Chicago 2016

For the last couple of years the Mayor (around these parts that title refers to Mayor Daly even if you don’t live in Chicago proper) has launched his campaign to bring the Summer Olympics to Chicago. I’ve followed some of the media coverage for it and have even popped over to the official website http://www.chicago2016.org/ to see what they have to present.

Now, I am probably one of the biggest proponents of telling people of how great a city Chicago is and why everyone should come for a visit, but I wouldn’t even drive the 42 miles from my house based on the information that is provided on the videos. Here’s the most recent one from YouTube:



Where’s the mention of the culture of the city? Why does it only mention the diversity in passing? What about the neighborhoods?

Some of the cities that Chicago is competing against (Madrid and Rio de Janeiro) both present themselves as fun cosmopolitan cities. Chicago branded itself as having huge parks?! I love the parks and I think the lakefront is a fantastic feature of the city, but why make that the way to brand ourselves? We are an international city and we want to host an international event so why don’t we recognize the fact that we have much more to offer than just the lakefront and its amenities. That was fine for the USOC, but we need to let the rest of the world know what Chicago is about: the diversity of its people, the neighborhoods, the culture of the museums, the theater, the festivals, and yes even the parks.

It's Been a While

So I have a really good excuse. I was resently cut open and then screwed back together. For the second time. Last time I didn't record any of the experience so this time I made sure to take a couple of pitures of my drug-induced haze. Although I must admit that I'm doing much better this go around than I did last time. I'm even posting a lovely picture for everyone to see the awsomeness of the bruising after two weeks. And I thought that the ACL was on the inside of my knee.

Right now all I have to concentrate on is the whole walking thing (really, who would have thought that bending and straightening your leg could lead to so much trouble) and of course the up coming special elections in my congressional district.

I've been under the excellent care of my parents since the surgery and they being the excellent members of their political party have been recieving phone calls from a canidate who is running to replace the former Speaker of the House of Represetatives. None of us like him as he is shall we say...a biggot. Unfortunately I'm afraid that he will win the nomination of his party and that means that he will most likely go on to win the special election to be held shortly thereafter.

I'll post some more pictures in the next couple of days of me at physical therapy. It should be interesting. Overall I'm healing really well.

Secrets? Me?

Every year it seems that without fail, I am the keeper of the secrets around the family holiday surprises and 2007 has turned out to be no different. I always know who’s getting what gifts or what everyone else should expect on Christmas morning.

Except this year, it was WAY BIGGER!

My brother who is in the Navy was not going to be home for the holidays at all for the second year in a row. To make matters worse, it looks this will be the last year we will all have the chance to be in Chicago together for a while.

Last week my parents were out of town and I got a phone call from my brother who sounded a bit worried. He told me that he unexpectedly had been given a week of leave while his ship was going out of port and was coming home, but he couldn’t get a hold of Mom and Dad to tell them. I said, “Well, they’re out of the country and as they’ll only be getting back two days before you’ll be coming home, I think we shouldn’t tell them you’re coming.” (I think I had a couple of little giggles in there as well.) This was going to be the most awesome surprise ever.

So we didn’t so much tell my parents that my brother wasn’t going to be home for Christmas as much as failed to mention that he would be.

Last night I picked my brother up at the airport and then drove him to my parents house under the guise of picking up something that I needed to ship to him. As we snuck upstairs, it was all I could do to contain my anticipation. I had to wake up my parents and told them that I wasn’t taking the package for my brother. Now keep in mind they were just being awoken out of a sound sleep and I don’t normally wake them up for anything unless it’s an emergency. Once they were assured that all was right in the world. I repeated that I wasn’t sending anything to my brother because instead he was right there.

That was one of those moments that will always get extra special time in my mind when I play back the happy moments in my life that I’ve been able to give a good thing to someone else. And it cost less than $20.

Spirit of Giving

So this year for Christmas I've set limits on myself. The type of limits that make me challange two of the the things that I like to do: shop and give gifts. I decided that I don't want to spend more than $20 on any Christmas gift this year. Instead, I'm spending my time putting the thought and energy into getting the gifts together. Not a homemade Christmas, but a thoughtful Christmas.

What thoughts are you putting into it this year?

You Know It's Trouble When...

I’ve messed up my knees. There’s no other way of putting it. I wish I have some fantastic story to tell how I did it like base jumping into the Grand Canyon, but it’s really quite sad how it all happened. The first time, it involved New Years Eve, me, a trampoline, a skilled surgeon and many hours (I can’t say countless because my insurance company has kept track of all of them) of physical therapy. I had so many questions and I was never sure exactly what to expect or how far I could push myself. I am now so amazed at the limits to which the human body can be pushed and still recover.

That was the first time. This time, it’s a little less complex, but a whole lot more embarrassing. I didn’t realize how much until this weekend.

I was involved in a community play with people at church, many of whom I did not know and was meeting for the first time. As we would go on stage people of course would say, “Break a leg,” and I would laugh about how I really shouldn’t try that as I recently did that. Once gentleman asked how I had broken my leg. I replied that I had done the other leg a couple years ago and went for the matching set and it was a bit of an embarrassing story. He then proceeded to talk about how a friend of his daughter had told them about a girl who had broken her leg doing the limbo and that my story couldn’t any worse than that. "Besides," he told me, "no one could really break their leg doing the limbo."

I was standing there listening aghast as a total stranger told me the story of how I had broken my leg. I had to confirm to him that someone could indeed break their leg doing the limbo as I was the girl in the story. And now I’ll get to do a second knee surgery.

The Power of the Visual

I was on my way into work this morning when I noticed something that I had seen hundreds of times before, but I had not realized. Every day I pass by the offices of a major energy (mostly electricity) corporation that has it's logo on the building as most companies do, but what got me thinking is that the logo for this company has almost the exact same elements as a blog that has the exact opposite aim as the corporation.

First, here's the corporation's logo:

The style is modern in the font. It's sans serif, so it's designed to be seen in large typeface. It's made of of blue and green colors so it indicates a harmony with the enviorment and the "o" is designed to look like the on switch of most consumer electronics so that would indicate it has to do with power.

Now here's the logo of the blog:

Again, it has the modern font as it has a modern mode of communication. The colors, while not an exact match, are simularly themed. Even the design schemes are simular with the on switch. Only this time, it's not the name of the company that's turning on the message, but rather the enviorment.

I'm always amazed at what groups come up with when they have the same message (in this case to tell the consumer that they each only want what's best for the enviorment) but and exact opposite way of viewing it. Isn't spin wonderful?

Where am I exactly?

When I went and visted my sister in Salt Lake a couple of weeks ago, she told me that we were going to a fund raiser in Peru. Now, I lived in Utah and I had never heard of Peru, UT but I was just going to go with what she said. When we got out there and actually got in the car to go to the dinner, imagine my suprise when we only drove a few blocks to East High. It was a dinner and silent auction for http://eagle-condor.org/ and we also got to enjoy the talents of some authentic Peruvian dancers. I even got some pictures.

When I got home I showed my pictures to some of my co-workers who asked where I was over the weekend as I said that I was in Salt Lake City. You see they all thought that because the pictures were taken at East High from High School Musical that I had gone to Peru, via New Mexico, via Salt Lake. All in all, it was a very busy weekend.