Karaoke Madness, 2009 edition

My living room at 4:45 a.m. on Sunday Feb. 8: Two party-goers are about to leave, one has stumbled down from the guest bedroom where she was napping, and eight are still singing into the microphones, voices shot.

I'm one of those eight people. At times my eyes drift off into a thousand-yard stare, but I'm still going. Miraculously. I'm 12-weeks pregnant at this time and haven't been able to stay up past 10 p.m. on most nights, but no one there except me and my husband know this little secret yet.

Everyone is singing along to Africa by Toto. Why? I don't know. I mean it's Toto. Sure, the theme of the party is Bad '70s Karaoke, but I'm pretty sure Toto isn't '70s. Oh well, I'm too tired to care. We all keep singing. It's what we've been doing for the past eight hours or so. We've forgotten how to stop.

5 a.m.: Two more people have left. We're down to seven total. Everyone quit drinking hours ago. Empty wine glasses and water bottles litter the room. The stereo is blaring American Pie, which is our official last song of the evening. We always end on American Pie.

Midway through the song, we see car lights on the street. Are the police issuing parking tickets? Not sure.

Near the end of the song, a big white light shines through the drapes of our front window, illuminating the room. Yep. I'm pretty sure that's the police.

I walk over and turn the volume way down. We finish singing. The police go away. They didn't even ring the doorbell. Turning down the volume must have been enough. I don't even think the neighbors called to complain. Must have been a routine patrol.


Post-party after 5 a.m.: The clean-up crew kicks into action. Recyclables are collected. Glassware is carried into the kitchen. Food is put away.

Three people head out to find $5 parking tickets on their cars. (Oh, those wacky suburbs and their middle-of-the-night, on-street parking laws!) The remainder of us stumble up to our respective beds and guest beds.

The party is declared a success.

So what is this karaoke madness?

It's a party we've thrown three years in a row now. We set up a computer with iTunes and use a shareware program called MiniLyrics that will scroll the song lyrics on the computer. We borrow a mixing board, microphones and speakers from our friend Rod, and go crazy with the singing. Really crazy.

Oh, the evening starts out orderly enough. The hosts and the brave guests start with some songs we've prepared. The more reserved quickly discover they can act as backup singers. By the time the night is through, just about everyone has ventured onto the stage in some way, shape or form. It's silliness. Some people choose to sing pure karaoke, most choose to sing along to the popular version of a song, two people have even brought instruments and truly serenaded the group.

Some people have a lot of fun because they love performing and watching the performances. Some people have fun because the atmosphere is an automatic ice-breaker -- you don't have to work hard to make conversation.

My favorite memories of the night? 

All the fun costumes people showed up wearing. Mark, Mike, Brian and Angie in some vintage thrift-store finds, Kelly and Gene in their love-child hippie ware, Michelle in her glittery hat, Jules in her Ring of Fire boots, JC in her Mary Tyler Moore outfit and updo, Hilly in his pirate shirt and wig, Dave in his cowboy hat and John Denver shirt. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few.

There was the number where Dave kept putting different hats on Mario while he sang. It was totally spontaneous, and Mario kept soldiering through the song, being a good sport about the silliness.



Dave's outrage when Hilly's Superstitious performance was rated the best of the night (even though he'd won the title for the same song last year, and Superstitious didn't even fit the '70s theme.)

Mark pulling out his flute to play along to Jethro Tull (really late in the night).

The fact that just about every girl managed to talk Mark into singing a duet.

The dogs wanting to be underfoot all the time. Thor eventually finding a hiding spot under the DJ table so he could be near me.

The three 28-year-olds working so hard to pull us out of our 70s mellow-song rut and livening things up with some Baby Got Back and Fresh Prince.

Hilly and Paul dancing with anyone and everyone.

Jaye taking video from her comfy spot on the wing-back chair in the bar, scolding anyone who stepped in front of her.



Jaye and Mario trying to make Kyle jealous by posing for photos on the wing-back chair.

Dave talking wrong lyrics into my ear as I'm trying to sing You're My Best Friend.

That's what comes to mind in the five minutes I took to think it over. I'm sure I'm missing other fun moments. (If you were at the party, feel free to remind me of other moments in the blog comments.)

Need photographic and video evidence?

Check out the 176 photos and 20 videos we uploaded to Flickr. Evidence is collected from cameras belonging to Kelly, the Hillys, Mike and me (thanks Jules and eveyone else who picked up one of these cameras and snapped off some photos). Also thanks to Dave and Jaye for the video. 

What did we sing for all those many hours?

Here's the official list as transcribed from our notes.

