Lent Week 4

Day 28

1. Lent Day 25, 2. Lent Day 26, 3. Lent Day 27

Okay, so there are some pros and cons to this week's Lent posting.

Pros:

• On days 25 and 26. I am wearing a skirt. This is for you Crow.  Click on the titles for larger versions if you don't believe me.
• I am wearing the same sweater on days 26 and 28. Why repeat myself a day apart? Because I made that sweater. After three months of knitting, I feel as if I am justified in wearing it as often as I want until it is too warm to wear it, which at the rate Chicago is currently going, will be sometime in early June.
• Hardwood floors make awesome backgrounds.
• I actually cleaned my desk so I could take the Day 26 photo.

Cons:

• I, uh missed three days. I suck. But I was also prepping for a first rehearsal and helping build a set at the same time. (full disclosure: I wore jeans while set-building, but only during set building. I changed clothes immediately before and after, adhering to the rules I set out at the start.)
• The weather mocked me with two days of nice weather and then turned into super-cold land again. (At least until the weekend).
• I am running out of place in my apartment to take pictures. Not to mention poses. I am so not fierce.

Lent Week 3

1. Lent Day 15, 2. Lent Day 16, 3. Lent Day 17, 4. Lent Days 18 & 19, 5. Lent Day 20, 6. Lent Day 21

I was on the road on Saturday & Sunday (where I saw the Show Goats Trailer, sadly bereft of any show goats).

I did not wear jeans, I also did not take pictures. :(

Lent Week 2

1. Lent Day 8, 2. Lent Day 9, 3. Lent Day 11, 4. Lent Day 12, 5. Lent Day 13, 6. Lent Day 14

Another week another another seven days of me wishing it was warmer and that my pants fit better. That said, the goal of this little project is to be more aware of what I 'm wearing and it's certainly doing that.

In other news, Cadbury Cream Eggs are now on store shelves(and in my hand on day 13), which means those pants won't be fitting better anytime soon. Ah well.

Is my Alma Mater saying I turn it on?

A few days ago I received a valentine from the most unlikely of sources, the Office of Annual Giving at my Alma Mater or if taken literally, the even stranger source of a light switch.

Now I'm all for almuni donations, and I make a small contribution every May, but somehow, I doubt this is really going to rack up the donations for old WU.

I tired to photograph the card, but it was too long to get the whole poem in clearly, so for your reading pleasure, I shall transcribe it here:

Sometimes it's a student's hand,

Sometimes it's a prof's.

They come and flip my switch straight up

Or sometimes switch it off 

So much learning goes on here.

You help me play my role.

It's not just intellects we shape,

But hearts and minds and souls.

I couldn't do it without you.

I couldn't light the way.

Your love for this place makes me shine,

That's why I want to say,

If you keep giving every year

This room will ne'er be dark.

Your gift, no matter big or small,

Always gives me a spark!

All my love this Valentine's Day!

-Light Switch by the Door, Eaton Hall, Room 212

-------------------

In other news, when I bought him the blue argyle sweater I knew it was only a matter of time before it happened, so of course it happened on Valentine's Day.

Oh well.

This was totally unintentional, but I guess it means we're officially "those people."

Lent Week 1

1. No Jeans Lent - Day 1, 2. Paperwhites, 3. Lent Day 2, 4. Lent Day 3, 5. Lent Day 4,

6. Lent Day 5, 7. Lent Day 6, 8. Paperwhites, 9. Lent Day 7

(click on the titles if you want to see the whole photo) 

You know those moments when you're looking at something, but not actually looking at what you're looking at?

Um yeah, that was me in the closet this morning. Not to say that I'm running on empty on day seven here, but that the continuous really cruddy weather here in Chicago makes getting dressed less about choice and fashion and more about "what will get me to the train station without freezing."

The best part of this experiment thus far? Finding ways to make daily pictures of myself interesting to myself. The basket on my head? Only the beginning my friends, only the beginning.  

40 Days

Today, as most of you know, is the first day of Lent.

Now I'm not Catholic, I'd definitely say I'm Protestant, but to get more specific than that, it gets complicated.

I hold no allegiance to any particular brand of the Christian church, but if you want to go about it chronologically, I've gone to the following churches: First Baptist, non-demoninational home church, Evangelical Free, Methodist, First Christian, United Church of Christ and, currently, United Methodist. Oh and four months ago I got married in a Baptist Church in a service officiated by my brother via the Universial Life Church, just to make it more fun.

So if I'm not Catholic, why am I talking about Lent?

In truth, several more traditional Protestant denominations including Lutherans and Methodists still practice some form of Lent, but the reason I do it tends to be less spiritual in natural and more of a challenge. That is, what change can I make in my life for 40 days?

Like many quirks, this is something I started in college. My friend James and I decided that we would go forth and celebrate as many holidays as we could: we did Rosh Hannah, Yom Kippur and Lent our Freshman year. We always forgot when Ramadan came around, and really the whole plan never got that far off the ground, but Lent stuck.

That first year I gave up orange soda. I've also given up chocolate (twice) and two years ago I gave up complaining. Not exactly meat on Fridays, but I do what I can.

This year? I'm giving up jeans.

Day One

Yes, for the next 40 days I shall refrain from wearing the all-American classic. Why? Because feel like I've gotten lazy when it comes to getting dressed in the morning, especially since my work dress code is so lax. Mr. Cleaver and I joke about how he's going to "mix-it-up" and wear a sweater and jeans for the umpteenth day in the row, but it's true for me as well. Now, with Lent and Easter being so early this year, I'm at a slight disadvantage when it comes to dresses and skirts, at least for now (with the mounds of snow piling up outside), but I'm going to tough it out. And while I doubt I'll post everyday, I'm going to try to take a picture of outfit for the next 40 days as proof.

