Can You Figure This Out?

We had a warm Wednesday last week, and Brian and I decided to go on an evening walk around our neighborhood. Not only do we live in Greektown, we live just blocks from the University of Illinois at Chicago. So we see a ton of college kids around. We were approaching what you see below, and I thought I was going crazy. I in fact, almost stepped on a dead bird and Brian had to pull me over. Can you figure it out? If you see on the left another set of signs. Well, that is above a drop off that is the actual freeway.

So I was thinking, noo, the city really wouldn't do that would they? Is there some sort of mirror/reflecting agent I can't see?



We then walked up to the two people standing there and I got an inkling of what it might be. Anyways, we asked them if they knew the story, and they said they were the artists. Of course! I love it! How clever, and to have it on ground level next to the freeway below. It made me laugh, and still does. In addition, they told us that they have been working on it all semester. The thing is about two weeks ago they started construction and added the orange signs to the real freeway sign. I imagine when the artist saw that they were like, ahhh, now we have to adjust ours too so it is realistic. Boy, is it realistic. We couldn't stop staring at it and I think we made the artists really happy.

An installation piece just steps from our door. I love living in the city. You never know what you may stumble upon.

Greek Independence Day

So for those of you who aren't Greek, or who don't live in Greektown, March 25th is Greek Independence Day. We live right off the parade route that happens every year on this day. In fact they close the street right in front of our house. Of course, if you know anything about March in Chicago you know that it is a cold, gray month and the day of the parade is normally freezing. I always feel so bad for the girls in the Greek outfits on the floats.

So this year they decided to have the parade on April 25th. I'm sure it was because they thought the weather would cooperate. And wouldn't you know it April 25th was a windy, sleety, cold Sunday. We didn't even go out on our porch to look at the parade. We just watched from inside our cozy house. This year I felt bad for all the businesses who no doubt were counting on a big revenue day. We did bundle up to walk to church and caught a few bikes waiting for their owners to finish a big Greek meal, no doubt. Aren't they cool!

I guess we will all have to wait for the Greektown festival the last weekend of August for a warm Greek festival. It is always one of the last we go to each summer and a little bittersweet.

On another note, I think it would be cool to learn Greek to communicate with some of the business owners, and older folks of the neighborhood in their native language. So I asked a local cafe owner how difficult it is. He said second only to Cantonese. Yikes! There goes that idea. I guess if we decided to live here forever, I might give it a go but with Brian's family's language being Cantonese, I figure I already have a challenging language to learn.

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.