Haley & Jaye, Yesterday's Once More (Carpenters)
Dave & Haley, Billy Don't Be a Hero (PaperLace)
Mark, Band on the Run (Paul McCartney & Wings)
Mike, Jackie Blue (Ozark Mountain Daredevils)
Kelly, I Feel the Earth Move (Carol King)
Tom, You Take My Breath Away (Rex Smith?)
Brian & Michelle, Whenever I Call You Friend (Loggins & Nicks)
Mario, You May Be Right (Billy Joel)
Jennifer, You're So Vain (Carly Simon)
Stacy, Coin-Operated Boy
Gene & Kelly, Don't Go Breaking My Heart (Elton John & Keiki Dee)
Mike, What's So 'Bout Peace, Love And Understanding (Elvis Costello)
Hilly & Paul, Wildfire (Mike Murphy)
Dave, Mandy (Barry Manilow)
Michelle, Get Right Back to Where We Started From (Maxine Nightengale)
Amber, Cecilia (Simon & Garfunkle)
Joanne, Beautiful (Christina Aigulara)
Jennifer & Mark, Summer Lovin' (John Travolta & Olivia Newton John)
Hilly, Rock With You (Michael Jackson)
Mario, Lola Live (The Kinks)
Mike & Kelly, Do That To Me One More Time (Captain & Tenille)
Amber, This is How we Do It (Montel Jordan)
Jennifer & Jaye, Delta Dawn (Helen Reddy)
Haley, Rock the Boat (The Hues Corporation)
Stan, Locomotion (Grand Funk)
Dave, Jaye, Mark & Haley, The Rose (Bette Midler)
Amber, Blister in the Sun (Violent Femmes)
Gene, I Saw the Light (Todd Rundgren)
Rod & Tesha, You Dropped a Bomb on Me (The Gap Band)
Mark, After the Loving (Engleburt Humperdink)
Hilly, The Joker (Steve Miller Band)
Joanne, You Make Me Feel (Aretha Franklin)
Stacy, Bring Me Some Water (Melissa Ethridge)
Mike, It's Too Late (Carol King)
Kelly, You Are Everything (Stylistics)
Amber & Shannon (& April???), Fresh Prince Theme Song (Will Smith)
Mario, Me and Julio Down by the School Yard (Paul Simon)
Mark, Reminiscing (Little River Band)
Hilly & Mark, You Make Me Feel Like Dancing (Leo Sayer)
Tom, Vehicle (The Ides of March)
Gene, Moondance (Van Morrison)
Rod & Tesha & Angie, Baby Got Back (Sir Mixalot)
Hilly, Superstition (Stevie Wonder) -- reprise from last year
Mike, Brother Louis (Stories?)
Haley, I Am Woman (Helen Reddy)
Dave, Little Willy (Sweet)
Joanne & Mark, You Don't Bring Me Flowers (Neil Diamond & Barbra Streisand)
Mario, Hard Luck Woman (Kiss)
Angie & Tesha, Schoop (Salt N' Pepa)
Amber, I Wish (Skeelo)
Stacy, Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves (Cher)
Mark, Aqualung (Jethro Tull)
Haley, You're My Best Friend (Queen)
Mike, Brandy (Looking Glass)
Mario, Weekend in New England (Barry Manilow)
Stacy, Wig, Wham, Bam (Sweet)
Angie, Come Through My Window (Melissa Ethridge)
Haley & Mark, Top of the World (Carpenters)
Mike, Kung Fu Fighting (Karl Douglas)
Dave, Leaving on a Jet Plane (John Denver)'
Paul, Wichita Lineman (Glenn Campbell)'
Mario, Radio, Radio (Elvis Costello)
Amber, The Next to Be with You (Mr. Big)
Mark, Coming to America (Neil Diamond)
The Gay Pirate Duo (Dave & Hilly), I Want to Be Your Everything (Andy Gibb)
Joanne, If I Ain't Got You (Alicia Keys)
Mike, Laughter in the Rain (Neil Sadaka)
Mark, Carefree Highway (Gordon Lightfoot)
Stacy & Mark, The Impression that I Get (Might Boss Tones)
Mario, Everything I Own (Bread)
Mike, Sometimes When We Touch (Dan Hill)
Mark, Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (Gordon Lightfoot)
Stacy, Only the Lonely (The Motels)
Dave & Chris, Escape (The Pina Colada Song), (Rupert Holmes)
Mario, Burning Love (Elvis Presley)
Mike, Highway to Hell (AC/DC)
Tom, I Can't Hold Back (Survivor)
Haley & Angie, 3 a.m. (Matchbox 20)
Angie, It's in His Kiss (Cher)
Stacy, Angel from Montgomery (Bonnie Wrait)
Mark (aka Panfir) on the flute, Bouree (Jehtro Tull)
GROUP SINGALONG
Afternoon Delight
Don't Stop (Fleetwood Mac)
Renegade (Styx)
Stayin' Alive (Bee Gees)
Paradise by the Dashboard Lights (MeatLoaf)
Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)
This Beat Goes On/Switchin to Glide (The Kings)
Fox on the Run
Don't Stop Believin'
Carry on Wayward Son (Kansas)
Beth (Kiss)
Turning Japanese
Africa (Toto)
I've Done Everything for You
Love is Alright Tonite
American Pie (Don McLean)

Wordless Wednesday: Camera Shy

My good friend's daughter, Sam (left), hides behind her hair while her friends turn away from the camera. In another photo I did actually get them to smile for me, but yet I find this photo very compelling for some reason.

Click here for more about Wordless Wednesday and to see other participants.

And there was much rejoicing. Really.

Who would think this little thing could ignite such passion? Do you know what it is? It's a toilet tissue holder.

The toilet tissue holder in our main-floor powder room has been the bane of many of our guests. Tug on the tissue as you normally would, and the tissue and the support rod will often roll out, sending the rod to the ceramic tile below with a loud "tink!"

Several people actively hate the thing.

Last year, Marriott promised me a new tissue holder as a birthday gift. For Christmas, she promised me a new towel rod to match. By my birthday this year, she added a new matching faucet. Problem was, I was being picky about color and style, and we were going to the wrong stores to find that color and style.

Finally, two weeks ago, the hardware was purchased. (Thank you, Marriott!)

So over the weekend, Dave and I put on our home-improvement hats and tackled the bathroom.

Here's the new tissue holder. Walla! There is no annoying bar to fall and embarass guests.



