Chicago

We went to visit our son in Chicago. We had a great time guiding each other through the city.

Our son had a gift certificate to RJ Grunts and took us there for lunch. My husband pointed out to our son the exact spot where my husband first caught site of me.

We stayed in our son's apartment. We did some of the ordinary chores of family life-- cooking, grocery shopping. We accompanied him to his work and watched him in action.

We visited with his girlfriend and with her parents.

We went to a movie. It's been a long time since we went to a movie downtown. We forgot about parking. Somehow, we just barely made it into the movie so the opening scene was just beginning.

Timing is everything.

One side benefit of going to the movie: we all discovered the location of Second City. Good to know.

While my husband and I shared some of our personal history in Chicago, our son introduced us to the features of his Chicago: we toured the Art Institute of Chicago, and our son introduced us to the Bean.

We went out and enjoyed some Chicago blues at the Kingston Mines.

We packed a lot into a few days. We enjoyed it all-- enjoyed most of all spending time with a wonderful young man, our son.

snowed in

Everyone could use a day off.

Today was a very rare day. It snowed most of yesterday and into the night last night. So Ken had a snow day-- his school was closed.

And miracle of miracles, Emily called a snow day for our after-school teaching.

There are a thousand and one things I shoulda-coulda done.

But everyone can use a day off... so I read a book just for fun. All the way through.

V day and the V Monologues

This past weekend I performed in the Vagina Monologues. I don't perform often these days: I've been busy directing, studying, working and living. The VM are worth performing.

The Vagina Monologues as a V-Day project are works in progress / in process advancing awareness, providing education. V-Day goes on to advocate and agitate an end to violence against women.

"The National Violence Against Women Survey found that 1 of 6 U.S. women and 1 of 33 U.S. men has experienced an attempted or completed rape as a child and/or an adult. (Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. November 1998.)" -- http://www.mcadsv.org/mrcdsv/resource/stats/stats.html