From my eyes…

I had another fabulous weekend! I was invited to go with Mike and his best friend’s family for a day at the lake.
We went to Wonder Lake and spent the day in a fabulous cottage home that was so big and spacious I can’t get over it.
We played in the pool for a while and then headed out on the boats. The boys took the speedboat. The ladies and (one of the grandpas) took the pontoon out. We buzzed around a for a bit and then three of us girls (me, a 19 year old cousin, and a 9 year old cousin) vested up and hopped on the tube. It was a HUGE tube called a Slice. It was so. much. fun. I haven’t done that in years and I about died of laughter. I fell off twice and Amanda (the 19 year old lifeguard) pulled me back up and we hung on. We’d all made a pact not to let go for ANYTHING and we held to that. It was great. I would have liked to go a little faster, but we let Kristen (the 9 year old) make the call on that one. We went for a long ride and then the rope snapped and we toppled over.

It was then that I had one of those moments that makes me realize I really am an adult even if there are days I feel like I’m 15 still. Before I even surfaced I was aware the making sure Kristen was ok was my priority. She was on the other side of the tube so I had one of those 2 second heart attacks until I saw her face, but she was fine. We all got a little rope burned, but we were happy to have had such a long run out there.
We crawled back on the boat and let the boys knee board and ski. They didn’t get to go much though, because there was a storm coming. We headed back to where the other grandpa (the one that stayed back) had grilled up pounds upon pounds of ribs and chicken. There were also several potato, pasta salad, and vegetable dishes people had brought to share.
And when I say people….the house belonged to the Schultzes. They have four kids who were there with their families -including 6 grandkids ages 1-11 (minus a few grands and a wife). Grandma Schultz is high school friends with Grandma Lessner, who was there with her husband and their 4 kids and respective families - which includes my new friend Heather, who is married to CJ who is Mike’s best friend. Do you follow? And CJ and Heather brought their two blonde curly-haired darlings. There were a few people from each family missing, but it was a packed house. The old hommage “The more the merrier” certainly applied to this get together. It was fantastic.
About 10 minutes after the boats got back a fierce storm rolled in, hail and all! It was thrilling to say the least. Then we chowed down on some great grub and the storm cleared. We headed back out so a couple of people could ski who hadn’t gotten to earlier in the day. I went along for the ride and took a few pictures (which I will attempt to share when I get them developed. I’d taken a throw away waterproof camera for the day).
I had so much fun and everyone was very nice to me - treated me like family from the beginning, teasing and all. I think that made Mike feel good, you know, that I fit in and all. It was great. And it made me love my new home even more.

It is summer in the Mid-west and I don’t have an official job to go to. It’s making it hard not to feel like I’m on vacation. The weather is unbelieveably gorgeous and I just want to spend all day at the dog park, riding bikes, jogging the nature preserve path near my home, reading/napping in my hammock. It is making it really hard to do the things that life requires - dishes, proper meals, vacuuming, laundry, etc. I just still can’t believe I live here. It’s going to be like this next summer, too! And the one after that and the one after that. I wish there was a way to capture the breeze in a photo so I could share it with you. This is the payoff for not being near my friends and immediate family - loving my home and being excited to get out of bed to enjoy it everyday.

I was watching the Today Show today. Yeah, because I didn’t have to go to work. You probably missed it being part of the working world and all. Sorry had to rub it in. It’s one of the joys of teaching. Don’t wory come Septemeber I’ll be cursing employment, bosses, co-workers, broken printers, and messed up computer files along with the rest of you. Oh and I get to meet a bunch more kids to deal with at the same time. HA!

Anyway, on the Today show they had this guy do part of this dance. I loved it, found it online, and decided it must be shared. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/v/dMH0bHeiRNg

Yes, I went to see my favorite local band again. I am going to go every month, because I can. And I am going to lose my voice and be burdened by the terrible 2nd hand smoke, expensive parking, and long drive home, because I love them. Love. I even made their website! That’s me (not such a nice picture) with the big ol’ white arm and hand sticking up in the front! And Jen and Jenna who I was with made it too, though you can’t tell so much. That is Jen to the right in the pink with her blonde hair and black purse on her arm. And Jenna to the right dancing between the two tall guys. The other shots are of Jayson, the lead singer and my mega crush - don’t tell his wife (who I’m sure is adorable and super nice), us 3 girls, and our new friend, Jennie, who we met the last time we went to see Then Again. Jennie took these pics (well, not the first three from their website). I am taking my camera next time, too! We had so much fun!!