The faucet was far more of a challenge, requiring actual plumbing work, which both Dave and I are total novices at. But Dave rose to the challenge with me stepping and fetching and being all-around assistant.

While we were at it, we swapped the mirror for a gorgeous custom-made one that JC had given me for my birthday over a year ago. (Thank you JC!) See the before and after:



But the room isn't done yet.

I have a few holes to fill and some touch-up painting to do. I'm tempted to paint the cabinet a darker color. The white just isn't working for me anymore.

Oh yeah, and I have to figure out a way to feature the old tissue holder. Maybe with some sort of sign giving Marriott appropriate credit. Trust me, many accolades will be coming her way for making me retire this thing.

Twitter and the state of the economy

Wow. Is that a boring title: "The state of the economy". Bear with me, though. This is not an economic dissertation, but rather two lessons from one social event.

The setting: Marwen's Paintbrush Ball 2008, a charity dinner and live auction for a prominent Chicago visual arts program for "under-served young people".

How: Through the generosity of a friend's employer, who purchased a bundle of seats at the dinner. (Thank you.)

The players: JC, Marriott and myself,
plus hundreds of other people.


Lesson 1: Twittering live!

I've been playing around on Twitter for a few months in a very limited capacity. Twitter has been described by many people as "micro-blogging", but I like to describe it as blogging meets instant messaging.

Basically, you create an account and publish posts (aka Tweets) that are limited in size to 140 characters max (this figure has to do with the maximum number of characters allowed by instant messaging programs, or something like that).

You can choose to follow the Tweets of other Twitterers, and talk directly to those Twitterers by throwing an @ before their Twitter name.

Twitter in its simplicity plays nicely with other applications, so there are a lot of tools out there to make your Twitter experience more versatile. Like TwitterFox for my FireFox browser, which keeps me updated on new Tweets with little popup notices in the lower corner of my browser window, and TwitterSync, which updates my Tweets to my status window in Facebook.

So, for instance, I Tweeted this on Saturday afternoon:

Up until Saturday, I'd only ever published my Tweets from my computer. But Twitter is supposed to be more mobile than that. So before I left, I set up my Twitter account to work with instant messages from my cellphone. This was actually a challenge for me, because I don't *do* instant messaging.

Here we were, in the middle of a fancy dinner, with a live auction going on in the background, and I was plugging away at my cellphone trying to perfectly compose a Tweet. As you can see, I was reaching for subject matter, and even gave up toward the end when I couldn't find the "$". That figure is supposed to be $8,000.

Next step was sending a photo Tweet. I'd signed up for TwitPic right before I left the house, but I was inexperienced at emailing photos from my phone, so this was yet another technological hurdle that I had to overcome. Which I did.

When the opportunity came to raise my auction paddle and bid on an item I could afford, I grabbed it. (Nevermind that it was a "raise your paddle if you want to give a straight-up charitable contribution to Marwen" fake auction. I got to use my paddle! As did about a hundred other people.) So I snapped a photo with my phone, gave it a subject line, and emailed it off to TwitPic.


This is what the photo looked like, by the way.

And those three Tweets are my sum experience with Twittering live. (Except for those observations Twittered live from my desk chair, which often say something to the effect of "Is it lunchtime yet?" I never claimed to be the most fascinating person on Twitter. :P )

Lesson 2: The economy affects everyone

If you look up at that second Tweet, you'll see that the "Fighter Pilot for a Day" experience was auctioned off for $8,000. That seems like a lot of money to me. It's well out of my discretionary spending budget. But, the thing is, that same exact experience went for a lot more last year. All the live auction items did.

If my figures are right from last year, that same fighter pilot experience went for more than $20,000.

Quick! Someone do the math. What percentage change is that?

Another great for-instance? A local fashion designer auctioned off a wine-tasting party in his loft for 30-40 people. He supplies the wines, which are premiere.

Last year, there was a bidding war for the party. When the bidding hit $21,000, the designer decided he would happily host two parties and gave the prize to both bidders, raising $42,000 for Marwen.

This year, the party -- one party -- went for $10,000. Nothing to sneer at, certainly, but nothing like last year. What's the percentage change?

My interpretation of the change in bidding patterns? Everyone is tightening their purse strings. If they're not directly feeling the pinch, they're feeling more conservative as they watch those around them who are.

And just in case I was doubting my interpretation, I saw this article on the New York Times website yesterday: It’s Not So Easy Being Less Rich.

This snippet summarizes the theme of the article:

The wealthy don’t generally speak publicly about their finances, in good times or bad. ... But people who provide services to the wealthy — lawyers, art advisers, personal trainers and hairstylists — say they are getting an earful about their clients’ financial anxieties.

Interviews with the people who actually see the bank statements, like divorce lawyers and lenders, say their clients are definitely living on less than they did a year ago, regardless of how expansive the definition of “less” may be.

I think that's exactly what I was seeing live on Saturday night. Generous spending, certainly. But not nearly as generous as last year.

Wordless Wednesday: Feeling Squirrely

All taken during a visit to the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL, over the weekend. See my entire Morton Arboretum set on Flickr.

Life: Where no eardrums were damaged, I think

I'm a little late with this karaoke party rehash. I know that most have you have been biting your nails in anticipation. Sorry. :P

Overall, I'd call the night a success.

Here's a link to the photo evidence, and here's the short version of what happened:

We had about 25 guests.
Many dressed in '80s inspired clothing.
Party ended at 5 a.m.
The police were not called.
I played DJ until 3 a.m.
Between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m., people requested and performed to at least 60+ songs.
We bought 25 songs on the fly through iTunes.
From 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. was the open-mic, all-sing, free-for-all.
From 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. you couldn't pull me away from the mic.
No, I was not drunk.
My husband and I were out of bed the next morning by 10 a.m.
The house was clean again by 1 p.m.

