Family, Friends and French Fries on Sandwiches!

Being renewed by family and friends, reminded of who I am, and challenged to be more loving~ Thanking God for grace and opportunities to be creative and grow~ Seeing the cloudy skies of home and feeling safe under their looming blanket~ Given the time to be surrounded by the amazing people I've been blessed to be in relationship with~ Knowing that my childhood Dairy Queen is just minutes away~ Enjoying french fries smooshed into sandwiches in the steely Burgh~ Consuming extremely cheap beer with dear friends~ Grateful for this Lakey Home~

Made up Musicals Make My Heart Happy!

Though all musicals are in fact made up at some point, some are made up and executed in front of an audience at the very same moment! Musical Improvisation is such a joyful creation, made of Music, Singing and Improv simultaneously! It's a match made in Heaven, and exudes the level of joy akin to that of say, peanut butter and fluff, pop tarts and milk, or um, kix cereal and cool whip (try it!) It's both naughty and nice, it's truthful and make believe, it's simply beautiful!

Utility Elevator Meets Blue Caution Tape

It all started with the impulse of wanting to be a good and helpful roommate and offering to take out the garbage, a bag of recycling and a crap load of cardboard this afternoon. Naturally, the utility elevator that leads to the back door of the building where the dumpsters are would have been the most convenient route to my destination. I waddled down the hallway with my disposables in tow toward it. I found it a little odd when I initially couldn't open it's door, but pressed the button for it to open and it did, no problem. I then had to manually pull open the sketchy metal accordion door and hook it to itself so it would stay open as I flung the stinky bags and cardboard mass into this metal box that seemed like it would be heading somewhere not so pleasant.
I stepped in, unlatched the door, and pressed the button for the 1st floor that leads to the ramp which leads to the back alley-way with the dumpsters. All was going swimmingly, until I reached the 1st floor, pulled open the other scary metal accordion door with all my might to discover the realization that there was a sign on the maroon colored door that has to be pushed open to exit this M.C. Escher-esque contraption, saying "Wet Paint." It was also covered in blue caution tape so as to ward off anyone from exiting through this door. "Okay" I thought, "well, this is a bummer", since I went through all the work to get myself into the elevator, but I guess there's no other option but to head back on up. But oh no. The elevator had been "turned off" because they didn't want anyone to walk through the wet paint hallway, (info that would have been helpful to know before I entered, instead of being met with the surprise notification as I tried to exit, discovering that this forbidden exit was now the only exit as the elevator would neither go up nor down.)
I slyly reached out under the tape to see if indeed the paint was wet. It seemed a little sticky, but I wouldn't say "wet." Though it felt like a clandestine operation, I felt I had no choice but to exit through this door. I decided to place one call for help to my roomie, April who was busy upstairs putting a shelf together and listening to Christmas music. I was very relieved when she actually heard my call and answered! "Hi honey, I'm stuck in the utility elevator." I said, to which she replied...."What? Just press the button for our floor....what do you mean, you're stuck, it won't move?? Okay, I'll be right down." She came to my rescue as I very unstealthly ejected myself from this elevator, through the tape and past the security camera that witnessed it all.
April opened the door to the first floor, which was also blocked off by large amounts of tape, but I was able to toss the bags under the tape and crawl/jump under. Just then, one of the building's repair men happened to be walking by us in the hallway, and witnessed the whole sleazy exit/entrance. This all made me nervous and I tripped, falling out of the blocked off doorway and into the hallway, atop of my garbage bag. April and I started laughing uncontrollably, while trying to explain to this very disappointed person how I found myself in the forbidden hallway. He said "I hope you weren't in there, b/c that's why we stopped the elevator." I offered my plea as we walked off laughing, hoping that joy would wash over his frustration, and all would be okay.
April and I parted and I continued out the front door this time, to take the bags outside and then continue off to a cafe. As I was walking outside, I kept hearing a crinkling sound, at first it sounded like birds fluttering above in the branches of a tree, but that wasn't it. Next, I thought, maybe someone was opening a window in the building above me, but that didn't seem to be it either. So, I thought that maybe it was something on or around me, which is when I noticed that I had a huge piece of blue caution tape on my coat extending from my armpit to wrist, which I somehow felt wouldn't have been a very fashion forward wardrobe addition in the streets of trendy Lincoln Park, so I quickly removed it and kept it as a reminder and joyful souvanier of my utility elevator escapades! Off to the cafe, an environment in which the theme of clumsiness continued to surround me, as I proceeded to nearly topple a lamp over near the astutely quiet cafe goers. Another tale for another night.

