St. Patty's Day

Just blocks from our place in Greektown is the bar Dugan's, which any other time of the year I never even realized is Irish. St. Patrick's Day is huge here in Chicago, but Brian and I usually don't do much. Standing out in the cold to watch them dye the river green, or to watch the Southside parade just never appealed to me. Plus they celebrate it the weekend before, so I am always caught off guard.

This year it fell on a Wednesday. The parade was cancelled this year since it had turned into a drunken-fest and the river had already been dyed, but Brian had a hankering for an Irish pub. So we went to Dugan's, and it seemed all Irish. We went for a drink, stayed for a few and then went home and cooked cornmed beef and cabbage. A proper St. Patty's Day was had by all.

Best Looking Room

Strangely, the best decorated room in our house is our guest bathroom (hint, hint, come visit). About a year ago we came across this cute poster in out of my favorite boutiques, Penelope's.

It has been sitting in our closet waiting for us to frame it. Do you know how expensive custom framing is? Crazy.

So we finally framed it yeah, and of course that means that if I wanted to hang it in our bathroom I would have to upgrade the rest of the bathroom. So I quickly bought a fabulous etage from Restoration Hardware and beautiful towels, and rug. Now I am so happy with how it turned out. Love it.

Gun Range

So Friday afternoon my company always has a 4:00 o'clock meeting that inevitably starts at 5:30pm. Ahh, how obnoxious. Who wants their weekend to start at 7:00? So this past Friday at 6:30 after the meeting was substantially over, my boss decided that it would be a good time to discuss where we should go on the company outing. Seriously, we are going to discuss this now! So what ensued was about 7 of us yelling out and shooting down suggestions(no pun intended as you will soon find out). So I suggest a cool bar or whirlyball while another colleague suggests car racing and then Brooke suggests a gun range. Yup, you heard it right, a gun range for a company outing. And then my boss said, "Yeah that sounds great." What! I know we might all have a bit of stress and pent up agression but seriously, this would have to be a first for even our company. So when it came down to it I was the ONLY person opposed to going to a gun range. How that was, I am not sure. Then I got the questions, seriously Lissa you wouldn't shoot a gun. I won't get into that here, but really how is this appropriate for a work event?

So previously during that "meeting" my boss suggested inviting some people that might be prospective employees to this yet undecided work outing. Now, I don't know about you, but inviting a perspective employee to an event where we let down our hair and have a few drinks may not be the best way to impress. When I got home and started telling Brian about the gun range and prospective employee idea . . . you can see where this is going. . What you don't want to work with us (as you hold a .38 caliber in your hand). We laughed and laughed.

Weird meeting! My bet is still on whirlyball.

Louder Than A Bomb!

This is our second year going to the finals of the Louder Than a Bomb poetry slam. The slam started with about 650 youth poets that get widdled down to about 20 for the finals. The students stretch from the Chicago Public Schools to the Chicago suburbs. The finals are in an old theater here in Chicago, The Vic and are certainly inspiring.

It is truly amazing to see such creative and talented students have the courage to stand up in front of at least 1000 spectators and poor their hearts out. Even as an educator, it is sometimes hard to recognize teenage voices. And here they are channeled into such a positive endeavor. The themes generally cluster around identity, love, breakups, and relationships with parents. All topics we can all relate to from our adolescence. They then sprinkle in politics, poverty, and Chicago Public School violence and inequality.

It is especially special to go to a Poetry Slam here in Chicago. The Slam was developed here by a gentleman Marc Smith at The Green Mill (yes, where Capone hung out). He came up with the ideas as a trick to get more people listening to poetry. The idea is poets perform a poem in 3 minutes or less and then they are judged on a scale from 1-10. At The Green Mill the prize is usually $5. But as they say "the point is not the points, it's the POETRY" If you don't like the poem as it is being read you can snap it off the stage and if you think the scores are too low then you can scream, "listen to the poem".

There are two best things about Louder Than a Bomb:

1. It gives you a chance to listen to the powerful youth voices of Chicago
2. You never know what the next peom will bring, humor, tears or both.

Here is the the 2008 festival where Brian and I were first listened. http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=19430

Enjoy!

Have You Ever

Gone on a date with some guy that whistles at you out of a car? Really, what do they expect you to do, stop in your tracks and give them your number. As spring approaches and more people have their windows down, and women are finally not wearing as many layers, I have noticed this trend again. I'm not sure if it is brave or stupid to say something. I myself been driven along side of and cat-called and it is HORRIBLE. I just don't really get why and what one expects.