How It Should Be

Chicago is a summer city. Its residents wait out endless months of cold, snow, rain and 4:30 p.m. sunsets. And when it's all over, we pat ourselves on the back and head outdoors. Since Chicagoans live for the summer, every single weekend from Memorial Day to Labor Day has at least one outdoor street festival.

When first moved to the city, I went to as many street fests as possible, trying to hit up at least one a weekend. In fact my very first weekend in Chicago, I walked down to my neighborhood's art fair and hung out for the afternoon. I considered it one of my first real city experiences. I've been to the taste, I've lived through the Air and Water Show (twice) and have even ran through the gay pride parade with my nephews in tow. The festivals were fun the first few years, but they started to wear on me.

Most are the same formula with very little variation on the theme: Crowd of 20 somethings + pricey beer + greasy food + cover band or 90's one hit wonder band = good time? Each fest centers around it's own theme, but most of the time it's inconsequential to anyone's experience. For instance, I can guarantee you that 95 percent of people who have attended the Sheffield Garden Walk have not observed a single flower there. I also can guarantee that 95 percent of the people who've attended the Sheffield Garden Walk have consumed at least one alcoholic beverage. The result of the street fest formula is that they most often turn into drunken meet markets. AKA, not my cup of tea.

I can say with absolute certainty though that I have a new favorite street fest.

Mike and I spent literally all day Saturday at the Folk & Roots Festival. This fest is put on by the Old Town School of Folk Music, which is the same place I took fiddle classes last year. We went to the fest because I wanted to see the Midwest Fiddle Championships. And man there were some amazing fiddlers.

We stayed beyond the championships thought because the next act was so good - father/daughter duo Day and Reyna Gellert. Also, amazing fiddle players.

And then the band after them, Cedric Watson & the Bijou Creole, was really good too. They were a Cajun band that really got the crowd moving.

By that point, we had friends who were planning on heading up to the fest to see the last act of the night. It became official. Mike and I were in it for the long haul.

We left for a bit to get out of the sun, get food in our stomachs and then sat on a park bench to regroup. It was exhausting (the good kind of exhausting) being outside in the sun all day dancing around to good music.

Finally, we met our friends and headed back to the fest for the closing act, Black Joe Louis and The Honeybears.

It was truly a Chicago summer street fest at its best.

Voyeur

Sunday was a beautiful day, so I started doing the thing I do on Sunday afternoons. My mind kept telling me I had spent way too much time indoors. I needed to get out and after going a little stir crazy, I told Mike "I need to get out of here." He agreed. All my pacing was driving him nuts. He asked what I was going to do. "I'm going on a bike ride." "Where," he asked. "I don't know but I got to get out of here." So I did.

I hopped on my bike and pedaled to the lake shore path - which is honestly one of the best things about living in the city during the summer. I went north. I went as far north as I could go, and I wound up on this beach.

I don't know the name of this beach. I had never been there, didn't even know it existed. I am one of the few because I can tell you it was a pretty popular destination Sunday afternoon. While sitting by the sand, soaking up the sun, my sister called. We talked for about an hour before I made my way back to my bike.

I rode again, this time heading south, even past the street that would take me home. This time, I wound up at a sizable skate park.

I tried not to seem like the random, crazy lady with a camera, but dude, I totally was. I couldn't help it. I wanted to take pictures there. The skaters were an interesting bunch to shoot, the park was full of good angles and I like getting practice with fast moving subjects. And they were fast.

This Makes Me Really Happy

According to my BMI, I've always been "overweight." Sure, I always think I could stand to lose 5 to 10 pounds, but that's just because I'm a girl. What girl wouldn't like to weigh less? But to have some supposedly reliable calculation tell me I'm outright "overweight" never sat very well with me.

That's why this article, brings me great joy. Really 10 reasons why I should ignore my BMI? That's generous. I only needed one.

Does any one out there fall into the "normal" BMI range? I don't think I've ever met a single person who has.

