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...

gnat contemplates the futility of modern art

my parents are visiting! they're on their way to canada to visit my aunt so they stopped in for a couple of days to check out chicago. naturally, my dad had two things on his agenda. the first was food, which we will get to later, and the second:

the art institute of chicago. my dad, in case you did not know, is a wonderful painter but he hasn't painted anything in about five years. he says he has no inspiration. he set out to find some in the modern wing of the art institute, which houses some real gems like this one:

yes folks, i paid $12 to see this. and this one, only marginally more stimulating:

actually, the art institute's modern collection is pretty excellent and i've enjoyed it every time i've gone. i've just chosen to highlight a few of the less... exciting pieces that i saw.

anyway, my dad wasn't the only one who was inspired, i headed over to blick discount art supply and picked up brushes, canvas, and this:

but no pencil. oops?

also notable on this parental visit was some ridiculously awesome food. we went to buddy guy's legends for dinner and saw live acoustic jazz while enjoying this:

half a bbq chicken, fries, cornbread, coleslaw and collard greens. like one person really needs all that food.

then later, a lamb burger on a pretzel bun with house made chips at kitty o'shea's.

which makes me realize that it's a good thing my relocation has stripped me of my car and forced me to walk miles and miles every day, because this food plus sedentary lifestyle spells coronary at 24.