Visit

Eric came to visit a little while ago. Despite multiple flight delays and cancellations, he (reluctantly) arrived at my place. Unfortunately, I had to work a lot but we managed to get in a trip to the Field museum to learn all about mammoths and mastedons and tried a bunch of dark beers. I also took him to Kuma's Corner which is a heavy metal-themed restaurant that blares music at high decibels while patrons eat gigantic burgers. Each burger is named after a ban like Iron Maiden. Some of the ingredients are things like "anger." Some burgers have fried eggs and bacon on top; one is topped with a hotdog.

This is my burger:



It was so big I couldn't unhinge my jaw enough to get my teeth around it. It was delicious but could easily give one the meat sweats. I skipped that stage and went straight into a coma. A delicious coma.

Eating My Way Through Chicago

Lately I've encountered some interesting food over here. On Canada Day I threw a poutine party at a restaurant that specializes in southern-style cooking. The poutine was surprisingly delicious. Friends who are unfamiliar with the dish got a kick out of the name as seen in the second photo down...The first photo is fried green tomatoes with watermelon slices. Surprisingly delicious.






At a different dinner party I decided to try a corndog as I haven't had one before and they scream 'America.' This one was a little more upscale as it was made from rabbit. I felt bad, but not bad enough to not eat it.



Finally, I ran across this bizareness in the cracker isle - wtf?

Dun, duh nuh nuh, duh nuh nuh, duh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh

Even though I'm not a huge hockey fan it's hard not to get swept up in Hawks-mania. I was at a pub in Lakeview to watch the Hawks win the Stanley Cup. We were sprayed with victory champagne, received hugs from strangers, and ran amuck in the crowds. Two days later, I attended the parade to celebrate the win which went right past my school. Apparently 2 million people filled downtown to see the team and the cup. It was amazing and here are some photos:




If you zoom in on this picture you will see the Stanley Cup. I was running out of my school just as it drove by.



Illinois flags replaced with Blackhawks flags:




A guy who worked at my school climbed up a three story fire escape to take this picture:


This guy was awesome:

Dishes, Theatre, and Weird Disorders

Since I got home I've been waiting for a day when I didn't have dishes in my sink to provide you with a triumphant picture of a clean, empty sink. I'm still waiting. Ever since I ran out of paper bowls my motivation to wash my dishes on a regular basis has taken a nose dive. So, refer back to my original picture of my kitchen and that should give you an idea of what it looks like right now :(

In unrelated news, I recently saw the Greatest Show on Earth:

Point Break Live

Random disorders I just learned about:

Remember the movie Blink? I do. I just learned that there is a visual disorder that is very similar to the one the chick in the movie experiences. It's called palinopsia and it's quite freaky.

Also, a recent National Geographic had an article on sleep and described a rare sleep disorder called fatal familial insomnia which renders a person unable to fall asleep ever again.

Bulls Game

I actually hate basketball but I attended this game under the assumption we'd have seats close to the court. Sadly, we were second to the highest row in the United Center which is approximately 396390458409584058404 feet from the court. It turned out that basketball in person is just as boring as basketball on TV. Fortunately, there was wine and hard liquor available. Also, Vince Vaughn was in the audience which was the most entertaining part of the night. Oh well, one more thing to cross off my list of things to do in Chicago.

Umbrella Death Count Rising

The windy winds of Chicago have claimed the lives of 3 of my umbrellas since January 2008. The death toll is expected to rise in the next few years. Yesterday, literally half of my umbrella was bent and blown away leaving me to cower under the remaining shreds. This is getting expensive.

Where Are You?

I'm still here. Mostly I haven't posted anything because I've been insanely busy - my days are spent either at practicum, work, or class. As a result, I have nothing much to say.

I have squeezed in a few interesting things though. Last week I served kosher food to homeless people/people in need and over the weekend I went to Dave and Busters where I discovered I'm a decent Skeeball player. I also went to the Chicago International Film Festival last month and saw Short Changed which was so choice.

On the weekends I am usually found enjoying the freakishly warm weather (seriously, I was out last night a short sleeved shirt, jeans, and shoes no socks) and eating crazy gelato at this place down the street. I recently tried sweet potato and maple syrup , wedding cake, and black pepper gelato. They also had sweet corn gelato but I'm saving that one for another day.

So that's about it really. Happy American Thanksgiving!

