Tall Ships

On Sunday we headed to Navy Pier for the Tall Ships exhibit


You could get in line for each one and walk through, so we did this on a few of them


The ships reminded us of the galleon ship we were on in Croatia


This one was used in some movies


Also went to Greek Fest to see KM's friend Bill do some Greek dancing


And of course eat some yummy Greek food

Goose Island

Weekend lunch at Goose Island. They're known for their craft beers, but we just needed some food.

I had a steak sandwich


My roommate went with the mussels

5 years ago

Hurricane Katrina flooded me out of Louisiana, and into Texas for 9 months. She took my shoes, my books, my furniture, a lot of old pictures, and moved some of my friends halfway across the country...then gave me "the depression".

After which I:

• replaced my shoes
• replaced some of my furniture
• got a Masters Degree
• climbed a mountain
• visited NY, Colorado, and Chicago, kinda regularly
• went on a cruise
• went to China
• went to Mexico
• went to Ecuador
• went to Europe
• made new friends, kept old ones
• got paid to eat, drink, and take pictures
• got a job, saved a lot of money
• lost a job, but not all that money
• moved to Chicago

I win, bitch.

Unpacking

Boxes, boxes, boxes.


It's coming slowly but surely, with emphasis on the slowly.



Our alcohol collection is doing quite nicely in the built-ins. We have 40 bottles of wine between us, and about 30 of liquor/liqueur. Glasses and some china are on the shelves above the alcohol.


I finally put together my EXPEDIT shelf yesterday morning, which will give me some room for books and decorative items.


I'm making a list and taking my medicine and hopefully I will continue to be (somewhat) productive.

The Southern

I now live in Chicago, so let the eating begin.

Fittingly, we had dinner last nigh at The Southern. Here's a few of the items that graced our taste buds.

Southern Mess - handcut fries, tasso ham, cheese curds


Hush Puppies, with a roasted artichoke hummus-like dip


Fried green tomatoes


Crabcakes

I'm here

I live in Chicago now.

Twas the night before moving

Fittingly, I painted a Mississippi River Bridge picture at Corks'n'Canvas.


All packed up

Nostalgia

I'm in Texas. There is still a closet here full of stuff that belongs to me, it's just mostly stuff from high school and earlier. There are a few items I need to move to Chicago, but a lot of the other stuff Mother just wants me to go through and decide what to keep and what to toss.

So here I am digging through boxes of memories from my earlier days. I apparently used to save everything. Every class schedule, ticket stub, hotel key card, school newspaper, playbill, business card, etc. I have a purple ace bandage from when I gave blood, beverage napkins from junior prom, poker chips from Vegas, a speeding ticket from 2005, an excerpt from a short story that I used for a monologue in drama class, a laminated newspaper article reviewing Baz Luhrman's Romeo & Juliet because I'm quoted in it, and an autographed picture of the Zambian Acapella Boys Choir (who I assumed performed at one of my schools)...I even have a whole shoebox filled with brochures, maps, metro cards, and PLASTIC BAGS (from retail purchases) from my trip to France and Spain in 1999 that was all of two weeks.

At the time, all these things in my life seemed so epic. While the memories are very nice, I must laugh at myself for holding onto some of this. I'm smiling at a lot of it, but it's still all pretty easy to throw away. I'm keeping a few gems that I'll probably share with you (I apparently wrote an essay on why I love the color purple, as well as a letter to my first high school concerning the asinine behavior of a certain teacher...not sure if I ever actually sent it). I suppose I am glad that I hung onto these things in order to have these nostalgic moments, but I really don't see any point in holding on any longer. And I'm glad that I don't stockpile these things in my current life. Maybe if I had the time and energy to be a scrapbooker, but I don't. I want to live my life, I don't want to waste all my time trying to preserve the memory it.