Great jeeeoorrrbb!

Hi friends. Mira here. I am very excited to share that I am employed! I was offered a job yesterday and started today, which is a bit wild. I am the full-time Teacher Coordinator for the Citizenship program at Instituto del Progreso Latino, which I have found to be a great place to work so far. My supervisor and co-workers are fabulous and I get to speak LOTS of Spanish (so far, I'm the only Anglo staff member I know). I would love to tell you much more about it, but I am a bit loopy at the moment. Not only did I work a very full day after having not worked for a bit, but Eric and I picked my mom up from the airport this morning at 5:30!!!

Sad

We were sad to learn when we returned from church that Jean Rose had passed away this morning. I so appreciate Jean's nephew, Eric, who has kept us updated since she moved to Toledo with him, and who even read our last e-mail to her after she had slipped into a coma...and swore that she smiled a little at the greeting: "Hola Jean." Jean was such a loving person, a brilliant conversationalist, and so funny--just a sweet, sweet soul. She loved to share stories about the years she worked at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, where she was the resident pianist and handwriting analyst and where her late husband, George, was the hotel photographer. She loved to learn and took on my Spanish class with such enthusiasm--she always did her homework faithfully, plus more, just for practice. And she had such faith! It was truly a blessing to know her during the last couple of her 92 years and I'm thankful that when she died, she went peacefully in the presence of family.

You're the best, Jean.

Mom's blog

Mira Here. On the day that my mom left for India (two weeks ago), I helped her start a blog, and she has made one entry so far about her trip. For those of you who are interested, here is the link: http://krisrasmusson.blogspot.com/

Fall is here

Mira here. Though the official autumnal equinox is not until tomorrow, fall has arrived in Chicago with a whoosh and a rustle. It's fun to get out the sweaters and scarves, but the knowledge that jaw-aching-cold, snowy (and dark) mornings are just around the corner is not particularly exciting. Oregon winters are dreary, too, but we've been spoiled by the mild temperatures. I think I've turned into even more of a weather wimp since we moved back east! The walking, biking, and public-transportation commuting through the dark months will toughen us up soon enough!

But...we are not completely carless anymore! It is still our intention to keep driving to a minimum, but we have been gifted a car! Our new friend, Steve, who went to high school with the fabulous retired clergy-woman, Karen Slotta (who lives in good ol' Woodburn--but will soon move to Portland!), has been so great since we arrived in the Windy City. He has had us over for dinner, introduced us to another young couple new to Chicago, and made tons of job recommendations (he's very connected) and when his wife, Daryl, bought a new car, they hoped the we'd give their old one a loving home. So, we are the proud new owners of a turquoisish '94 Ford Escort, which we plan to share with other carless Chicago friends--it would be like a small-scale "I-GO" system.

Speaking of shared transportation, I visited the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art on Tuesday (free admission day) while Eric worked, and they had a fabulous exhibition called Massive Change: The Future of Global Design. One of the neatest parts of the exhibit was a room dedicated to one of People Powered's pilot programs--a bike share for Chicago! They plan to implement the program by spring of next year, which would be so great. I've heard about bike-shares in Europe and I'm surprised it's taken so long to catch on--sometimes we're a bit slow here in the U.S.

Here's a picture of some of the "blue bikes" that would be locked up outside of "el" stations (a pic from the People Powered website).
Eric has been making some more connections in the documentary film world. He wants to enroll in a class at a studio in Evanston, but because we are not Evanston residents, he is exploring the possibility of doing some volunteer film work for one of the institutes at Garrett so he will be eligible (non-residents who are affiliated with an Evanston organization are sometimes eligible). It would also be a great opportunity to work with Dr. Murphy and other Garrett all-stars. Dr. Murphy also directed Eric to a filmmaker he knows, and the two have already talked over the phone. And of course, we have been watching documentaries!

On Saturday, I will be volunteering at a citizenship workshop, where I will help permanent legal residents fill out the N-400 Application for Naturalization (a 10-page document). The New Americans Initiative (a branch of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights), though a huge grant, is able to offer these workshops all over the city on a very regular basis at no cost to the clients. Because the process is so complicated and can be quite daunting, it's such a great service to offer not only assistance with the application itself, but also legal guidance, picture taking, and educational resources (like where they can find ESL, GED, and citizenship classes). I'm excited to meet people and to help in some small way--plus there will be donuts there!

I'd like to ask for positive thoughts and prayers for a good friend of ours, Jean Rose, who is in the hospital and not doing well. Now 93-years-old, I think, she was my most faithful student in the Spanish class I taught at the Woodburn church and has a fabulous laugh and a witty tongue. Several months before we left Oregon, she moved across the country to live with her nephew, Eric, and his family, in Toledo because her health was beginning to fail. She had become much stronger, had joined a church and a senior center, but has in and out of the hospital fairly regularly. And now the doctors say that the problems with her kidneys could work themselves out, but she might also have a very short time to live. She is such an amazing person--a concert pianist, a handwriting analyst, and a loving friend. Please keep Jean and her family in your thoughts and prayers.

