Another Trip to Chicago (The Last for a While?)

Last weekend we had a super-fun, super-quick trip to Chicago. It may be our last visit to the Windy City in a while, since we're hoping (planning) to move back to the West this summer. (More on that later, once I actually have a job. Don't want to jinx it by saying too much too soon. But I have a few interviews in the next few weeks.)

We ate dinner at one of our all-time-favorite Chicago restaurants, Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinders. Problem is, it's everyone else's favorite, too, and we waited an hour and twenty minutes for a table. But it was worth the wait. After dinner, we went to The Second City for a hilarious show, America: All Better! We spent some lovely quality time at the Art Institute. One of the best parts was an exhibit of portraits by Yousuf Karsh. He photographed everyone, from Elizabeth II to Walt Disney to Audrey Hepburn, and the exhibit was really fantastic.

We went to the Chicago Public Library main branch for the first time and it's a lovely place. The picture above is an atrium on the 9th floor. They also had an interesting Lincoln exhibit.

This was one of my favorite "library" quotes on the walls of the Chicago Public Library. "The very existence of libraries affords the best evidence that we may yet have hope for the future of man." T.S. Eliot.

One more picture from the library -- a future librarian!

The main reason for our trip to Chicago was to see This American Life, live at the Chicago Theatre. It was amazing! We got to see it again in a local theatre on Thursday night, and it was maybe even more amazing in the movie theatre because we were seeing Ira Glass's face up close and huge on the big screen instead from 2 balconies back. We're huge, giant fans of TAL. You should listen to it if it's available on your local NPR station. My favorite story from the live show was Dan Savage's story about faith, loss of faith, and his mother's death.

Below are just a couple of random photos from our walk around Chicago. First, some cabbages growing in a flower pot and second, a giant "American Gothic" statue with the two iconic people as world travelers.

Rita Dove at Purdue University

Last night we had the pleasure of hearing and seeing Rita Dove at Purdue University. (The picture is awfully dark -- my bad.) Our good friend Karl, who is a student at Purdue, invited us for the evening and it was fantastic. Dove, who I studied back in "Women Writing Poetry" in the English department at USU, is a very accomplished poet, and was actually the U.S. Poet Laureate for a couple of years in the '90s. Last night she read from her new book, Sonata Mullatica, which is a book of poems (including a farcical play somewhere in the middle) that tells the story of George Bridgewater, a mullato violinist to whom Beethoven dedicated a violin sonata. Dove has a wonderful reading voice and stage presence and the reading was just lovely. One of her most interesting comments was about learning to play music and learning to write -- they're very similar, in that one must learn very good technique in order to play/write so that it looks effortless. Very interesting.

We spent a bit of time with Karl in Lafayette, then (thanks to Karl) listened to Neko Case's new album Middle Cyclone on the drive home. I highly recommend the album. The song "This Tornade Loves You" is incredible.

Finally, here's a very cute kitty, keeping me company while I read Shakespeare's Wife by Germaine Greer:

Happy Easter!

It was a windy (but sunny) Easter Sunday in central Illinois.

Choir Concert

For the past few months I've been singing with a choir called the Heritage Singers. It's been fabulous -- the directors and members of the choir are really talented. It's exciting to sing with a group that can pick up a fairly complex piece of music, sight-read it, and have it performance-ready within a couple of rehearsals. The group is made up of graduate students and spouses of graduate students at the University of Illinois and we rehearse at the LDS Institute of Religion. This week we had an Easter concert at St. Matthew Lutheran church in Urbana and it was really great. I don't have any pictures, but our program contained:

• Two motets: "Jubilate Deo" by Mozart and "Regina caeli" by Lotti
• Two hymns of Zion: "Peace Unto Zion," a Shaker hymn, and "Beautiful Zion, Built Above" from the LDS hymnbook
• Three spirituals: "I Wanna Be Ready," "Balm in Gilead," and "Walk Together, Children"
• Two hymns: "Where Can I Turn for Peace" and "Come, Thou Glorious Day of Promise"
• and three new Easter anthems: "Song of Creation and Salvation," "This Is the Christ," and "My Shepherd Will Supply My Need."

The audience was small but appreciative and the choir sounded great in the big, open space of the church's sanctuary.

Where all the cool kids hang out

(found at librarian.net)

Spring Break, Part Deux

Today I baked and frosted a bunch (about 5 dozen) spring sugar cookies. Most of them are to give away, but many are for eating! I think they're super cute:

Pink tulips, yellow chicks, and blue bunnies

Fox Ridge State Park

We had a day off yesterday -- hooray for Spring Break! -- and decided to go somewhere new and do something different. So we made the short drive to Fox Ridge State Park, just south of our home, and explored some of the trails there and had a picnic lunch. It was a fabulous day! The weather was cloudy but warm, the trails were the most interesting and challenging that we've found in central Illinois (though Mike argues they were wimpy compared to Utah trails), and we enjoyed being together. The scenery was not great -- everything is still pretty brown and drab -- but we did see and document some hints of green that whisper, "Spring is here. . ."

We took the rugged route to the Eagles Nest.

This is not an assessment of the park or our little trip. The tree just reminded Mike of a thumbs-down.

Green!

Can you see the ghost trees in this dead forest? They sort of look like quaking aspen, though I don't think they actually are.

This is the first switch-back we've seen in Illinois, and it was so momentous we had to document it.

We made it up to the Eagles Nest! (Yes, I'm wearing my 10-year-old Idaho's Junior Miss t-shirt.)

This tree was interesting. There were some large rocks stuck in the center, splitting the tree into four parts. It made Michael think of a story told by Thomas S. Monson about The Peril of Hidden Wedges.

Here's the river. When we saw it, Mike said, "It's pretty in an ugly sort of way."