most nights are spent in silence, each with our headphones on. i feel as if we will never be the kind of friends i see other roommates becoming. we have a lot in common, but very diferent personalities...
and the people i work with are wonderful! my boss, beate, is so funny, sweet, and strong. i really admire her for all she does. she is very motherly- making sure we eat, take breaks. she offers water and pop to the ups guy when he comes. walks us through step by step when we are learning something new. she does the same thing with artists, too. amy, my other boss, is great. very friendly and helpful. she gives me great assignments to work on, and really supports what i want to do with my internship. we talk a lot about art, school, politics. kristin is the other employee, a senior at DePaul. took some time to get a connection with here (we have different personalities), but she's pretty nice. always good for suggesting artists to look into, or events happening in chicago. there are also 3 more interns, who each only work 1 day a week. it's harder to get to know them, but they are all fun. i think i get along best with lindsay. not sure why... there are so many other people involved with the gallery- artists, jurors, volunteers, etc. i haven't met all of them. but the ones i have talked to are are great. quirky, inspiring, creative, polite, funny, sincere, interesting. i feel blessed to be able to meet just a few of them.
well, i don't think there's anything else...
love and miss you all!