A View From The Top

Yesterday was a bit of a wash in terms of the Fourth of July weather. Our plans to go to Lake Michigan were thwarted by the overcast skies and showers. They lingered throughout the day, having begun around noon (when we originally planned to go to the lake) and lasting until 6 p.m., about the time our guests started to leave.

We rolled with the punches, and instead of going to the lake our friends came over to my and Mike's place. We grilled, talked and I made everyone eat the food I prepared. I am happy to report my dessert went over very well. Score!

It was a good thing the rain finally did end. Our original plans had included watching the fireworks from our roof. A few years ago, before Mike and I began co-habitating, he watched the fireworks from his roof. I remember him sending me picture messages from his phone that night. It looked like he was sitting in the middle of a fire fight in Baghdad.

The good thing about the roof, is that our three story unit puts us at or above most buildings in our neighborhood. On a clear night, you can see downtown all the way to the north shore suburbs. It was a little cloudy last night, so the view wasn't clear enough to see the fireworks at Navy Pier, but that doesn't mean there weren't fireworks to see.

If anything, the hard thing about watching the fireworks was that we missed so many. We had to be constantly turning 360 degrees, and it seemed like every time I turned I'd miss the large one right behind me.

These videos don't do the real thing justice. They make the action seem like it was much further from us than it was. First up, here's me looking to the east. You can't see them in this video but there were people lighting off fireworks from the parking lot directly below us too.

And while looking east, we were missing the fireworks to the west. There were so many that it became hard to tell what might be a show versus any average Joe setting off fireworks he got in Indiana. Thankfully we had Shawn, who became our official "show" spotter.

All in all, it was a free show that didn't disappoint. Well unless you ask my cat Oscar, who spent the night hiding under our bed.

A First for the Fourth

It's been a while since I documented trying to make a new dish. Given the last time I tried was Christmas, I thought it fitting to try and document something new for the Fourth.

Mike and I are headed down to lake Michigan tomorrow (fingers crossed no rain!) for a cook out with some friends. We've got the burgers, chicken, fruit for fruit salad and I'm making pico de gallo tomorrow. I determined we needed a dessert. (I swear make more than desserts. I must think documenting dessert is more fun.) So after looking at Epicurious, my Betty Crocker Cook Book and magazine recipes I've clipped, I settled on Philadelphia Peaches and Cream No Bake Cheesecake from the Kraft food magazine.

It's not exactly health food, but I don't care. It's the Fourth - a time for fireworks and fat. The thing I love about Kraft recipes is that while they may not be health conscience (think Velveeta as an ingredient), they are always pretty easy to make. There are only seven ingredients in this recipe. And don't worry, I'll give healthier suggestions in parenthesis.

This recipe starts with (low fat) graham crackers. I put two cups of the crackers into a plastic bag and started smashing them for the crust. Once they seemed fine enough, I put the crumbs in a measuring cup. I was shy of the two cups I needed, so I repeated with the smashing and the plastic bag with a few more crackers.

I then put the smashed crackers in the bottom of a 13x9 pan, added a 1/4 cup of sugar and stirred.

Once the graham cracker and sugar mixture was spread in the bottom of the pan, I poured 6 tablespoons of melted butter (margarine) over the top. I then spread around the mixture and made sure it was pressed into the bottom of the pan. With this part of the recipe done, I put it in the refrigerator to cool while I made the "cheesecake."

I started by putting four 8 oz. packages of softened (light) cream cheese in a large bowl. I added 3/4 cup of sugar to the cream cheese.

Next I beat the two together with a mixer until it was blended and smooth.


For the flavor, the packet of peach Jell-o came next. I poured the dry Jell-o powder on top of the cream cheese/sugar mixture. I then stirred it with a wooden spoon.

Next up was the can of peaches (in light syrup).

I took them out of the can and sliced them so they were less than whole but not chopped. I wanted them to be smaller chunks in the cream cheese mixture but not so fine that they weren't visible.