Here's the playlist as I logged it at the time. There are probably errors of omission and errors in song titles. This is exactly as I wrote it down. And it's a good thing I wrote it down, too, because there were a few times as I was typing this when I said to myself, Really? I sang that? Oh, yeah, I remember now!

Stars (***) denote an award-winning performance as determined by our panel of judges. Awards were for '80s songs performed before 11:30 p.m.

Erasure -- Dave and Kyle
Walk Like an Egyptian -- Haley and JC
Rock this Town -- Mark
Welcome to the Jungle -- Lara***
Just a Girl -- Ladyknyght
Love and Affection -- Tom
Superstitious -- Hilly
Like a Virgin -- Joanne
The Logical Song -- Haley
Tainted Love -- Mark and Kelly
Let's Go -- Kyle
Ballroom Blitz -- Lara
True -- Ladyknyght
Stop Draggin My Heart Around -- Mike and Kelly (aka M-elly) live
Every Rose Has Its Thorn -- Dave and Paul***
She's Out of My Life -- Tom
Just a Gigolo -- Hilly and Wook***
Stray Cat Strut -- Hilly, Mark, Mike, Paul and Mario
White Rabbit -- Lara
Careless Whisper -- Joanne
{Something I failed to log} -- Dave and Kelly
Devil Inside -- Ladyknyght
Jesse's Girl -- JC, Haley and Kelly
I Won't Back Down -- Hilly and Mike
Cracklin Rosie -- Mark
Green, Green Grass of Home -- Mark
Killing Me Softly -- Mike and Kelly (aka M-elly) live
Sharp-Dressed Man -- Hilly
Candy-O -- Paul
A Piece of My Heart -- Lara
Kiss Me Deadly -- Ladyknyght and Haley
Semi-Charmed Life -- Dave and April
Rock Me Tonight -- Kyle
Ring of Fire -- Eric
Alicia Keys If I Ain't Got -- Joanne
She's Like the Wind -- Tom
I've Had the Time of My Life -- Mark and Kelly
Purple Rain -- Hilly and Mark
Love Vigilante -- Mario
Bring Me Some Water -- Ladyknyght
Black Dog -- Lara
Verve Pipe Colorful -- Paul
Fun, Fun, Fun -- Haley and Paul
Brian Wilson -- Dave and Mario
Money for Nothing -- Mike
Leather and Lace -- Haley and Mike
Why Georgia -- Dave, April and Paul
Come Monday -- Mark
Coin-Operated Boy -- Ladyknyght
Can't Hardly Wait -- Mario
For What It's Worth -- Lara
Du Hast -- Mark
Landslide -- Haley
Like the Way I Do -- Ladyknyght
Overkill -- Dave
Coldplay Trouble -- Wook
Luck be a Lady Tonight -- Mark
Laid -- Mario
No Sugar Tonight -- Lara
Centerfield -- Mike and Hilly
Only the Lonely -- Ladyknyght
Bennie and the Jets -- Paul and Santos (with Mike and Hilly)

{Then the free-for-all, open-mic started}
Don't Stop Believing
3 a.m.
Bohemian Rhapsody
American Pie
Sympathy for the Devil
If I had a Million Dollars
Switchin to Glide
{log stops here...}

If you read my pre-party post last week, you'll know I was really nervous about my two duets.

Mike and I were supposed to sing Leather and Lace live with Mike playing the guitar, but, fortunately for me, he broke a string before we had a chance to perform, so we just sang along to the Stevie Nicks/Don Henley version. People said that if we'd sung it earlier in the night, we might have been up for an award.

Mark and I had talked about singing Suddenly together. I knew it was going to be a disaster for me because Olivia Newton-John's part is too high for me. When I asked Mark about it at the party, he said the male vocal was a little challenging for him, too, and he hadn't practiced much. We were going to let it slide, but then some time around 3-4 a.m. we decided, What the heck!, and sang it anyway. At that hour of the morning, it didn't matter how atrocious my singing was.

Oh, yeah, in case you're wondering why we quit at 5 a.m.? One of our friends suddenly remembered that her alarm clock was set for 6 a.m. and she wanted to make sure she was home to turn it off before it woke up her son. Their departure turned into the signal to shut everything down. Otherwise, who knows when we might have stopped...

Life: It's all about me

So, I went on a photo-shooting excursion with Marriott and JC to downtown Naperville yesterday. Marriott had some old cameras she wanted to test out and, well, I don't need any excuse to pull out my camera and start taking photos.

Marriott decided to make up an art project whereby we'd take photos of letters and make a collage of our names. I started out with the intent of doing "Haley Hughes", but failed to collect the required three H's -- not sure how I managed that.

So, here's my first effort:



The "H" is from the window of Ethel's Chocolate Lounge. The "A" is from the window of an antiques shop. The "L" is from a sign for a noodles restaurant. The "E" is a door handle from Eddie Bauer. And I can't remember what sign the "Y" is from.

Things I've discovered this week

It was a screw
Evidently, the slow leak in my tire was from a screw. The offending screw has been removed, the hole plugged and the tire re-inflated. I am now road safe again.

I won't self-combust in a church
It's been a long time, so I wasn't sure. But I survived my niece's baptism without incident. We'll see how I do next weekend, when my nephew is baptized. They're different churches, afterall -- one Catholic, the other Lutheran.