Can you tell who the DD was? I’ll give you a clue, she can keep her eyes open

BOOOOOOOOOO!!! I am so mad at blog.com right now! I just spent a good amount of time and energy to write a good post about my fun weekend and include links to everything and when I went to submit it it told me “fatal error” GRRRR!!! Blog.com I hate you.

The main idea of my post was that I had an awesome weekend due mostly to my Saturday night fun at my favorite Chicago bar, Joe’s on Weed St. They had a great local cover band playing and an opening group I didn’t know would, but loved.

The band that we went to see is called Then Again. They are fabulous.

The band that opened was Mini Kiss. They are a band of Little People who cover Kiss music. They were fantastic as well.

If either of these bands are in your area, check them out!!

I’ve never understood how anyone could possibly love living in Arizona as much as my friends and family do. I just didn’t. Like almost to an offensive point of feeling like I have to hate it even more than I do to balance their love for it.

But this weekend, it hit me. It washed over me in an instant. I love Illinois. I love lots of places, but I feel at home here. I understand now, how people in AZ can say they love it. I understand loving a place - loving running to Target, loving planning weekends away to neighboring cities, love the weather - good or bad, love looking at the homes on the street, love the trees, love the birds, love everything even on a bad day.

I finally get it. I don’t think you AZ lovers are so darned weird anymore I finally get that you just feel at home. And I finally do, too.

The weather has been fabulous here in the windy city. Just beautiful. Yesterday it was in the mid to high 60’s. Just last week it snowed and snowed! And it’s supposed to get yucky again later this week. But the neighborhood is definitely taking advantage of the few sunny days we’re having between snow storms. I was driving home from the store yesterday and actually got a little creeped at out about the hundreds of people… I mean that literally, at least a hundred…out in their yards, at that park, playing three on three basketball in the driveway, walking their dogs, riding bikes, playing tennis from driveway to driveway across the street, or just observing the fun from their stoop or deck. It was unbelievable. The neighborhood came to life. I loved it.

Today is another nice day. A little muddy because it rained (poured) last night, but still nice (it was already 46 degrees when I woke up). I am taking Abby out for a walk in just a bit.

It dawned on me recently, that I am obsessed with trees. I just love them. I am not biased to a specific season or type of tree, I love them all. I think the lines of how the trunk and branches grow, combined with the stories that lie beneath the bark and the idea that a tree is somehow wise and calm makes me adore them so much.

There are forest preserves all over the place where I live. They are mainly woods areas with a walking path (sometimes). There is one right next to the dog park, so today (after I let Abby run with two young boys who played ball with her for an hour) we took a walk so I could try to capture some of what I love about the trees to share with you.

I have never taken any kind of photography class. And I have no idea about the technical side of this art, but I do know what I like and what it is I want to share with others. I am still trying to figure out how to capture the depth and complexity of the branches. This was my favorite from today (I’ll probably put more up on Flickr later).

I made the mistake of promising Abby that I would take her out for a walk today. I didn’t realize it would be snowing. Some of you might be thinking, “Why didn’t you just not go?”. Well, clearly, you’ve never met my dog, because she is VERY smart and she KNOWS when I tell her things are gonna happen that they should, and she would have harassed me all day if I didn’t take her. Think I’m crazy? Ask someone who has lived with this dog. She knows things people and she can tell time - like if I say tomorrow, she won’t ask again until the next day, and if I say later, she will wait a bit then come bug me again.

Anyway, I bundled up and decided to make this a fun little adventure. We drove a few minutes up the street to a park and walked the path through the trees. There was no one out, so I let Abby off her leash. She loved the whole walk. I took pictures while she sniffed things out. I feel like my camera is brand new just because of how the pictures are turning out now! Here is my favorite scenery from our walk and one of Abby just because.

My friends and I have always been interested in pictures. Probably because we are all sentimental and artsy. Two of my friends have photographed weddings and other large events, and another just started her first photography class.  They’ve all purchased super fancy cameras and manage to capture the best shots. I want a fancy camera, but after the dabocle of ‘05 - losing a month old camera, replacing it, then finding the first one - I’ve decided it is just not possible to afford a new fancy camera. . The camera I have is a good one. I just have to learn how to use it better. It had been producing pictures that were just too sharp.

So, this morning I played with the settings. I still need to go find out what the EV is and what it should be set at, but I changed some other things, and I’m much happier with how the pics are coming out. Some of these aren’t necessarily artistic or beautiful, but I like them. And the clarity and resolution look much better than the previous sets of photos I’ve taken with this camera.  

I’m excited to play with it some more. And I’m ok with not having a fancy one just yet

She is just the most photogenic puppy ever!

Pure innocence!

Duuuuude!
I realize he looks stoned, but look at the quality of the print.