The peaches went on top of the cream cheese mixture, and on top of that a whole tub of (light, sugar free) whipped cream.

After I added these ingredients, I stirred the entire mixture really well until it was a consistency that looked right. I can't really determine if it was right because this is the first time I'm making this recipe. All I can say is it looked good and mixed, so it was time for me to get the graham crackers again.

I took the pan out of the fridge and spread the cream cheese mixture over the graham cracker crust until it was smooth and no crust was showing.

The last and final step was to cover the pan and put the entire mixture in the refrigerator.

The recipe calls for it to refrigerate for four hours. Since I made this at 11 p.m. tonight for lunch tomorrow, I'm just going to let it sit overnight. I'm hoping it won't mess with the recipe. I will let you know how it goes over tomorrow with Mike and the friends I'm trying it out on. My only hope is that it causes no one's face to do this.

Photo credit goes to Mike and the very powerful flash on my camera.

Scheduling Mishaps

As I sit here on my couch with eyes dilated, injection sites in my arms, a band aid square on my back and a temporary filling in my tooth, I've realized something: I really should have spaced out my doctor's appointments.

It started a month ago when I realized I was overdue for my yearly medical check up. I also realized I never made that dermatology appointment I meant to years ago. On top of that, I had been wondering for a while if I could blame allergies for the general congestion I'd been feeling for the past few months. So decided to take yesterday off work and scheduled those two appointments - one in the morning, one in the afternoon.

I already had scheduled my appointment for my tooth filling and last week I ran out of contacts, so on top of everything, I now had to go to the eye doctor. The soonest appointment they could give me was this afternoon. I didn't actually plan on all of these visits falling within the same 36 hour period, but due to my doctor's availability, that's exactly what happened.

I hadn't thought much of the timing. In fact I was kind of comforted by the fact that I could just get all this over with. It wasn't until I was sitting in the dentist chair this morning that I started to regret my scheduling.

About a half hour into my 8 a.m. dentist appointment all was not well. After four numbing shots to my gums and several attempts at drilling my tooth, my dentist and I gave up. My tooth had formed a little sink hole and the nerve that was exposed would not get numb. It was painful, very painful. A pain that I certainly wasn't prepared to deal with on an empty stomach so early on a morning. The fact that I opted to visit with out of town friends the previous night until 1:30 a.m. probably didn't help either.

I'm heading back in a few weeks to get a permanent filling put in. I hope the tooth takes to the numbing medication because I'd really hate a repeat of this morning's visit. Even if it does go terribly, I can at least take solace that it will be the only doctor's visit I will have that day.

I will say after having gone through all these appointments, I did learn a lot about myself. For instance:
- My general practitioner was right. The mole on my back was suspicious. Suspicious enough that my dermatologist hacked it off on the spot. I'll find out in a week if it's cancerous, even though no neither of my doctor's suspect it is.
- I may have gotten a mole removed on my back, but I was informed by my eye doctor that I have a mole on my left eye, under the eye lid. Did you know people can have eye moles, because I certainly did not. It felt very yin and yang. Lose a mole on my back Friday, gain one on my eye Saturday.
- My vision has not changed. Whoopie! That's a first in years. Usually it gets slightly worse with every visit. It's still crap, but at least it's not crappier.
- I totally had more than pre-cavities. Once my dentist got in and started drilling, one of my teeth practically caved in. She described it as a small crack turning into a sink hole. And then she showed me a picture of the crater in my tooth. Let's just say I'm surprised I didn't have an echo every time I talked. That's what she's working on when I go back.
- I am not allergic to anything. I let the allergist prick my arms up and down with needles and nothing, no reaction to any of them. All I could think as I sat there, my unresponsive arms making a mockery of me is "Huh. I didn't know I was a hypochondriac."
- I am very healthy person, and I really should stop torturing msyelf with all this preventative modern medicine.

