Window Shopping

Dovetail, a vintage boutique on Chicago Avenue, always has the most innovative and adorable window displays--currently they have an homage to Alice & Wonderland, including these wonderful stuffed toad stools and clock. Looks like they might be getting some competition soon from Seek Vintage, a shop that's set to open soon (bringing the total of vintage shops on Chicago Avenue to four!).

chocolate & vanilla

A chilly yet clear Valentine's Day that started at the new movie theater on Roosevelt and ended with coffee and treats at the Bourgeois Pig cafe in Lincoln Park.

SNOW DAY!

Scenes from the 'blizzard' Chicago experienced today... there really isn't as much snow on the ground as I expected though there is more forecast for tonight. I didn't think six inches of snow would shake up Chicago like it has but it's probably more of the fear of what could happen than really what occurs. I'm not going to argue though as my school declared a SNOW DAY today. Okay, it was a little wimpy because they decided only night class and activities (so after 5pm) would be canceled but fortunately on Tuesdays I have a night class (6-10) and I TA for a class that goes from 3:30-6. As soon as the school activated our emergency warning (pretty much a glorified phone tree system), I started getting calls and emails from my students, wondering if we would still have class (for an hour or so). The answer was 'no' so that meant I was free to go frolic in the snow!

Never thought I'd get a Snow Day in graduate school, the last one I had was nearly six years ago in high school. To take full advantage of the snow I decided to do something a little crazy, I walked the mile from my El stop rather than taking the bus like I normally do. While my hair and coat ended up getting soaked from the snow I had a good time taking pictures with my iphone, crunching through the fresh snow and watching other Chicagoans out playing with their kids or dogs. Have to savor the 'pure' snow while it lasts as it will quickly turn into treacherous ice, piles of grimy blackness and the worst for shoes-- slush puddles of death that wait for you on the curbs of sidewalks. Have ruined more than one pair of boots by going through a slush puddle that had disguised itself to look like the surface of the road. :(

Abstract Mistakes

Sometimes my iphone has a mind of its own, as evidenced by the above images. From time to time a blurry, abstract photo will pop up in my camera roll-- a result of my iphone deciding to take a picture, usually in my (red) coat pocket but sometimes when I'm holding my phone and walking along (so there's probably snow and a hallway in the above pictures too).

It's interesting how these 'mistakes' remind me of Minimalist abstract paintings from the 1950s-70s, like the work by Rothko, Helen Frankenthaler & Barnett Newman.