Weekend with the Fam

My brother, Justin, and his girlfriend, Lil, flew in from California on Saturday and we hit the town in this stretch Hummer:


Just kidding--we happened upon this guy clearing out the beer cans from this ridiculous vehicle between jobs as we walked through Wrigleyville.

We wandered through lots of neighborhoods and ended up downtown.





It was a lovely day. On Sunday afternoon, we all drove to Holland, and Rose, Robert, and little Justin came from Lansing. It was so great to be all together at my parents' house. That evening, we headed to the beach, where Justin showed off his favorite mode of sand transportation--scooting. His trail:

Even though the water was freezing, he laughed hysterically each time it lapped at his little feet.






Moments later, Jim accidently whacked mom in the head with this frisbee at close range, but it wasn't long before she was smiling again. She's just always smiling.

Justin and Robert enjoying the view:


Justin looked back every couple of minutes to make sure we were still there, then went back to his one true love--the water.


Lil and Justin:

A beautiful family.

I miss the sunsets from the other side of the Lake. There is nothing like watching the sun slowly sink behind the water.


We made the customary stop at Captain Sundae, the best ice cream place in the world, on the way back into town. On Monday, we slept very late, then hiked to the beach at Kirk Park, and lounged away the afternoon in the sand. It was fabulous.

The weather was still incredible when we came back to the city, so we took advantage of the amazing lakefront trail and rode south from Foster down to the Loop, Eric on his bike, and I on my rollerblades.


Near Navy Pier:


Another lovely sunset:


By the time we made it back up to Hollywood, we had rolled about 15 miles! And I enjoyed it so much that I decided to do it again the next day while Eric was working. It's finally starting to feel like summertime, though I'm sure Chicago has a few weather surprises up its sleeves if we only wait a few days.

P.S. I have been informed that the photos from the roller derby (a few posts down the page) didn't show up, so I have uploaded them again.

Send-off

Josh got a great post-doc position in D.C., so he and Deborah will be heading east pretty soon. We will miss them a great deal, but are thankful for the time our lives have intersected here in Chicago. We had a chance to hang out with them the other night at their going-away gathering. It was fun to meet some of J and D's neighbors and friends, and Eric and Josh had a lot of together time throughout the evening.

To Sneeze or Not to Sneeze

On this hot and windy afternoon, one of the worst allergy days for me so far this year, I thought it would be fitting to share this poem, written by my step-dad, Jim:

To Sneeze or Not to Sneeze

(with apologies to William Shakespeare)

To sneeze or not to sneeze,

For me, that is the question. Whether

In the mind ‘tis nobler

To suffer a runny nose and congested head

Or to have qualms against a sea of herbal tea and

By opposing it to lie, to lie awake for hours,

To sweep the covers off my feverish bod, and

Amid sinus headache and a thousand dirty Kleenex,

For a sneeze is air too. ‘Tis a proclamation

Snoutly to be wished. To sneeze,

To blow my nose, perchance to clear my head.

Under that pillow, ay, there’s my VapoRub!

© 2007 James Rasmusson

Windy City Rollers

Carrie invited us to celebrate her birthday with her on Saturday by taking in an evening of roller derby. Here we are--Julie, Diane, Carrie, Maria, Lisa, me, the Gooseman:


The four teams warming-up:


It may seem at first like roller derby simply consists of some hard-core women skating in a circle and knocking each other down, but there are rules and structure to the competition. A game or match consists of two 20-minute halves, broken down into rounds that last for a max of 2 minutes. In each round, there are 2 "jammers," one from each team, that start at the back of the pack and try to get to the front of the pack. The members of the opposite team try to block them, and can be pretty agressive. This picture isn't very clear, but the one in the red in the rear and the one in the blue with the green skates are the jammers trying to get through the pack:


Check out the website for more complete rules. I was surprised how much we got into it! If you have the opportunity to see a game, I would definitely recommend it. The atmosphere is great, with funny announcers and creative names for all. Some of my favorite player names include Yvette YourMaker, Hoosier Mama, Ying of Fire and Anne Putation. One ref is Sheik Yerbouti and the rules and regulation chair is Scorey Feldman. For much more interesting pictures and history of Chicago roller derby, check out the Windy City Rollers website.

There was even a half-time performance by the some go-go dancers:


Eric thinks I should try out next year, but I think the last pair of rollerskates I owned had My Little Pony painted on the side.

Some random pictures from the past week or so...

The World's Tallest (and Most Delicious) Garden Burger:


Here is Nico looking regal on a rainy walk while his owner basked in the sun on a Costa Rican beach:


Two Saturdays ago, Barrett had us over for an amazing eating event he and Megan hosted. We started with wine and cheese and finished the evening with enormous pieces of cheesecake swimming in chocolate--with a substantial meal in the middle! And of course, the evening was filled with great conversation and heaps of laughter.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Last night, Goose and I enjoyed the beautiful weather to the fullest by taking in a loooooong Cubs game. Amazingly enough, we arrived early! We were even in time for the free Cubs visors.

The game against the Pirates was close and exciting and frustrating! There were some great plays and amazing hits, but we also got to see lots of bad communication between outfielders, all sorts of men left on base, a bit of poor baserunning here and there... it definitely kept things interesting.

