Tuesday, October 26, 2010

gnat has angered the gods

i woke up to this text message from mom:

"worst storm in 70yrs in chicago"

yeah right, mom. a mere 12 hours ago i was posting an entry about how perfect the weather was, and weather.com didn't give any indication of any kind of storm (although it does now)... i looked out the window first, and i guess it's a little windy? then i consulted google.




my bad, chicago.

Monday, October 25, 2010

gnat prepares herself for fall (and it doesn't show up)

no joke. check out my closet - sweater for days:

(yes, i arrange my sweaters by color.) it's beautiful out, no sweater necessary! i can hardly believe it. isn't october almost over?

the sky actually is that icky gray color, though. weather.com predicts that over the next ten days we'll dip down into the high 50s with some scattered thunderstorms. it's crazy, by now i figured i would be dealing with snow... ok, maybe not snow but also not this.

IMPORTANT NOTE: sweater collection or not, i would be just fine if chicago decided not to do winter this year and it just stayed 70 degrees out for the next few months. none of the above is intended as a complaint. the below, on the other hand, is.

there's this guy who has been hanging out on the sidewalk across the street from the apartment for about three weeks now, i call him my girl guy. i call him my girl guy because for hours on end he stands out there, singing at the top of his lungs, on a loop:

i got sunshine on a cloudy day, when it's cold outside i got the month of may
i guess you'll say, what can make me feel this way? my girl (my girl, my girl, talkin' 'bout my girl, my girl)

again. and again. and again. not the whole song, just the first few lines. for hours and hours. almost every day. if i sound frustrated it's because he's out there right now, and my efforts to drown him out by closing the windows (which is a shame since it's so nice out...) and turning the volume on the tv way up are failing. the guy's got a set of lungs on him. he's making me crazy.

in the interest of preserving happy thoughts, here are some pictures of cupcakes:

and even more cupcakes:

no, i didn't eat them all by myself.

and now it's time for a FALL FOLIAGE UPDATE!

still yellow! not a lot of orange yet, some scattered reds, some have skipped yellow and are half green and half bare. all the trees outside my window missed the memo and are still completely green. maybe that's because it's 70 degrees out.

next time on gnat's chicago experiment: gnat bites her tongue and posts pictures of herself wearing all of her sweaters at the same time and STILL freezing her ass off (probably).

Thursday, October 21, 2010

gnat has a foreheadslap moment

so, halloween is pretty much my favorite holiday. less because of anything that actually happens on halloween night, more because it's an excuse to put together a costume. after all, i'm still a theater kid at heart - i live for costumes.

as i looked back on my costumes over the last few years for inspiration, i noticed something of a trend.

2007, peter pan:

2008, pocahontas:

2009, minnie mouse:

aside from the fact that they are all disney characters, the common thread here is that NONE of these costumes are built to withstand a non-california halloween. the weather channel predicts average temperatures of 40 degrees with light showers next weekend.

basically, for the first time ever and without the aid of my sewing machine (which did not make it into any of the suitcases i brought from california) i need to put together a costume that either a) keeps me warm or b) takes advantage of the shade of blue i turn if i'm not warm enough. i'm thinking either captain planet or a smurf.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

gnat runs (with) the chicago marathon

there i go up michigan avenue! check out my form!

did you find me?

the name marathon comes from the legend of a greek messenger named pheidippides, who was sent from the battle at marathon to athens to announce that the persians had been defeated. he ran the whole way without stopping, burst into the assembly, yelled "we have won," and promptly collapsed and died.

naturally, this is the type of story that inspires people to emulate pheidippides and run marathons of their own. three of those inspired crazies are cara and her friends whitney and lisa, who flew out from LA to run the chicago marathon this morning.

i participated in the capacity of spectator/cheering section member, and spent the day with cara's family rushing all over the city trying to catch brief glimpses of our runners.

we started our morning at aleck's apartment,

where we put together some motivational signs for our runners.

then headed down his street, where we caught the leading pack of runners just after the nine mile mark.

45,000 people ran the marathon today. where did they find 45,000 people crazy enough to do this?

i mean, seriously.

after looking for our runners at mile 9, we rushed over to the other side of town to catch them at mile 21, then again just before the end at mile 25. i got a picture of cara in the home stretch - doesn't she look amazing?

here they are after making it to the post race party, at mile 27 (which frankly i think is a little mean to people who have just finished a 26.2 mile race).

i'm so proud! good job guys!

Saturday, October 9, 2010

gnat attains a sense of normalcy

i haven't had much to update about, let's chalk it up to i'm starting to settle into normal life and nothing extraordinary and blog-worthy has really happened.

mostly i've been doing the following:
- school, which continues to be great.
- looking for work, as of yet unsuccessfully. fingers crossed.
- chillin'. literally. it's starting to get cold here, guys.

other activities include cooking experimentally. cara has been kind enough to indulge my silly cooking whims, like the night i decided i had to make borscht:

in other cooking news, i hosted my first (of many, i hope) chicago-based taco tuesday! unfortunately i neglected to take any pictures. total fail.

i joined an a capella choir, which is awesome except that it's on the main campus in evanston. i take a lot of long train rides that look like this:

yesterday, because i was out of canvas and i didn't have much to do, i went on a field trip to michael's in lakeview. it was beautiful out, so i thought instead of taking the bus i'd walk a little bit and enjoy the weather while i can... i ended up walking the 7 miles up and down clark street.

i did some people watching and staked out places i'd like to visit later, including the chicago history museum at clark and north. unfortunately i didn't stop to take pictures of many things, except this silly looking storage facility:

once i procured the canvas i was able to sketch this, which is going up in our living room:

hopefully it will mitigate some of the utter beige-ness.

and now, it's time for a...
FALL FOLIAGE UPDATE!

we've started to make the transition from green to yellow.

if you look closely you can see a few reds peeking out on the lower right hand side.

with that, i close what felt like the dullest account yet of my chicago adventures. i'll make sure the next one is more exciting...

Friday, October 1, 2010

gnat bids the ugly chair adieu

here it is in the trash room:

so long, ugly chair. it's been real.