Thanksgiving

happy day after thanksgiving!
so... unlike what i told everyone, i actually did have thanksgiving day off. i didn't think i would. but i did. and it was great.
whitney has friends over for break, so we all got up early and went downtown to watch the McDonald's Thanksgiving Parade. it was pretty much awesome. except for the fact that my camera died right after ronald mcdonald went by, and he was the first float. :( oh well, others got great pics.
that afternoon we went to the field museum, saw sue the t-rex and a natural disasters exhibit and lots of other interesting things. for supper we went over to LaSalle apartments with a few others who are still here over break, had a steak dinner. very simple- steak, mashed potatoes, rolls, brown sugar carrots... and pecan pie! tastey. watched bits of the House marathon.
today i was back at work. not a lot to do, but we had quite a few visitors. amy bought me a cute owl ornament, since tomorrow is the last time i will see her. and then me, whit, and all her friends went to ed debevics (again for me!). lots of fun. i love that restaurant!
now we are sitting in the room, doing nothing; they're talking about hot guys' jawlines and drinking while i talk/christmas shop on amazon.com.
so yeah.... thanksgiving.

a great couple of days

so... megan was here yesterday! had sooo much fun with her, and her random Indian friend who decided to join us. i think his name is dhruv (we pronounced it like Drove). we went to MCA to see the Jenny Holzer exhibit (again for me). then we ate at Ed Debevic's, a restaurant that is known for the waiters being rude (as part of its theatrics) and then dancing on the countertops. the food is typical american diner, but rather expensive. good food, but people go generally for the rudeness. it's great fun. then we went to a hookah bar- mmm... mint flavored. so good.
then we came back to the apartment and just hung out. watched a lot of funny youtube videos. stayed up til 1:30. had fun fitting us all in the apartment to sleep. and we get to do the same thing the rest of the week, but for whitney's two friends.
anyway, other funness- before i picked up megan, i wandered around chicago and all its holidayness. lots of pretty things, christmas lights, decorative trumpets, window shoppers, salvation army bell ringers, the giant christmas tree at daley plaza with the candy-striped shops that will open on friday for the german christmas festival. they had pickle ornaments.
and today, after dropping megan off at the blue line so she could get to ohare, and dhruv to union station so he could get back to the suburbs, i went to the cs offices so i could work on my final art project. oh yeah! final art project! on monday, i started that. what i did was make a 3Dish relief of a cityscape on canvas, made with littler canvases (you'd have to see pics), and then i took that down to the jackson red line train station, and painted a landscape on it- grass and mountains, and a lonely tree. after painting it in the station, i left it in the station. it was a combination of non-theatrical performance, painting, and installation, documented by a few photos, and then put together with a few videos into a slideshow.
the video/slideshow stuff is what i was working on today. and the best part of my day is what happened because of that: i was hidden in a back classroom doing my stuff; i forgot about the change of hours for the office b/c of the holidays; the people working there didn't think i was there anymore; they left; locked the doors; i finished what i was doing and came out, realized i was locked in, and kinda freaked out. i called a bunch of people and finally got ahold of someone who could come back and let me out. i was lucky cause she had just left and was buying shoes nearby. it's funny now, but i felt so stupid earlier. who gets locked in the office, really?!?
well, i think that's everything.... i feel like i'm forgetting stuff, but... oh well. so that's my life the past couple days.

how i've changed this semester

so this is a list of ways i have changed this semester. i'll let you decide what's for better or worse...