I do get one exception though - if I am painting, building or striking a set for the show that my theatre company is putting on in the next 40 days, I get to wear jeans, because if nothing else, they were meant for that sort of thing.

A Brief Article on Bathing

As of Wednesday morning, my building has been lacking that most modern of conveniences, hot running water, due to the change over in our hot water heaters. 

Now I am not one to take for granted hot running water. I love a good hot shower and you'd be hard pressed to find someone who enjoys a warm bath more than I do. When the days comes when Mr. Cleaver and I will buy a home you can bet your sweet bippy I'll be jumping into the tubs (dry of course) to test them for comfortabilty. Shower only? Forget it.

But for these past few morning I have been living a much less modern life, one with hot water pumping through the taps. So to find out how to deal with this development I decided to check in with a more antique source - enter Misters B. G. Jefferis and J. L. Nichols.

Published in 1920 just a hop, skip and jump of my current home of Chicago, Searchlights on Health is an innvaluable source. In addition to being a guide to "Purity and Physical Manhood" with "Advice to Maiden, Wife and Mother" on "Love, Courtship, and Marriage ," it contained at least three section on bathing.  Jackpot!

My first though on learning we had no hot water  was, maybe I'll just skip the shower today. But Misters Jefferis and Nichols had something to say about that.

Important Rules

6. The Bath. - No person should think for a moment that they can be popular in society without regular bathing...

Well, I want to be popular, so I guess I can't skip the bathing then - ah, but it goes on

 A bath should be taken at least once a week, and if the feet perspire, they should be washed several times a week, as the case may require...

Okay, so perhaps I can skip a day...

Every lady owes it to herself to be fascinating; every gentleman is bound, for his own sake, to be presentable, but beyond this there is the obligation to society, to one's friends, and to those with whom we may be brought in contact.

So now I need to be fascinating and clean?! Maybe if I step it up on the cleanliness, they'll let me slack on the fascinating thing. So back to the cold water... but then I find in a second section:

Practical Rules for Bathing

7. Bathing in cold rooms and in cold water is positively injurious, unless the person possesses a very strong and vigorous constitution, and then there is great danger of laying the foundation of some serious disease.

12. A person not robust should be very careful in bathing; great care should be exercised to avoid any chilling effects.

I don't know how vigorous my constitution is, so bathing could put me in some dangerous territory. From the sounds of these guys a cold bath could mean my death! But this long tome is not lacking in answers. For with the help of a kettle I could find myself clean through simple means.

THE SPONGE BATH.

1. Have a large basin of water of the temperature of 85 or 95 degrees. Rub the body over with a soft, dry towel until it becomes warm.

2. Now sponge the body with water and a little soap, at the same time keeping the body well covered, except such portions as are necessarily exposed. Then dry the skin carefully with a soft, warm towel. Rub the skin well for two or three minutes, until every part becomes red and perfectly dry. 

 

Ah, clean at last!

Doughnuts, Croissants, and Diamonds

Or my Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Nothing says class like a pair of giants lips. 

Saturday morning was the second official meeting of my two-person book club, and as regular readers might recall, the book choice for this session was Truman Capote's "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

Since Chicago just happens to have a Tiffany's, Kasey and I had no choice but to meet there for breakfast. Between the doughnuts here and the East of Eden sandwich at our first meeting, we're creating a trend here.

We haven't chosen our next book yet, but if we keep to trend it'll probably be something along the lines of Like Water for Chocolate or Inge's Picnic, anything we can build around food, really. What can I say? I like to read and I like to eat.

Particularly giants lips in feathered nests. 

"Breakfast at Tiffany's" is one of the few book-to-film adaptations that have eclipsed the original. This is not to say the the movie is better than the book, but I think I can definitely say that it is the more famous of the two. Another example could be Brokeback Mountain. While most film adaptations feel disappointing, largely because they lack the richness of the source material, I think these two examples work well because they are adapted from short stories or novellas.

With the novel, something almost always has to get cut. With the short story/novella there is room to do the entire story justice and even to expand. 

 

Still, Tiffany's is a classy place. 

This is not to say all we did was compare the film and book, while we sat in the nearby Pottery Barn and discussed, but I'll admit, it was a good chunk of it. After breakfast and discussion, we did a little Holly Golightly inspired shopping, where I got an awesome White House/Black Market dress for about 15 bucks, after which we went back to my apartment and watched , yep, Breakfast at Tiffany's.

And I am a classy gal. 

Merry Christmas!

A Merry Christmas to all my friends, family and people in blog-land!

I'll send you off with my two favorite Christmas decorations to say Merry Christmas to both the religious out there (because nothing says "Happy Birthday Jesus" like Joseph Heller and the Phantom Tollbooth):

And the non (because nothing says "Merry Christmas" like Santa skiing on top of our TV)

Happy Holidays!

Touristy Time at Home

In sticking with a long personal tradition of being attacked by dinosaur skeletons. Mr. Cleaver and I made a visit to Sue at Chicago's Field Museum on Saturday.

Sometime in the Early 90's

August, 2005

Saturday, 2007

Mr. Cleaver is more concerned really...

I have no shame, really, about being touristy in the place I live. Particularly when the library hands out free museum passes to those lucky enough to snag them (we've managed four: MCA, Art Institute, Adler and Field, in a little over a year). This might come from having lived predominately in touristy Meccas (Napa, Chicago, not to mention "Vacationland").  I also believe there is a reason people come to see these things.

Now I have no plans to go to the top of the Sears Tower, so I do have a little shame about these things, but what shame I had didn't stop me from also visiting the Billy Goat Tavern this weekend, which was totally worth it.