Gone Too Soon

When I heard Ed McMahon passed away yesterday, I had a really morbid thought: I wonder who the other two will be. I am a firm believer that these things happen in threes.

So when Farah Fawcett passed away this morning, I wasn't too surprised. However, the news of Michael Jackson passing away this afternoon was a bit shocking. Really, Jacko's gone? I really thought he'd live forever, somehow adding years to his life with each successive plastic surgery.

By the time I got home from work, his death was all over the news. It was all anyone could talk about. NBC was apparently prepared for Jackson's passing. The network is currently running a two hour Dateline special on both Jackson's and Fawcett's respective lives and deaths.

It did bring me great joy to see that MTV had altered their usual line up of baseless, reality, shitastic programming to pay tribute to one of the people that made that network. MTV currently may have a program line up without any actual music, but it had the good sense to realize that Jackson's life was far more entertaining than the latest installment of the "Real World" franchise.

As a child of the 80s, I remember trying to moonwalk. I never could. One of the best records in my parents collection was the Thriller album. I still remember how when the cover opened, it revealed a tiger sitting at Jackson's feet. To a seven-year-old that solidified Jackson's bad assery in my mind. Obviously in recent years, Jackson's fame has revolved more around his personal antics than his musical contributions. He seemed so pained and so removed from the real world. While I know the world will mourn his loss, a part of me can't help but feel happy that he doesn't have to deal with the world any more.

Keeping with the ending theme of yesterday's post, name your favorite Michael Jackson (or Jackson Five) song. For me, it's hard to pick one aside from the obvious choices of Thriller or Billie Jean, but I will say I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Man In The Mirror.

On Knowing What I Don't Know

If there's one thing I have learned about Photoshop it's that I don't even know all there is to know. If I'm just correcting photos I've taken randomly of weekend activities or the cats, I use Picasa. It's good enough but also basic enough that it takes me no time at all to edit, and I still get decent results. But for more important photos, like the two shoots I've done recently, I exclusively use Photoshop.

Having in my teenage years worked in an old school photo lab, I became pretty picky about the contrast and coloring of my images. It's been a delight to see that I can be as picky as I want in Photoshop. If a magenta speck in the upper left hand corner of a photo bothers me I can tweak it without altering the rest of the photo. It's a picky photographer's dream come true, but that dream comes with a price. I am just now finishing editing the set of photos I took on Father's Day - three days ago. With Picasa I would have been done an hour after the shoot, but I also wouldn't have loved any of the photos I took as much as I do now.

I mostly use the color correcting and cropping functions in Photoshop. I know if I wanted I could twist images, make them into puzzles and turn all the colors neon. I don't really have use for all that. Today though as I reached the last three photos of my shoot, I knew they could be more dynamic so I tried something new.

Here are the originals. (Hunter was doing a little crazy dance for me)

I didn't want to discard them, but they also were not the best solo shots I got of Hunter. So this was my solution.

So much cuter! And it's a better representation of his little dance. Thank you Google and all your wisdom because I couldn't have combined these three photos otherwise.

My Photoshop tastes are constantly changing right now. In each of the three nights I've edited this collection of photos I tweaked their color, shading and contrasting differently. I've had to go back and change some of the photos I've already edited because I've liked what I've done on subsequent nights better. It's OK though. I guess it's all part of the learning process, which is definitely where I am. But it's good to know that there are certainly enough functions in Photoshop to keep me constantly learning and perfecting my editing skills.

And just because he's such a doll and I really did love this shoot, I will leave you with another of my favorite images from my Father's Day photos.

And now for a complete change of subject... Does anybody have a suggestions for a song I can play during the candle lighting portion of a wedding ceremony - preferably something good for a solo violin? I need another song for my September wedding, and I don't know what I want to play. Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring, Ave Maria, Canon in D and Ode to Joy have already been taken. Or alternately, if you don't know a good song, just for laughs, please suggest the worst possible song I could play at that moment. Immediately I am thinking Toxic by Britney Spears or Superfreak.