*i love the city, and i never thought i would
*i wear make up almost daily
*i'm more comfortable being myself in front of friends and strangers
*i wear dressier clothes than i used to. still sort of uniquified, but.... i hardly wear t-shirts anymore!
*i like borscht
*i feel like, if i had to, i could become a vegetarian
*i go out to bars and dance clubs--- and sometimes dance!
*i like James Bond
*i procrastinate a lot more
*i don't mind not knowing where i am or where i'm going
*more uncertain about my future than ever
*i talk to people i have nothing in common with and try to be their friend
*i can (sort of) talk in front of small groups of people
*i don't have as much time for my art
*more independent
*i'm more talkative
*little things get to me more easily
*i look more like a professional than an artist when i'm going to work so-
*when i'm on my own i am even more unusually dressed
*starting to almost like airports (but not flying)
*weirdly, writing more often
*more leader-like
*more comfortable talking to strangers
*more comfortable asking for help
*more liberal
*talking on the phone way more often
*give more easily to homeless
*care more about feminist issues
*i like outsider art!
*can more easily (and more willingly) express my opinions

that's all i can think of right now. it's quite a list! makes it seem as if i've become a whole new person. i don't think i have. i think it all just adds up to me becoming more comfortable being me.

so.......

well, since our fine arts events are over, i have a lot less to write about. at least, a lot less guaranteed subject matter. so any blogs from now on should be (key work: should) shorter. but i still have stuff i can write about, so never fear! the blog will still be here! (forgive me, i just woke up.)
it's hard to believe that the semester is almost over! i just had my final evaluation at work (all 5s, thank you very much). we only have one more day of classes, and that's the 3rd of december. we don't have classes the day b4 thanksgiving. (btw- Happy Birthday, Karlee! i'll try to find you something special and bring it home to you.) so only a couple weeks left, and i'm outta here. kinda sad. i love chicago. but exciting b/c i get to go back to NWC and see my friends again and prepare to live in HOSPERS BASEMENT WITH DANA!!!!!!! (can ya tell i'm excited?)
but i won't be able to stay away from chicago for long. one of my classes will be taking a trip there/here next semester; and dana and i have tentative plans to kidnap drew david and roadtrip to chicago for spring break. oh the funness we have planned for next semester!
so, even though our fine arts events are over, whitney and i went to see a show thursday night on our own. actually, it was the show that the theatre she works at is putting on. Grey Gardens. it's a musical about Jackie Kennedy's cousin and aunt (jackie is a little girl in the show) who live in a once grand and famous house, but now it is full of cats, racoons, fleas, and garbage. this mother-daughter pair of once-socialites are "alone together" as the program said. they can't escape each other because they know nothing else, but they drive each other crazy. it was an interesting show, very well done, but i found it so hard to get into because i hated every character! bigots, brats, sexists, divas, and just generally demanding and annoying upperclass people. although the butler was a good guy. even though i didn't like the characters, i was surprised to find that i felt sorry for them at the end. it was a good show.
tomorrow a few of us are going to a poetry slam! i'm so excited, i haven't been to one in so long. should be great. and megan is coming on tuesday! got some fun stuff planned to show her around chicago. she won't be here long, so we have to make the most of it while we can.
well, i should probably go get ready for work. ttyl

Little Things That Make My Day

so after that rant about the apartment of doom, here are a few small things that make my day better:
*the handicapped homeless man who always says 'good morning angels' to everyone but never asks for money
*lunch with my boss Beate
*cleanslate workers with a smiling face as they clean each neighborhood
*the man who runs the snack bar at the clark/division red line stop and always tells me good morning
*the holiday decorations
*getting phone calls from friends at home unexpectedly
*zulfiya's laugh
*good conversations about art with stephen snyder
*saturday night live parties
*heather hubers' brownies
*reading on the trains, and in the train stations
*getting weird looks because of how i'm dressed/what i'm reading/i'm sitting on the floor of the train station
*nerdy conversations with jessica lundgren
*having time to make art