I've developed a photographic style
When I sent a link to Dave's cousin in Scotland to view the photos from the baptism (see above), this was part of her response: "Even if you hadn't sent them, I would have known you took them. Apart from the types of poses and the study of the architecture(!) - you aren't in them!!!" I confess, I do like windows.

We really need to buy a snow blower
This is our sixth winter in this house, and we haven't bought a snow blower yet. But there have been so many snow events this year, we're both sick of shoveling. The neighbor-kids all seem sick of shoveling, too. Nobody has been ringing our doorbell this year. That's probably for the best, though. At $20 a shot, we would have dished out a lot of money in snow removal this year -- enough to buy a snow blower.

Oolong means Black Dragon
Went to a tea tasting last night with Marriott and JC in the city. It was 90 minutes of standing around and tasting all sorts of teas: white, green, oolong and black. I usually like to sweeten my tea, but for the tasting we drank it straight up. My favorite was the sumatra oolong barisan, but I'm pretty certain that by the time we got to the darjeeling and assam teas, my pallet was shot. When I go again in two weeks, I'm bringing my own crackers and cold water. Oh, and making sure my camera battery is charged.

Stuff White People Like
I discovered this blog, Stuff White People Like, by way of a post on Beeker's Words. Too funny, and kind of embarrassing to see how many things fit. Like #13 Tea.

Favicons
See the little icon next to this web address in the address bar of your browser? Apparently, that's a favicon. Anyway, I stumbled on an interesting post on Hello Mother, Hello Father about how to add a Favicon, and of course had to run out and do it myself. The hardest part was making something only 16 by 16 pixels that I liked. What do you think?

The dead post file

So many things in my drafts folder... So many things that I've meant to blog about, but never did for some reason.

I'm cleaning my virtual desk -- clearing out the aborted blog entries that are just taking up space, and publishing those that were almost finished but just didn't get published for some reason.

Want a "for-instance"?

Way back in November, I meant to post kudos to Starr Toth, who placed second in a Gather.com writing contest, so therefore won a publishing contract with Pocket Books. When they announced the contest winners, Starr's name sounded familiar, so I searched my email. Turns out, she judged a contest entry of mine (a love scene, no less) back in 2003, and liked it a lot. We had a brief email exchange, but didn't keep in contact.

In her email Starr told me: "I want 'Prairie Fire' to get published so I can read the whole thing - you pulled me in and left me hanging!" Unfortunately, I'm still leaving people hanging with Prairie Fire.

Her book, Trust Me, comes out this fall. You know I'll be buying a copy.

Other dead posts?

I meant to link to a Stephen King review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I meant to link to a New York Times article about Magical Thinking: Why Do People Cling to Odd Rituals?.

I meant to link to a discussion on The Watcher's Chicago Tribune blog about her pet peeves in television plots, along with readers pet peeves and industry professionals' pet peeves.

For some forgotten reason, I meant to write about the old Fireside Roller Rink (or is that Rollarena?), which is long gone. I'd Googled it and come up with this link to one of Eric Zorn's columns, which had a relevant comment by someone named Bud Fox.

I'd also meant to write about a blind root-beer tasting that we did with my nephews. All I have to offer, instead, is this cool photo that my sister took.

I meant to write about many excursions I've been on with my girlfriends. Like when Marriott took me to see My Fair Lady a few weeks ago, or when Marriott and I popped into the old Carson Pirie Scott store on State Street right before it closed, tea at Ethel's Chocolate Lounge, going with JC and Jules to make custom purses as 1154 Lill, and other adventures.

What posts were resurrected?

Not all the draft posts were deleted. A few were so close to being finished, I polished them a little and published them anyway.

See:
Anne Lamott
Wook cut his hair!
Lollygagger
S-Factor Afternoon

Things still in draft format?

Yes, a few things still survive in draft format. They aren't finished enough to publish, but I still like the ideas enough that I want to execute them. Notably, the rest of my Australia trip -- which was more than six months ago now.

History lessons

This is one of my favorite photos from a weekend excursion with Jules and JC to the Chicago History Museum. Wait, I can't decide between the one on top or the one at right? There's just something I like about that bronze bull's head. Opinions?

Regardless, we finally visited the museum after it was overhauled, redesigned and renamed a year or so ago. Out the door went the stodgy "Chicago Historical Society" moniker and in came the new "Chicago History Museum".

It was a fun time. The exhibits were interesting, although the Crossroads audio tour got a little bit long at times.

Particularly memorable aspects of the museum? For me, it's the same thing that stuck in my memory after my first visit as a Brownie Girl Scout 30 years ago: the melted glass-and-metal artifacts from the Great Chicago Fire. (To view the rest of my photos from the museum, visit my Chicago set on Flickr.)

S-Factor afternoon

Oprah featured it, so that has to make it safe to write about, doesn't it? I mean, otherwise, why would I want to confess that I'd taken an exercise class based on the arts of pole-dancing and lap-dancing? Sounds crazy, doesn't it?

A few years ago, Jules saw the S-Factor book somewhere and gave it and the accompanying exercise video to me for Christmas. I admit that I'm not very motivated by videos, but I did give it a few tries at home, but no more.

Then last year, Jules treated me and JC to a one-off intro to the S-Factor class at a studio in Chicago. It was lots of fun. An hour of yoga-like exercises, followed by an hour of bruising our legs trying to swing around a pole, and then learning a routine to take home with us.

This year, she treated us to another one-off class, this one called Santa's lap-dance. Again, an hour of yoga-like exercises, followed by an hour of learning how to crawl all over a big armchair.