Housematey Reunion

I'm too lazy to update the rest of my trip home but it involved congratulating Dr. Eric on successfully defending his thesis, waiting to be blown away by a tornado with Marc while sipping wine, and playing Nintendo with Gino.

When I got back to Chi-town the housemateys invaded for a 5-day whirlwind adventure. One of the many highlights was our visit to American Girl. This store is beyond creepy. Children pick out a doll that is dressed according to some time period. For example, there is a black doll from 1814 who comes with costumes and accessories from the time period including an information card. That particular one made no mention of slavery FYI, just that "the north and south were divided."

We were total assholes in this store, taking photos of the ridiculousness including Rachel posing infront of a gigantic star holding a book called, "Am I Normal?"

This card says "Dark skin, textured black hair boy." Even though the light-skinned dolls got 4 pages in the catalogue, dark skinned dolls only get one:




Matching clothes for you and your doll!



Tell your story! With a doll that looks like you! Your moment is now! Vague meaningless catch phrase!



Professional photo studio for you and your doll:


Randomly crippled doll:



Doll *hospital* where staff are actually wearing scrubs:




Hair dressers to style your doll's hair:



It's way too easy to make fun of this. It was a sign infront of a church:

Epic Fail

My friends Christine and Mike are here visiting and I really wanted to show them a good time. Unfortunately, few things have been going our way since they arrived. Despite Chicago's best attempt to ruin this trip, we have managed to have lots of fun. Here is a summary of our adventure so far:

DAY 1

Day 1 was supposed to begin with a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's house but we didn't order tickets in advance so we couldn't go. Fortunately, the day was still productive. I showed them the 1920s ballroom that was converted into a parking garage:




Then we saw Buckingham Fountain which is featured in the opening credits of Married with Children. Although the guide book said there was a water show every hour on the hour, it didn't happen while we were there :(



Further up the road we saw "The Bean" which apparently cost the city of Chicago $23 million. As Creed from The Office would say, "That freaked my bean."



At night, we tried to go to a bar for Trivia Night. Turns out the internet lied and it was 80s night instead. By the time we made it to a bar that actually had trivia night we arrived too late to participate. By this point my shoes, which ordinarily are quite comfy, gave me a massive blister. We regrouped at my place, got new shoes, and ended up having a great night at the Goose Island Brewery with Mike's friends.

DAY 2

Today was also challenging. I tried to take Christine and Mike to my favourite brunch place, Orange. We walked all the way there and found out it was closed for renovations. Then we took a bus to another brunch place and it was also closed. Finally, we went to a Swedish restaurant and ate waaaay too much food including scrumptious Swedish pancakes. With our bellies full of Lingonberries, we schlepped home and took a nap.

Upon wakening, we went to the zoo. This monkey (bad picture, I know) was putting on a show for the kiddies. At one point he hung from a vine and pressed himself against the glass. He paused, then peed all over the window right in front of us. Just streaming down all over the glass.



After the zoo, Christine wanted to see some medieval art so I says to her, I says, "No problem, we'll go to the Art Institute, they have tons of medieval art." We get there and were informed they recently put most of their medieval art away in storage. Later on while we were wandering around the museum we found a sign that said, "Medieval art exhibit: coming soon!"

The rest of the gallery was awesome though. I have a little-known fascination with obscenely and unnecessarily ornate and decorative furniture and time pieces from days of yore. This clock from the 18th century is something my grandmother would have put in her home, flanked by her crushed velvet portraits of bullfighters:



Our night concluded with a rousing game of Klax. Exhausted, it's time for bed. To be continued...

Millenium Park

Yesterday my friend and I decided to wander around downtown in search of adventure. After eating lunch by the river we thought walking to the lake might be a good idea. However, we took a very circuitous route to get there (like Family Circus) and took a wrong turn into Millenium Park. With the exception of getting a horrible lobster-esque burn on 25% of my body, it was worth it. Sadly, we never did make it to the lake. But here are the photos of our journey:

Gazebo deal:


Flowers and my back on the left:


From this spot it felt like we were in Central Park:


Field of flowers:


More flowers:


Weird, snaky bridge:


On the weird snaky bridge:


Lights and speakers for outdoor theatre:


The bean!


Underneath the bean:

Weather in Chicago

Between the hours of 9am-3pm:

Clear skies, warm.
Overcast, very cold.
Thunderstorm, cold.
Hail storm, cold.
Clear skies, very hot.