Why Our Apartment Sucks

so... once upon a time i moved to chicago, and got stuck in the last apartment available. this is my list of why it sucks.
*small
*expensive
*drafty windows
*yellow colored bathroom
*only a half fridge
*no counter space in the kitchen or bathroom
*broken electrical outlets installed at an angle
*ugly
*small beds
*no light in "kitchen"
*gas stove that sets off the smoke alarm whenever i use the oven
*located right next to the alleyway where drunk people fight and smoke and play loud music
*located right next to same alleyway where hundreds of dumpsters need to be emptied weekly
*located right next to same alleyway where all the bars' delivery trucks stop
*construction on the apartment across the way
*hot and cold faucets in sink are exactly the same- barely cold unless you let them run forever, then they get lukewarm
*hottest and coldest water is in the shower
*sink doesn't drain very well
*sticky tack doesn't stick to the walls
*no one told us we had to turn the heater on, even though they turned the heat on
*have to have the light in the bathroom on to use that outlet, and it doesn't always work
*light in the main room spazzes and flickers every time you turn it on
*windows get stuck open or shut- require force to move them
*no shelf in closet
*dresser drawers stick
*crappily constructed
*microwave doesn't always work unless you hold the cord just right
*rusty cabinets
*cabinets right above stove get really hot and melty
*no drawers in "kitchen"
*only one comfy chair
*no view
*other rooms aren't as bad as ours
and the biggest problem, which would make all the others less horrific:
*it's a room made for one person and they shove 2 in for chicago semester students!

it's not completely terrible. it's livable. i mean, i can live anywhere for 3 months. this is just to get it all out there. room 212 in canterbury courts sucks!
:)

what a wonderful weekend!

hookay, so-
lots of good stuff to write about tonight. had a busy, wonderful weekend. but first, go back in time with me to thursday night. our art event was Radio Macbeth- a unique version of Shakespeare's tragedy, performed by actors as if they are rehearsing for a radio production of the play. but they end up "haunted" or something by the accursed play (for those who don't know, it's widely believed to be bad luck to say the name of the play in a theatre, or even to perform it in some cases. very interesting theories- check it on wikipedia.)
so here is my response to that:

Radio Macbeth. It was a lot different than I expected it to be, but I thought it was brilliant. I'm not entirely sure what was happening all of the time, but that is okay. It was an interesting concept, a little confusing for those who don't know the story of Macbeth. But I loved it.
The only thing I found frustating was that after reading reviews, I expected more of the "hauntedness" to be apperent and obvious. It was strange, and I'm not sure I would catch it if it hadn't been for the reviews. As it is, I'm not sure I'm correct in my thinking. But the way I saw it was that the radio actors were becoming too much the characters they were acting, and their actions in the recording studio were following too closely the story of Macbeth. That's how I understood it, at least.
I loved the beginning when it was obviously rehearsals, and they weren't "acting" Macbeth yet. so well done. I wonder how hard it was to do, if it got confusing for the actors. Because they weren't acting Macbeth. They were acting actors acting Macbeth. They had to be two characters at once!
And the way it ended, so powerful, so emotional, so intense. I was on the edge of my seat. The scene with Macbeth and Macduff and the chairs- loved it!
Overall, this is one of my favorite events. A little unconventional, but it's still Shakespeare. And the actors were all so talented! It made me want to reread Macbeth.
-------------------------------------------
after the play, me, whitney, pam, and mike went to see the midnight showing of james bond: quantum of solace. of course, we were rediculously early, so we went to walgreens and bought candy, which we smuggled into the theatre. still very early, but that was a good thing cause the theatre filled up fast, and we got to be nerds for a couple hours. it was a good movie, and we had fun.
whitney and i slept a couple hours, and then hopped on a plane to omaha, where my darling future roommate dana picked us up and drove us back to orange city. got to see most of my friends, got squealed at a lot, a lot of double takes, promises to never let me leave. it was kind of wonderful. if you ever question your significance, leave for a couple months and then show up randomly one day to get people's reactions.
got to spend lots of time with dana, hannah, and sylvia. saw my sister and grandma. ate chinese with kent and crystal, and it was like old times. went to see quantum of solace (yes again) with drew david. pretty much attacked tucker when i saw him. made fun of ben bees for breaking his leg, but hugged him extra hard to make up for it.
got to see terror texts twice! moshed both nights. and it's amazing. i absolutely love it. if anyone in tpe is reading this, you all did amazing and i'm so glad i splurged on that plane ticket. little sister and friend, and grandma also loved it! so you should all be proud. you really did wonderful work. *go light crew*
now i'm back in chicago, catching up on all the stuff i have to finish for this week. it's weird. i kept telling everyone how much i love chicago and how i can see myself living here in the future, but it felt so good to be back at northwestern, in the openness of a small town, with lots of space and no tall buildings, on familiar territory. where the stars are visible and there are leaves to kick in the fall. i do still love chicago, but going back reminded me of why i don't like cities in general. i guess i'll have to balance that out when the time comes. live farther away from downtown, near parks and greenness. or become rich enough to have two homes! :)
anyway, it's late. well, sort of. not compared to the rest of this weekend's schedule, but i should catch up on sleep and get back into a regular sleeping schedule!
goodnight