Lots of fun, but talk about awkward. I mean, it's so totally hard to get into the moment when you're there with friends, because the key seems to be forgetting your fears and letting yourself go.

Now, this seems like the place where I should break into some internal dialog (or real dialog) that was occurring during the class. But I'm not going to go there. I think it's sufficient at this point to admit that I took the class at all.

Perhaps if Jules treats us to a class again next year...

Why the dearth of posts lately?

I'm caught up. I've posted all the stories I've been meaning to post. (OK, I still have a few from Australia to finish back in July, but I'm mostly caught up.)

If you're wondering why there have been so few posts lately, it's because life has been eventful, but yet not necessarily in a good way. A lot of health topics discussed. A lot of doctors and hospitals. Not for me, personally, thank God.

It started before Labor Day, when Marriott traveled down to Mississippi to visit her 90-something-year-old great-aunt who was in decline and needed to be hospitalized. Marriott spent a good two weeks with her in the hospital and getting her settled in a rehabilitation facility. She was back to visit last week and things are continuing to look good for her aunt.

Also around Labor Day, JC's husband went into the hospital with what they said was heart failure, but after a few weeks decided were blocked arteries in his heart. After a quadruple bypass, he was eventually released and is recovering.

Dave's sister was heavily pregnant at the time, too. She had her baby in late September (happy, healthy boy), but then had to go back into the hospital with peripartum cardiomyopathy. A rare but very serious complication from pregnancy that her cardiologist is optimistic will clear up within the next year. She's home with the baby now and doing well.

My five-year-old dog, Loki, had her annual checkup in late September. Her new vet decided to aspirate a lump on her belly, and found mast cells in it, which are a form of cancer cell. A week ago, she had the mast cell tumor removed, which involved taking the tumor and at least 3 centimeters of flesh around it. Lab results show it was a grade 2 mast cell tumor, and we'll find out from the vet on Monday what that means for Loki. The vet is very optimistic, and Loki is happy and healthy seeming, so I'm allowing myself to feel optimistic, too.

Meanwhile, Miss Loki still has stitches in her belly and is being forced to wear a T-shirt to keep her from licking the stitches until they are removed on Monday. The T-shirt looks ridiculous, but Loki doesn't mind, especially after having to wear a cone for a few days.

Also, healing thought have been going to my great-aunt Edie in Australia, who is having a slow and painful recovery from back surgery in August. Hopefully, she'll finish her rehabilitation and be back in her own house soon.

I think that's the extent of all the health news that's been consuming my conversations lately. A lot of positive healing thoughts have gone out and will continue to do so.

Huh. CVICU has been redecorated. Yea.

It's not really the CVICU itself that was redecorated, nor the waiting room outside the unit, it's the surgical waiting room associated with the unit that's been redecorated.

Why do I care? Well, when Dad had his abdominal aortic aneurysm two-and-a-half years ago, we spent many, many hours sitting in that surgical waiting room during his two surgeries. A tiny little room, probably 12-by-12, no windows, with a little television in the corner and no more than 10 chairs. I'd truthfully hoped to never have to visit that room again.

Then, in September, things went south for JC's husband. Diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are a dangerous cocktail. After a couple weeks in the hospital with a seemingly vague diagnosis of heart failure, it was determined that he needed bypass surgery. Her husband is only 44 years old.

So, I took the day off to keep JC company while her husband had the surgery. Unfortunatley, it's something that I have experience at -- sitting in hospital waiting rooms. Also unfortunately, it was the same hospital where my Dad went for his surgery.

I met JC in the cafeteria, where we had a late breakfast, then we journeyed up to the room. Same set of double doors you had to walk through, same nurses station you had to walk by, same long and empty hallway you had to walk down. But then, the room itself was different. A corner closed in for some sort of air filtration system, new and more comfortable chairs, the television moved, some fancy coffee machine setup installed.

I could handle this. No overwhelming flashbacks.

We talked. We chatted. We went back to the cafeteria for an early lunch. (That's what you do when you wait -- you eat a lot.) Then back to the waiting room.

Then the doctor was there with the results. They'd done quadruple bypass. Things looked good. He was in recovery and it would be over an hour before he was in his CVICU bed and available for visitors.

We took that window of time to collect JC's children from Jules' house, then met up with Marriott, who took JC and the kids back to the hospital.

That was over three weeks ago. I'm happy to report that JC's husband is home recuperating from his quadruple bypass surgery. The diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are still issues, but he has a "remodeled" heart that with proper care should last him a good many more years.

I'd survived my reunion with the CVICU surgical waiting room. Most importantly, I was happy that I'd been available to keep JC company during those long hours.

More special dates

Yet another cluster of special occasions to mark.

Today is my wedding anniversary -- lucky number 13. Happy Anniversary Dave. :-)

There are also birthdays for JC, Auntie Donna, my godson Adam, and my nephew "Louis". Happy Birthday.

We're waiting for good news about a new neice/nephew "Peanut" to be born (due two days ago).

Wishing continued improvement to Rick who is recovering from major, major surgery.

And, thinking about the Red Dog, who went to the bridge five years ago today.

(I'm not sure which I feel more like: A morning weatherman reading off a list of announcements, or that lady from Romper Room who held up the mirror and listed different kids' names every week. I swear, she saw every kid but never a "Haley". LOL)

The Paintbrush Ball

I can't say that I've ever done "the Society" thing, but we came close the other weekend. Marriott's company does pro-bono work for Marwen, an art school in Chicago. Marwen was celebrating its 20th anniversay at it's annual benefit dinner, called the Paintbrush Ball. Marriott's company had bought a table and had extra tickets, so she brought me and JC along.