Kris & Mira’s Excellent Adventure

Today we have a guest blogger on Life of Miric, the renowned Kristina Rogers Rasmusson...otherwise known as "Mira's mom."

Mira’s mom here. Wanted to share with you a cultural mother-daughter experience we shared yesterday. Mira and I were in the NBC Tower to pick up my visa for a trip to India (the Indian Consulate is in the building). In the lobby, we noticed a long line of people holding tickets for the Jerry Springer Show. Ready for an adventure, we decided on the spur of the moment to take in the show. Why not, I’d never been to a TV screening before, in fact, I had never even watched the show on TV before. Mira has much more experience in show business than me; having been on the The Price is Right, with her college softball team. In fact, Mira’s teammate won a Dodge Dakota truck – with the help of the rest of the team.

So, we went through security, waited expectantly in the “holding room”, and finally arrived full of anticipation. I called Jim – Mira’s step dad - who proceeded to remind me that this show is “really low-rent”. Being adventurous, we were up for anything.

Since Jerry Springer is Dancing with the Stars this week, he was in LA. The host, Steve, was a huge, bald, commanding, former Marine – with good common sense & values (“a voice of reason”). It was interesting to see how the host gets coached by someone else on the side. Also, the bouncers added their own little flair by egging on the audience during the commercial breaks [the beefy guys danced around a pole and took their shirts off]. Steve was actually a voice of reason, wisdom and sanity on the show.

In the studio while waiting for the actual taping to begin, we got to view Jerry Springer's "Too Hot to Show on TV" with much brawling, hair pulling, stripping, clothes ripping, etc. Boy – are we in for a treat, I thought. What did we get ourselves into? We did get to watch a cat fight, hair pulling, complaining, blaming, etc. And - one of the guests was truly a sleaze ball.

For all of you Jerry Springer fans, you already know there is a segment at the end of the show where guests sit up front on stage, and the audience gives their comments. I was actually considering telling the sleaze ball just how bad he was. However, there is one part of the show that many folks do not know about. After expressing their comments, the women in the audience have an opportunity to earn "Jerry beads." The way to do this is by lifting your shirt & flashing their assets to the audience. Of course the audience goes wild and rewards them with hooting, hawing, cheering, etc. I was quite shocked when the girl next to me was the first person to get up to “share” with the guests. I quickly changed my mind about expressing my sleaze ball comment.

As a parent, I really do try to give my family a wide variety of cultural, educational, inspiring experiences. Even though Mira is now an adult, I find that my job as a role model and mentor is never done. It is so reassuring that I can continue to make such a huge difference in Mira’s life! Well on to my next adventure – a spiritual trip to India.

blog blog blog

Mira here. We've enjoyed the chance to get to know some more people from Holy Covenant UMC this past week. On Wednesday evening, there was a gathering called "Theology on Tap" at the Trinity Pub, just down the street from the church. It was great to chat with the 7 or 8 other folks, including pastor Trey, in a really relaxed setting--and the fact that it was half-off-everything night was a bonus! And then the next morning, we met Trey at the Heartland Cafe for breakfast. He is such a down-to-earth, balanced person who really seems to be in tune with what's going on with people in the congregation as well as in the community--really just a great pastor all around in our opinion. We had lots of fun talking and learning a bit about his background and he had a great connection for Eric--a guy named Erik who is a filmmaker and does pretty much exactly what Eric would like to be doing. His company, The Media Bunch, does contract work for annual conferences in the UMC and makes independent films. Hopefully Eric and Erik will be able to get together soon!

On Friday, we went with Josh, Deborah, Lisa and Brad to the "Around the Coyote" art festival in Wicker Park. The festival's focus was on new and emerging, under-exibited artists, and though there was one artist whose work was downright disturbing, much of the work was pretty cool. One of the photographs we liked was taken in Millenium Park, downtown Chicago, and I discovered later it had won a prize in the TimeOut Chicago photo contest 2006. If you go to this page, it's the second large one down--the reflection of a kid playing in the fountain (by C. Grant). While you're on the page, you should just go ahead and look at all the other prize-winning photos on there because they offer a little slice of Chicago life.

After enjoying lots of art over samplins of wine and cheesy snacks, Lisa and Brad headed back north and Eric and I went with Josh and Deborah to the Map Room (I don't know why they called it that...), where we...munched on napkins.