no one mourns the wicked

omg omg omg omg!!!! i finally saw wicked! after reading the book twice and listening to the soundtrack innumberable times, my dreams came true and i got to actually see the awesomeness. and it was totally worth the money i spent, and i want to see it again!
the singing and acting were incredible, the set and lights were astounding- i would love to be a part of a show like this at a theatre that can afford to do stuff like that. oh, fly systems! everything was perfect...except for my seat.
the placement of the seat wasn't itself disappointing. it was actually surprisingly better than i feared. it was the fact that the people who were sitting around me were rediculously annoying. i don't think i've ever come so close to strangling a stranger. first of all, i was by myself, so i didn't know anyone. the people behind me were only annoying before the show when they were trying to find their seats. easily forgotten. but there were people in their party, farther down the row, who were giggling during one of the most moving songs- For Good. i wanted to throw something at them.
but the worst was that the majority of my section was comprised of 9 year old girl scouts, and their suburban mothers. and i'm not sure who was worse- the girls or the mothers. arguing about seats before hand, complaining about everything, trying to control everyone, not paying attention to the fact that they are disturbing everyone else in our section. and then during the show they would whisper to each other, move around constantly, and not pay attention. and that was the adults.
the worst pair were right in front of me. a mother/daughter who kept leaning on each other, the little girl couldn't sit still, and they kept blocking my view. ANGER!
and of course there were the people with cell phones and cameras. why don't people ever respect the rules of the theatre? *special level of hell*
anyways, also today, i went back to the museum of contemporary art to see the new first floor exibit by jenny holzer. so good. also want to go back there. it was very political, about government documents/coverups/secrets when it comes to war and torture etc. what most of her work, in general, consists of are LED messages that scroll in and on public spaces. in the gallery, it was so much more creative, with the messages going in different directions, different speeds, in circles. it was dizzifying. but very very cool. lots of good use of lighting- made the whole room glow orange or purple or red. love her work, and was glad that one of the girls at work told me about it.
well, that's my day. should go to bed soon. we have presentation in class tomorrow. but after that we have another community dinner! mmm... italian.

oh opera

here's my response to our art event this week. we went to the auditorium theatre (a beautiful building with the best acoustics in the world) to see an opera. it was the story of Margaret Garner, a slave who escaped with her family, only to be recaptured. instead of having them go back to the life of slavery, she killed her own children. this led to one of the longest court cases involving civil rights at the time- deciding whether or not she should be tried for murder or destruction of property (since according to the laws at the time, Margaret's children were the property of the slave owner). her story, which actually happened, is also a book by Toni Morrison, called Beloved.
some of you may have read it. anyway, this is what i had to say on the experience:

"So, what did you think of the show?"
"I liked everything but the singing."