In the parking lot of the school's studio, they'd set up two massive tents with carpeted raised floor and overhead fans. It seemed more atmospheric than "temporary structure" -- wooden folding chairs, white linens galore, and real glassware and dinnerware.

The crowd seemed like a big mix of older and middle-aged, with a few Paris Hilton-wannabes in the crowd. No outfits that made me go "Wow!", but there were a few pink and purple shirts/ties on men.

When we checked in, we were each given an auction paddle with our number on it for the live auction, and two pages of pre-printed labels with our number on it for the silent auction. So we grabbed a drink and couple hors de'oeuvres and perused the silent auction tables.

Marriott had warned me that the auction items would be out of our price range, but I'd laughed to myself because I've seen items go ridiculously cheap in silent auctions. Let's just say, when I saw opening bids for more than $1,000 on bottles of wine in the silent auction, I realized that Marriott was not exaggerating.

If things were going for that much in the silent auction, what would the live auction be like? $5,000 for a trip to London. Not so bad. But a bidding war up to $21,000 for a 30-person wine tasting party in someone's swanky loft? (They ended up giving both bidders a party -- way to double the revenue!) And the fighter pilot for a day? Another $20,000 or so.

Oh, and the food was excellent. A real diet-buster.

All in all, it was a fun girls night out in the city. I'd happily do it again. Thank you Marriott for thinking of me and inviting me along. :)

Anne Lamott

Eagle-eye Marriott scored a hot ticket in town yesterday.

The two of us got to go to a recording of WFMT: Writers on the Record with Victoria Lautman featuring writer Anne Lamott.

The first time I heard of Anne Lamott, it was 1997 and I was at the national Romance Writers of America conference. I was walking with Jules into the conference bookstore, when suddenly she turned star-struck. Now, you have to understand that Jules doesn't get star-struck easily. No-sir-ee. So this caught my attention.

The star in question wore dreadlocks. "That's Anne Lamott. She wrote Bird by Bird," said Jules, who is by far a much more varocious reader than I am.

"Who? What?" was all I could answer, which happens more often than I'd like to admit when it comes to authors and books.

Dragging me over to prominently displayed table, Jules pointed out the big stack of Bird by Bird books. It was a book about writing. A Bible on the writing experience, so I was to understand.

So, I bought a copy of the book while catching glimpses of the mysterious Anne Lamott. It turns out she was at the conference to speak at the Published Author Network retreat that year. I wasn't (nor am I now) a member of PAN, so I couldn't attend.

Time passed. I read parts of Bird by Bird, and a year or so later, I went with JC and LadyKnyght to see Anne Lamott speak at a nearby community college. She'd just released her book Traveling Mercies, which I hadn't read.

But Anne was an incredible speaker. She had all sorts of funny and witty things to say that I wrote down somewhere (Note to self: Find those notes.) I came out of her talk incredibly inspired to write.

So much so, that a few weeks ago, when Marriott told me Anne Lamott was in town to speak again, I jumped at the chance to hear her. This time she was promoting her latest book Grace (Eventually), which I haven't read (are you noticing a trend?) .

I didn't take notes this time, but, again, I was totally impressed with her. Her talk this time was not about the writing process, but it was entertaining. Let's just say that even if all her latest books have become very Christian and spiritual, she's approaches it from an interesting perspective -- the leftist, f-bomb dropping side.

And the place was packed. They were turning people away at the door, which from what I understand, has never happened with this author series before. Fortunately, the talk is available for listening to over the Internet. (Link to a recording of the show.)

Update 2/19/2008:

Anne Lamott is coming to town again. She'll be speaking at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 11, 2008, at Koten Chapel, 329 E. School Ave., North Central College, Naperville. She's touring with her paperback edition of Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith. Tickets are $18, include admission to the event, one copy of Grace (Eventually) and booksigning. For information, contact Anderson's Book Store.

Distracted by my day job

Busy, busy, busy at work with a project that's consumed way too many of my waking hours away from the office. Blogging has suffered, but not nearly as much as my writing and various other personal interests. Where does the time go?

Since I last wrote, I've bought a new washer and dryer (oh, the excitement!), won a few bucks playing Texas Holdem' with friends (patience and slow play really do pay off), watched a few movies (one predictable and one painful), read a friend's completed screenplay (Wow! Can't wait to see it produced!), barbecued with friends (couldn't ask for better weather), and played a vigorous round of Spoons while listening to Cheap Trick perform.

To go into greater detail on a few things:

• Our dryer up and died one day. After debating if it was fixable, and realizing that it was probably vintage to the house, we decided to treat ourselves to the luxury of a new Whirpool Duet front-loading washer and dryer. Have you ever seen adults gathered around a washing machine in fascination as it performs its mundane task?
  

• Went out with a girlfriend to watch The Illusionist, and was disappointed that I pretty much saw all the plot twists. Mid-way through I kept thinking: God, I hope it ends this way. But, God, I'll also be disappointed if it does, because it's predictable.
  

• Joined Netflix and rented the original version of The Wicker Man. If you ask me why, it's because it sounded interesting from a novel research perspective: set in the Western Isles of Scotland, involves pagan worship and fire sacrifice. What we discovered is that it contains everything that is painful about 1970s movies. The music and dancing are scarred on my psyche.
  
