...easter sunday started gray and wet. well, at least when i left my apartment at 13:30 it was gray and wet; i was oblivious to the weather prior to stepping outside my domain. i slept in again this morning. i've spent this entire weekend making up for around a month of stingy sleeping patterns. alas, this luxury comes to an end tomorrow when i must return to being a corporate ant. so i needs to get to bed so i can wake up at 05:00 tomorrow which means this is gonna be a quickie.

i went to visit my dad at swedish covenant where he received his first round of chemo last night. he wasn't feeling sick or anything; he was actually quite talkative and in a good mood. he's lucky the chemo he's going through is not as potent as it could be since they found the cancer cells so early on. the side effects are not expected to be as dramatic as most people envision when they hear the word "chemo." although he has a favorable prognosis, i can't help feeling concerned. i can't even discuss it...

...when i left the hospital late in the afternoon, the dark clouds of the morning had transformed themselves into pleasantly puffy and majestic snow covered mountain ranges with big patches of deep blue sky and the warm sunlight streaming down. i stopped off at harms woods for a little walk. it was kind of muddy from the morning rain, but i managed to slip and slide down to the banks of the stream which flows along the edge of the bike/walking path.

...it was warm and i got into that trancelike stage when everything seems to be moving in slow motion, but it's just my brain and body moving at a snail's pace soaking in the surroundings--the sights, the sounds, the smells, the whole atmosphere. it felt absolutely delicious to be outdoors, and i realized that i've been hungry for it after being cooped up with the cold weather for so long. i kind of whet my appetite yesterday, and now today--the weather better really warm up because now my body has remembered that it likes being outside when it's warm and will be expecting it on a regular basis.

...when i was driving home after picking up more stuff in glenview, i really liked the sky, the way it was looking, and so i stopped off at harms woods again for some pictures. there's something about the twilight sky when it's covered in sunset soaked clouds and the silhouette of naked oak trees. i also found out today that i can actually get stars to show up in my photos if i expose the shots long enough. i just need a steadier "tripod" than my open car door, which i was kneeling in front of for the shots i took tonight.

as i was observing the night sky, i was thinking about solitude, and how i seem to be getting a lot of it lately, and i wondered how i felt about that. it seems these days that i share my moments with my camera but not with other people. i mean, i do this blogger thing, but it's not the same as having someone with you IN the moment so that you can share without words. when josh was in california, i used my notebook to do the same thing. now it's my camera. actually, i'm going to go back to my notebook. i like writing things down with my hand, just so i don't forget my penmanship. anyways, i don't think there's anything bad about using my camera or a notebook to feel like i'm sharing my experiences in some shape or form. well, off to bed i must go...

spring and what-not

...yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day--sunny AND warm! my favorite combo. i went for a long walk in the neighborhood and took some pictures. actually, now that i think about it, according to the border maps connolly & i saw thursday night, i technically live in bucktown but i was walking in wicker park yesterday. that's cuz i live like RIGHT on the border, like one block away i think.

...so anyways, i saw a robin goofing around in my neighbor's tree, and with the sun, the warmth and april just around the corner it made me FEEL like spring had arrived and gave me real hope that winter was actually over. but this is chicago, and i remember staying home from school in may due to a blizzard. nevertheless, it's always good to see a nice fat robin eating berries in a tree.

...i walked down damen over to wicker park, which was bustling of course due to the favorable weather conditions. i saw a group of 6 or 7 adults gathered in a circle playing a game of good old hackeysack. made me nostalgic for california. i hung out at the park for a long time, taking pictures, watching boys skateboard by the fountain, groups of adults standing around shooting the breeze in a really good mood like they were getting over the wintertime blues, neighborhood teens playing basketball, owners of all kinds of dogs walking their happy pets.