I said that at least twice Thursday night. And it's true. I had little experience with opera singing before last night, and I was never really impressed. And it has nothing to do with the talent of those singing, but the style itself. It's a strange, foriegn style for me, and perhaps with time and experience I'll come to appreciate it for what it is. And maybe I have to see the right shows. But where I am right now, I don't like opera.
Someone asked me early this week what the difference is between operas and musicals. They'd always thought that an opera was something that was completely composed of singing, little to no spoken dialogue. But then Caroline, or Change could be classified as an opera rather than a musical. The way I see it is a difference in the style of singing, the way each uses singing in the performance. Actors in musicals, and I'm borrowing this from a friend, sing when and because they are so passionate or emotional that merely speaking isn't enough- they have to sing. Songs, along with the music, in a musical are used to help convey those feelings, or help define setting and environment. They want the audience to understand what's happening, to feel it with them.
Opera on the other hand, and this is my own conclusion after last night and is probably an exaggeration, doesn't seem to want you to even understand the words! The more notes you can put into one word, the better. All the songs sound the same if you take away the music. There is no emotion in the way they sing. You can only get that by watching the actors- but because of the way they sing, I don't believe the way they act. It makes it very frustrating, for me at least, to watch an opera.
I also noticed that when some of the actors were singing major parts, they faced the audience, not the person they were supposed to be in dialogue with. And sometimes when two or more actors were singing together (not counting the choruses), they didn't seem to fit well together. Is opera supposed to be that individualistic? Where it's everyone singing the best they can, drawing as much attention to themseves, with no regard for their partners' voices? That's what was running through my mind most of the night.
I would have loved the show otherwise. The set was amazing! I loved how they used the fly system. The pattern on the walls and floor was absolutely gorgeous, and it worked so well and changed so much with every different lighting system. And the story was incredibly sad! But beautiful, too. Bittersweet freedom in the form of death. That's what Margaret Garner got at the end. It's all she had left. It was with a melancholy heart that I left the theatre. Even with singing I didn't believe, the sght of Margaret hanging there broke my heart.
It is disgusting to me how anyone could have even considered calling children property, especially belonging to someone who isn't even their parent. it's hard to believe that that was the accept, and expected, mindset back then. amazing that we've come so far in terms of eqality. we just elected a black president! even so, there is still a long ways to go until we are a perfectly equal, united country.

we just made history

Barack Obama, our new president. a black president. it's a huge milestone. and i was a part of it. i was in chicago when barack obama was announced president. i went to grant park with a million other people in support of him. true, i wasn't there long, and was only on the outskirts. i left before he arrived. but i cheered and yelled with everyone else, giving strangers high fives and smiling and waving at all the cameras, chanting obama obama obama. what a night.
watched most of the coverage on cnn/nbc/comedy central. heard jon stewart make the announcement. then 3 of us went downtown to be a part of the madness there. insane! i wish i'd had my camera with me. it was a great, everyone honking there horns, yelling out their windows. strangers coming together for one purpose.
it's surreal. a new president, bringing hope and change. it hasn't really sunk in yet. so what happens now? so much of the hype was building up to this point, and we got what we wanted- now what do we do? how much of his campaign can he pull off? we'll see. but for now, it's a good day.

go vote!

what an exciting day to be in chicago! obama is so close to being president (*fingers crossed/knock on wood*) and he's from chicago, so everyone here is for obama. pretty much anyway. there's a rally/party thing for him at grant park tonight, but they are saying that if you don't have a ticket already, please stay away. it's gonna be really really packed and busy and i think everyone is preparing for the worst behavior- whether obama wins or loses, people are going to get out of control. this whole election has worked everyone into a frenzy so no matter what the outcome, they are going to go insane. i'd love to be at grant park, but i didn't sign up in time to get a ticket. might be better to avoid all that anyway. no knowing what could happen when probably thousands of people get together for one thing to celebrate one man. security is going to be rediculous. even the building where i have classes is tightening up so you can't even get in after 5 unless you have a key. i even heard that there might be an alcohol ban for tonight; at least, it won't be sold anywhere downtown. probably a great idea.
i'm so glad i voted a couple weeks ago to avoid all the lines and people. i see people with buttons and stickers saying the voted today all over the place, signs everywhere telling people to vote and pointing them to the nearest locations. starbucks is giving free coffee from 5-8 for people who voted, and ben and jerry's is doing the same thing with ice cream. this is the most hyped-up, most publicized election ever, and i'm a part of it. i've never been able to vote before, so i've never cared as much about politics as i do right now. history could be made this week!
everyone needs to get out and vote today, if they haven't already. vote vote vote vote!!!!