Ok, this is a survey. First, take a look at the picture above. Now take a look at the pictures below:

Note: I did not take these pictures, but borrowed them from some silly celebrity website.

Survey questions:
1). Do either of the men in picture number 1 bear any resemblance to Kevin Bacon, who is featured in pictures 2 and 3?
2). If yes, which one looks more like him?
3). Is there anything disturbing to you about Eric's left arm in picture number 1?

Thank you for your time.

One more exciting thing. When we went to Holy Covenant this morning, Andy, Lisa, and Brad came with us! And then after the service (which was really great), on the hospitality table there were chocolate cupcakes AND real-life Cheetos--the fat kind. That's my kind of coffee hour.

Fun times at Navy Pier

Mira here. While Eric was honoring all those who labor by.....working, I went with Andy and Lewis and Lewis's friend, Leah, to Navy Pier where Leah's friend Sally's band was playing. They were a fabulous, 10-piece group that did great covers but also played a lot of their own stuff, and two of the singers are vocal students at Columbia College (the art school where Eric will likely apply). It was fun to be a tourist for an evening (we even took the Navy Pier tourist trolley from downtown--it's free!) and hear so many languages being spoken in one place. I wish Eric could have been there!

Here we are walking down Howard to the "el." It looks like I'm carrying puke in a baggie, but it's just salsa verde for the veggie empanadas that we ate on the way.

Andy, looking for the North Side:

An action shot (see the seagull?):

World Class Noise. Sally is the back-up singer on the right:

In the Beer Garden:

We have big heads.

Now I can join the "Long Torso Club," if Jim, Eric, and Cessie will have me.

Four coneheads.

We like to eat

There are SO many good places to eat in Chicago!!! One of them is our own cozy dining area. This was the day I had Andy over for tofu enchiladas:

Lewis's place has also proved to be a great place to eat. Though he does not eat vegetables, he has managed to prepare quite a spread on several occasions. This past weekend, Lewis's mom, who is from Colombia, was visiting from Michigan and she made incredible chilaquiles and Colombiano Pandequeso (bread with cheese baked right in--hers were better than the ones in the picture on the box because they had no holes in the middle) which we dipped in our hot chocolate from Chiapas! And if we bring over some more Blind Faith vegan cornbread, they just might trade it for those vegetarian empanadas (= deep fried pockets of goodness) she left in the fridge.

Here's the night that Andy made a traditional Polish dish, dill pickle soup. The guys said it was delicious, but it was a little too meaty for Mira:


We also hung out a lot on the side porch that evening while Lewis spray-painted nearly everything in sight (mostly just some chairs and stools) in bright reds and yellows.


Lewis actually has 3 porches--it's not fair really--and last night we sat on the front porch where we could listen to the lake while we played Euchre (for non-Michiganders and northern Indianans, Euchre is the best card game in the world)! We knew we were in for some intense competition when Andy put on his green "Andrew Sensei" bandanna (which he later tied around his wrist and dragged through the candle flame multiple times) and we did indeed end up getting whomped (it was payback for the tennis game), though it wasn't because of their intensity. Lewis: "Oh, what happened? Is the game over? Oh, we won?" I'm sure there will be some more Euchre action in the near future.

Back to the food talk... Our recently engaged Garrett friends Justin and Andria were in town for the weekend and we visited Tapas Barcelona again with them and Erin (another Garrett grad) and her husband Matt. After heaps of goat cheese and sauteed mushrooms and tortilla espanola and a bit of sangria, we waddled down the street to Ethel's Chocolate Lounge, a swanky (i.e. spendy) place that looks like a cafe but serves only items with chocolate in them. As if the mudslide mocha were not rich enough, we had some chocolatey truffles on the side. Erin is the Deacon at Holy Covenant UMC (where we've been going), though her primary appointment is to a housing aid organization as a Social Worker, and she and Matt live very close to us--so we're hoping we'll get to see them often! We're also excited to see Justin and Andria more often as they are buying a house in Grand Rapids (half an hour from Mira's parents).

We also had a nice breakfast at the Heartland Cafe this morning with Steven and Carol. Steven worked with Eric at Twinlow Camp in Idaho for several years and is now in Illinois because his parents are the directors at Reynoldswood, one of the camps where Eric interned while at Garrett (worlds collided when we visited with Ben, Steven's dad, at Reynoldswood on our way to Chicago). His girlfriend, Carol, is from this area and lifeguarded at "our" beach (Juneway Beach--across the street from our building) when she was younger. So, it was good to see them and enjoy the endless supply of Heartland coffee with our ginormous breakfast burrito and whole wheat biscuits.

The weather here has been very mild lately, even cool at times, which has been nice. We had a slow drizzle this morning and the lake was so calm--very peaceful. Time to go outside and enjoy it!