  I was intrigued, though, as to how they would update this movie for today. Then I read the reviews of the remake that come out last weekend and that intrigue quickly died. The Variety review made me laughed: "Yet another needless 're-imagining' of a '70s cult fave that, truth to tell, is better remembered than actually viewed, Neil LaBute's folly follows the basic plot outline of the 1974 Brit horror opus of the same title."
  

• Had incredible weather this Labor Day weekend. Saturday we had a barbecue at our house -- about 30 people total -- and I couldn't have asked for a nicer day. Sunny and in the 70s. Perfect. That weather continued on Sunday, when we went to Ravinia Festival to see Cheap Trick. We sat in the lawn, perfectly comfortable, drank wine and played cards by candlelight.
  
  We started out trying to play Gin, but realized we needed a much more simple game. So, out came the spoons, and we taught our friends the simple, but surprisingly competitive game. The first few rounds, we could tell they were thinking "That's it? That's all there is to the game?" but as more rounds went by, they got into the spirit. By the end, in true Spoons form, blood had been drawn.
  

With that basic review out of the way, what's coming up in the next several weeks? A few concerts (Queensryche and Roger Waters), a few birthdays (family and friends) and a few anniversaries (including mine). Need to come up with a new class to take. JC said she'd take one with me. We'll work on it.

Chicago getaway

Just spent a fabulous girls getaway weekend at the swank W Hotel Lakeshore in Chicago. (Unfortunately, this will be a photo-free entry because we all forgot our cameras!)

I started the weekend negotiating the Blue Line from work into the Loop. Having always lived too far out in the suburbs to take the CTA, this was only the second time I've negotiated the system by myself. Sad, I know, but true. (Ironically - and annoyingly - for a good chunk of the ride into the city, I had to listen to some guy flirt with a girl and tell her all about how annoyed he gets with suburban people.)

Anyway, my plan was to catch a cab from the Loop up to the hotel, but since I love walking in the city, I wheeled my travel case the mile and a half from State Street to the hotel. I had to laugh when a couple - their travel guide in hand - asked me for directions to the Magnificent Mile. Sure, ask the woman wheeling a suitcase through the Loop! Fortunately, I, like any good Chicago-area native, could handle that question and pointed the couple toward Michigan Avenue, north of the river.

A good 20 or so minutes later, I was at the hotel, but dripping sweat. (It was the start of an extremely hot weekend.)

The W Hotel is not only swank, but the clientele is young and attractive. And here I was dripping on the reception desk. "Are those cool wet towels over there on the counter, by chance?" I asked the clerk. At her friendly affirmative, I quickly grabbed one of the nicely rolled towels and wiped myself down, then slunk off toward the elevators.

Our hallway had little zen rock-gardens along the walls, and the room numbers printed on the carpet. Inside the room, the beds were already turned down and the television was tuned to the hotel's welcome station. The bathroom had a shuttered pass-through that was open to the room, adding to the posh feel of the place. This was going to be a fun weekend.

I met up with Jules and JC at the Bliss Spa downstairs, where we treated ourselves to milk and almond pedicures and little samplings from the brownie bar. No healthfood here!

Nice and relaxed, we cleaned up and headed for the Wave restaurant for a glass of wine and a tapas-style dinner.

At 10:30 we retired to the room. Yes - 10:30! Three girls alone in the city, we hadn't even left the hotel yet, and we were retiring for the night.

Not really.

Now it was time to snuggle into the hotel's luxurious robes and work. We're writers, working on a project together - see Our erotic project - so we had scenes to share and critique, a bottle of champagne to open, and talking/scheming/planning to commence. The lights didn't go out until at least 2:30 a.m. (I know, it sort of sounds like a girls' slumber party cliche. What can I say? Truthfully, an outsider would have found it incredibly dull.)

We slept in, then after leaving our bags with the concierge and finding a Starbucks for Jules, we had brunch at the West Egg, which was incredibly busy, but incredibly good too.

We walked back to Michigan Avenue, contemplated doing a little shopping, but instead found ourselves at the Bridgehouse and Chicago River Museum. The museum opened just over a month ago and is one of those little treasures in the city that can be so easily overlooked. The only reason we found it was because I'd read about it in the Chicago Tribune, then stumbled on it when I was taking a river cruise in June - see Weather unfit for barbecuing and boating. One of the four bridgehouses on the Michigan Avenue bridge has been converted to a museum devoted to the history of the river and its bridges. Starting at river level, you climb the tower, getting to see the gears and machinery inside the bridge and learn the history of the river as you go up. There were some really interesting views through the windows in the tower (especially the port-hole shaped window) that I need to return for some day with my camera.

From there, we headed to Russian Tea Time on Adams for afternoon tea. We agreed that the Highland Tay was the best of those we tried, but the Russian Caravan tasted a little too much like liquid smoke for our tastes. I'd love to go back there sometime and try their Vodka flights, to sample different varieties, but we didn't have time.

Next we were on to the ArchiCenter to pick up the Historic Skyscrapers two-hour walking tour. Again, I wish I'd had my camera. We, being the Chicago history geeks that we are, had a wonderful time learning to differentiate between a Chicago School skyscraper and an Art Deco skyscraper. I can now describe Chicago-style windows, I know the Auditorium Theater at Roosevelt University has perfect acoustics, and that I should repent because Jesus is coming. (OK, that wasn't an official part of the tour. Since the Gay Games were in town, there were a large number or protestors walking around wearing placards and heralding the end of the world.)

From there, it was back to the hotel to collect our bags and Jules' car. On the way home we daydreamed about future getaways and vowed to do this at least once a year. I think we're addicted to walking tours...