Chicago Taxi Ride

Friends of mine had an interesting cab ride home last night and I thought I'd share. The cabbie was very chatty and started talking about how he was getting 12 hours of sleep a night. When asked how he could sleep so much he replied, "Because my wife expired and sleeps on the couch."

At first, my friends thought he meant his dead wife was laying on the couch. Confused, they asked for clarification. Turns out this guy was from Pakistan and developed his own definition for the word "expired." To him, "expired" meant "menopause."

Before his wife went through menopause he wanted her for sex to have children. But after she expired he wanted to catch up on his sleep so relegated her to the couch at night.

Klassy.

Aquarium Fun

This past weekend a friend from university stayed with me while she was in town for a conference. On Saturday we ventured to the Shedd Aquarium for some good times. Here are the highlights:

I knew these existed - it's official, I'm never swimming in natural bodies of water again. Beware of the Great Freshwater Ray Uprising!


This poor little guy tipped over while walking on a branch and got trapped on his back. Every once in a while he'd flail his legs around trying to right himself. A crowd eventually gathered to watch him *almost make it* time and time again ("Oh!! OOOHHH!!! This time!!!!) only to see him fall back on his back ("Aaawwwwwwwwww").







Finally after using his feet and head to propel him over...success! The crowd cheered until they realized the turtle was giving us a deathstare, probably for not helping him...Someone in the crowd joked that the staff occasionally flip the turtles over to give the tourists a show ;)



Creepiest thing under the sea? I'd say this is a contender:



We thought something sexy was happening here...*snicker*



The fish in the bottom left hand corner is a mandarin fish and is ridiculously pretty:



This guy would follow us while we walked from one side of the tank to the other. He was seriously freaking out and looked like he was desperately trying to tell us something. He was bonking his head against the glass and flailing his arms and legs wildly. Finally, he scrambled his way to the top of the tank, got some air, and then chilled right out. We're guessing he's a little slow and forgot where they kept the air.

Day of Free Stuff!

The ingredients for a great day for cheapskates such as myself is to get free stuff. Today was that day.

It began at school when I was given a free lunch by my school as a boost toward the finish line of the semester. Needless to say, I gorged and pocketed as many pre-packaged goods as my bag would hold.

Then, I presented my video tape of an intake session I did for one of my classes. You may recall I did this taping last year and I'm pleased to say I improved in a few areas. I corrected my Mr. Burns posture and excessively head nodding/eye blinking. However, boredom face remains. To compensate, I ended up gesturing wildly with my hands throughout the interview and looked like I had lost proprioception (the ability to know where your limbs are in space).

Anyway, after my presentation, my professor gave me a book - Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science by Charles Wheelan. I highly recommend this book (read a good chunk of it already). It describes how economics impacts our daily lives. For example, the book explains why airlines charge different prices for tickets, why Alan Greenspan is so powerful, and how deregulation lead to the savings and loan disaster in the 80s and 90s (mentioned on last night's Daily Show). Written in lay language, it's an easy but informative read.

After I scored my free book I went to Macy's to treat my face to Clinique's line of skin care line. As a promotional deal, the face wash came with a free gift bag filled with blush, lipstick, moisturizer, mascara, and more. I could have gotten 20% off my purchase if I got a Macy's card but I can't get one because I don't have a social security number (tomorrow I will submit an application for a SSN so the days of discrimination are coming to an end). The lady felt so bad for me she gave me free eye make-up remover! Bam!!

Must away now - going to test out my new/free Youth Surge age decelerating moisturizer...

Happy St. Patrick's Day - Chicago Style!

Apparently, Chicago celebrates St. Patrick's Day early. Last year I was fooled and showed up to the party a few days late. Not this year, dear readers. After muscling my way downtown in a mob of green party hats, beads, and way too many 'kiss me I'm Irish' shirts, I made it just in time for the annual river dyeing ceremony.

Because of environmental concerns they used a new dye this year. Interestingly, it looks orange/yellow when it goes into the river but quickly turns a healthy neon green. As the boats dumped the dye into the river, a band of bagpipes and drums played while crowds cheered.

Here are some photos in chronological order that show the process. Look out for the Canada geese who decided to join the party. Judging from the radioactive glow of the dye, I bet they're partying in bird heaven about now.