...i was feeling a bit dazed soaking it all in. it wasn't a bad kind of dazed--just a carefree contented sunstruck warmthkissed dreamlike kind of daze.

wicker park has an enclosed dog park where the dogs can run around without a leash. it's a pretty popular local spot since this neighborhood seems to have a LOT of dogs. i love watching the dogs play with each other. they each have such personalities which really come out in a social setting, which i suppose is true for humans as well. you can tell the shy ones from the outgoing ones from the sweet gentle ones from the rambunctious ones from the casanovas from the wallflowers, etc etc etc.

...i walked over to reckless records and browsed for a bit. well, okay, i bought a few cds. i got an innocence mission cd & an over the rhine cd both for $10, so that was a good deal, i'd say. i also bought a cd by the phantom planet, whom i'd heard of only because the kid from rushmore is the drummer, and being the huge rushmore fan that i am, i thought i'd check it out. he's grown up somewhat since that movie, which is good i suppose. oh, and as i was checking out, i saw a poster for a special instore performance by neil halstead the day before his scheduled concert in a couple of weeks. i'm definitely going to that--free record store concerts rock! they're free, intimate and just plain cool.

...by the time i got out of the record store, it was already past 6:30pm, much later than i was expecting. i was supposed to be hooking up with connolly, olarn and oscar, so i scurried home and made some calls. i picked up connolly and oscar later that night and we went over to the old town school of folk music for their annual all night party. connolly and oscar had never gone there before, and i forgot how chaotic and crazy and overwhelming that whole experience can be, with different events going on everywhere, people just swarming every nook and cranny, and live music music music all around, even in the elevator. robbie fulks was supposed to play but apparrently didn't make it, but i did hear some good stuff by a local named aerin tedesco--girl and a guitar with an incredible voice and a band called covered in honey. the beatles room was packed, and i didn't slowly migrate my way through this time. oscar was "happy" on medication, so he was just going along for the ride, but i think a little more organization would have been more comfortable for connolly.

...i forget sometimes my high tolerance for chaos and confusion as long as no action is required on my part. i just like the whole atmosphere of people jamming in the hallways and music going on in just about every classroom and concert space. and the people who show up for these things--the regulars treat it like mardi gras and get all decked out in costumes and make up and everything.

we caught up with olarn around 11pm drove over to zephyrs for a latenight snack. olarn was "on" tonight, and we were just cracking up the whole time. after we got out of zephyrs we drove around and decided to go see the chicago skyline from the adler planeterium. i wasn't driving for once, and i had some fun taking slowspeed night shots in motion.

...unfortunately, we weren't aware that they had closed off lake shore drive over by navy pier, and we got stuck in a major traffic jam near downtown. sitting motionless in traffic is no fun on a saturday nite, and after a LONG time, we were finally able to exit, and we just got back on lsd going north again. the boys dropped me off at my car and we called it an early night.

...that's about it except that on the way home down damen, i finally got a shot of the bridge that i so love crossing over the chicago river. it reminds me of a rollercoaster, the way it's arched and so red.

ok. it's easter. gotta go meet the family...

old friends and the moon

...i got a call from an old, old friend last night--kae!!! i haven't talked to her since her wedding. i'd been emailing namhee & she gave kae my number. it was great catching up with her. i can't believe she's a mom now. the class reunion is still 3 months away, but it seems that a lot of us are going to reunite before that. i also got in contact w/ michelle after all these years. i just can't believe how easily you lose touch with those who were once so close to you. i'm usually an out of sight out of mind person, i guess, which is why i'm surprised that i've managed to stay in contact with josh even though we've lived in the same time zone for only 1.5 months out of 10 months of friendship since we got back in touch last may/june.

well, i went to home depot last night and bought a screwdriver. so i got the darn table out of the closet and set up my laptop and connected the speakers. it's one of those surround sound computer speakers with 4 little satellites and a subwoofer. now i can't get two of the speakers to work. it's somewhat frustrating. but two of these speakers are like a gazillion times better than the laptop speakers, so i'll deal until i can get some technical hardware support.