For it's 1...2...3 strikes you're out!

Not only did we sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in the 7th inning stretch (along with the lead singer of REO Speedwagon), we sang it in the 14th inning stretch! Who knew? Of course, there were a lot fewer people singing in the 14th, but it was still fun. We definitely got our money's worth and cheered a total of 15 innings before the Pirates scored and then Aramis struck out to end things. By the time we left Wrigley Field, it was nearly midnight! Watching the game definitely made me miss playing softball. I'm going to research some leagues and see if Goose and I can't get ourselves on a team.

I've been walking around all week just amazed by all the beautiful springtime smells! It's so crazy that during a long winter, you can completely forget that smells like this exist--but that makes them that much more incredible when they return.

More sweet than bitter, bitter than sweet

Last night Dan had a fabulous party to celebrate Katie, a good friend and the Garrett intern at Holy Covenant UMC who is leaving us in a few weeks for her appointment in Louisiana. We will miss her so much!! Dan lives in an amazing place in the South Loop, directly above the L tracks.


We shared memories of and stories about Katie, which was hilarious and also really nice. And the rest of the time we just ate and ate and talked and laughed.


Goose and Rich had some long, in-depth discussions about motorcycles, which Rich has been riding forever and which Eric will never ride if I have anything to do with it!


Rich, Katie, and Dan:


Katie and me:

The night before, Mike Moore flew in from California to stay with us for the night before heading out to Reynoldswood camp to visit his parents (they run the place). They're so cuddly with each other!


A lovely weekend with friends. We are so fortunate to know the folks we do!

MAY-be spring is really here

We are finally confident that it will not snow again for a few months (hopefully several). It has been wonderful to be out and about without burrowing our faces down into collars. And though springtime in Chicago is not nearly as colorful as in the Willamette Valley, the world is looker brighter and brighter every day! This tree will soon become leafy and block our view of the lake, but right now it looks amazing!

Walking under the L tracks on the day we pondered new apartments that are more in the *heart* of Rogers Park (it's so hard to believe that it's already time to sign a new lease--either here or somewhere else in the city!).


We've enjoyed time with Holy Covenant folks in the past week. This past Sunday was our annual U2 Eucharist, with a live band and our amazing choir that did almost exclusively U2 music. The service was centered around working to end world poverty and part of the offering went toward Dignity Diner, an outreach ministry with and for the homeless and hungry that our church hosts and participates in. Justin and Andria came in for the weekend and it was great to see them (and eat at the Wishbone again)!

We also had one of the largest turnouts for a "regular" Women's Group gathering last Sunday. I love these women!

On Monday, we gathered with other leaders from our Lenten Small Group series for dinner at the parsonage:

On Tuesday evening, we met Robyn, a Garrett friend who we just discovered still lives in Chicago, for coffee and dinner at one of our favorite Andersonville spots--Kopi. It was so great to connect again. I also got to see Joey on Tuesday after not seeing him for a while. We used to ride the train together on Tuesdays, but now that I'm not working down south, I don't take that train anymore! Here in the Macy's building, Joey declares that it's all about him:


After lunch with Joey, I joined in the May Day march as it approached Grant Park. The number of people who gathered to declare support for immigrant rights was estimated at 150,000--significantly fewer than last year, but still a pretty sizable group! I planned to wander around by myself, but ended up running into Anthony and Jonathan from Amate House (I traveled with them them to Georgia for the School of the Americas protest in November), Candice from Instituto, and Kristin from Holy Covenant. For more about the march, including a video, go to the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights website: www.icirr.org.




I wonder how long it will be before these guys trade in their horses for segways?


Last night, we helped Andy and Lewis with a BBQ for Andy's visiting Japanese friends that were so hospitable during his time there. The guys live in a building with fabulous front porch overlooking the park and the lake, but around dusk, the temperature dropped drastically, a heavy fog moved in, and then the fog became projectile mist...so we moved the BBQ inside! Here we are with Andy's friends, Andy's parents (who came in from Michigan for the week) and sister (who lives in Chicago) and Lewis and Niko (in front with Nico the dog).

I have had a few interviews for part-time ESL positions and am working on getting more involved with United Methodist Hispanic/Latino ministries in the area, so I'm feeling pretty good about all that. Eric's time at work has been exhausting and stressful this week due to a pretty serious incident that involved three staff people (outside of the work setting). So we're taking things day by day.

We're excited to see Mike Moore, an Idaho friend who is flying in today from California and will spend the night with us before heading out to the UMC camp in rural Illinois where both his parents are serving. He and Eric have big plans for future film collaborations, so that should be a fun visit.

To close this blog, I'd like to share a few fun pictures from the Sokols' video game dinner party two weekends ago at his mom's fabulous place in the south Loop. We enjoyed seeing how big Athanasius is getting and got to meet Isaiah for the first time since he was just a bump. Isaiah is about 10 months now:


Karl was recently awarded grant money to purchase a Wii and the Christian pop music version of Dance Dance Revolution for his church, so we bowled and boxed and danced into the wii hours of the night.



I tried many times to upload the short video clips of folks dancing, but it didn't work. It's too bad, because they are hilarious--especially the ones of Joseph. Who new he had so much sass?