Snowflakes in My Peanut Butter!

This morning when I walked outside, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it had snowed, and even let out a little squeal of excitement! From this point on, I proceeded to interact with the snow in ways that were a bit too intimate for my comfort level. Initially I made it to the bus stop, hoping the bus would arrive momentarily. I then stood idly by for about 12 minutes, until I realized that it was Saturday, and, no, no buses would be by for quite a while. During my 12 minute commuting break, I decided to have some apples and peanut butter that I had packed along, which is when it really started snowing! Snowflakes were cascading into my peanut butter, and sticking there, even long enough to actually notice the distinct shapes of each little flake, which is about when I realized that I had been standing there a little too long.

A few other highlights of this sticky Saturday snowfall occurred on my way home from my outing, as I was standing on the El platform, and a weird, well put together guy encroached on my "personal telephone booth" to inquire about the trail mix I was eating. This was a harmless inquiry, to which I felt fine about, even relieved to have someone to talk to whilst waiting, until he asked what nationality I was. I reminded him of his Irish- Italian- German niece. As we got on the train, he sat immediately next to me. He shared with me that he was headed to Millennium Park to go ice skating, asked if I ice skated, and when I answered "Not really", he asked "Why?!" He then asked me what neighborhood I lived in, which is when I started giving brief, uninterested, one word answers, and wanted this interaction to end. He took a book out of his creepy book bag. The book's title was none other but "Reading Facial Expressions." Finally, I departed the train, iiik.

As I walked briskly home, my poor ol' UGGs who were turning 4 Winters old, who carried me faithfully to myprevious destination and halfway back- apparently just couldn't take it any longer. The floodgates opened! Each step I took squished with cold water, (which thanks to the insulating nature of UGGs eventually turned into kind-of pleasant luke warm water.) My toes wanted to cry and I marched myself right into "Hanig's Slipper" shoe store, determined to find a new pair of waterproof- perhaps even slightly stylish boots. With the realization that my socks were completely sopping wet, I had planned on just peeling them off and asking for those little "footie" nylon things, but when I sat to try on boots, recollected I actually had tights on too, under my socks, which were drenched, and attached at my midsection. Therefore a permanent obstacle to this operation. Regretfully, I tried them on anyway, trying to double up on the footies to soak up some of the wetness. I slipped my foot into each boot with lightning speed so as not to moisten up the inside of the boot for future try-er on-ers, which was a less than successful approach. I realized I needed to put my decision making skills to the test and decide quickly, to conclude this shady and soppy shopping excursion. I think I picked a suitable boot, to-boot!

The most endearing portion of this day occurred on my way home from Hanig's Slipper, where I saw a little girl licking a snowball. We are in Chicago, and this little child was licking a snowball, comprised of precipitation that had landed on the streets of Lincoln Park, of which she was now ingesting. Her parents either oblivious or simply cool with it.

Later in the evening, I went out to see a Musical Improv show, and upon my return home, was so hungry that I decided I would make the "Wacky Mac" mac-n-cheese that was on sale for .99 at World Market. Oh boy was I excited, until I dumped the noodles out and a little worm flew out and landed on my counter top. There he was, wriggling and inching along. A little worm. A worm. Okay, well thankfully, my roomie April came home and intervened, stopping me from eating the wacky mac, and insisting that we dispose of the garbage can that the worm was now in, as it was a maggot and would eventually turn into a fly or have more babies. Now bidding a goodnight to my first Chicago Winter's Day.