today's the old town school of folk music's annual all-night party!!! i'm excited--it was one of the best events i attended last year. i missed the opening nite to the int'l pop overthrow fest last night cuz i was visiting my dad, but that's okay. family first. music & photography somewhere after that. i've got plenty of concerts to choose from in april anyway.

the following was written yesterday nite at 2050cst:

...i am writing this at the same beach i was at yesterday afternoon. i was on my way to glenview to pick up some more stuff when i happened to see the full moon and so instead of going west, i went east to the lake. one of my favorite things in the whole wide universe is the full moon shining down on the lake.

the waters are calm and singing that lovely song, which i can hear through the ocean blue playing on my headphones. it's so chilly--the wind is not showing me much mercy tonight, and as always i'm underdressed for outdoor photography in the cold. something about the cold, the sound of the waters, and the planes flying overhead all make me want to go to the bathroom. ok. i'm gonna go before i get frostbite.

i just turned around to leave and looked up and got an eyeful of stars! there's orion to the west. and that's gotta be one of the planets, either jupiter or mars, maybe venus. i don't know who's up these days. it's good to be under a big sky of stars tonight...

i woke up to a gentle fall of rain this morning. it's so nice to just get up, look out the window and start shooting pictures first thing. i have a fascination with waterdrops and puddles, for all the beautiful motion and reflective properties associated with such things. it's perpetually different and has an inherently playful, innocent quality that reminds you of your childhood when you were a gigantic waterdrop splashing through puddles.

so i'm moving my furniture around. my big goal for today is to get my speakers set up for my laptop--i can't stand the awful weak sound it makes right now. it's just not right to be listening to music with such poor sound. so i need like a desk or something, right? well, conveniently, there was a small square table in the guest closet, so i thought that would be perfect. i moved my cd racks and book shelf to make room for the table. i moved all these boxes out of the closet so i could get the table out, and what do i find? the darn thing won't fit through the door!!! i have no idea how the previous tenant got that thing in there in the first place. i figure she must have unscrewed the legs (which don't fold, btw), so i've decided that's what i'll have to do as well. now if only i had a screwdriver...

back in the new neighborhood...

...well, i actually got a lot of unpacking done. all my clothes have been put away, and i've been able to disassemble a bunch of boxes and get them out of the way, as you can see in the picture on the left. ah, the floor i so love! i can actually see it now.

connolly accompanied me tonight as i explored the neighborhood on foot. we walked north on damen up past armitage, then down south on hoyne to wabansia back east to damen to north ave back east to ashland where we ended up at the hollywood grill, the local 24 hour establishment. it was great--the place was all decked out w/ stuff related to tv or the movies. we sat in a booth beneath a bunch of three stooges memorabilia. after stuffing ourselves full of fruit, we walked back to my place. it was nice to just wander around and look at all the different houses. there's so much diversity in the architecture of the older buildings. some of the little houses are just too cute for words!

tomorrow is good friday--holiday for me, but it seems that most of my friends are working. oh well. i'm gonna go visit my dad and get some errands done. it's supposed to rain all day but get nice by afternoon. i hope i can make it to schubas tomorrow night. there's gonna be like a half dozen bands or so playing. and i know exactly where to position myself for the pictures!

(the following was written this afternoon by the lake at 1700 in the afternoon)

i am writing this by the little beach next to the lighthouse by northwestern u. in evanston. it's late afternoon, the-day-before-a-holiday traffic on the road, and i have come here seeking temporary sanctuary. i really really love our lake michigan. something about those waters--they call to me when i'm not paying attention and then out of the blue, i get this urge to go to my little spot by the lake. this is where i go when my heart needs to be surrounded by the enourmous blue green that to me is almost an ocean. this is where i watch my sunrises. there's also easy free parking & no one's ever here. extra bonus.

...the cloud patterns this afternoon are being ruled by the contrail of the jets flying in and out of o'hare. i don't mind. the muted roar of the planes flying overhead echoes the backdrop of the rustling waves accented by the occassional seagull or two.

i wonder if traffic has let up...