Daffodils are blooming

Color on a gray Chicago day
Originally uploaded by dcmarch.

Finally, it appears that Spring has Sprung here in Chicago. The Daffodils are blooming. It cheers me so to walk around my neighborhood or on my drive to work to see the bright yellow blooms of the Daffodil. It brings to mind one of my favorite poems, by William Wordsworth. And funny enough, the poem was featured in a movie Netflix sent me. The movie "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont" isn't a blockbuster, but it was sweet.

Daffodils - a poem by by William Wordsworth


I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee;
A poet could not be but gay,
In such a jocund company!
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Weekend Update

This was a fun weekend here in Chicago. Started out Friday at Sushi Wabi on Randolph for dinner with Mara and Mike. Mara is my cousin, Mike is her husband. They are both so good to me. We ate a ton of sushi; and it was good, but not as good as Sushi on the Rock. I miss the Kitchen Sink roll! From there we went to Red Kiva, where I had previously gone on a date. It's a jazz bar down the street. They had a good dj and we had a couple of drinks. Then after Sandy, Mike's buddy showed up we went to Fulton Lounge a couple blocks away.

Saturday morning went to my favorite Yoga class at Yoga Now Chicago. I take an Ashtanga yoga class, which is an extremely challenging form of Yoga. I love it. But as I was hung over from the previous night, I was pretty slow and lazy during the class. After a couple hours of naptime, I felt rejuvenated. Since it was cold on Saturday, I spent the day cleaning up my house and laundry, watching Lord of the Rings on TBS. It was a nice afternoon.

Saturday night Mara and I went to dinner at Sepia. A fabulous restaurant. We didn't have reservations, so sat in the lounge. I had a wonderful lamb stew with pasta, it was delicious. The wine was excellent. From there we went to a co-worker's 30th birthday party. Yes, 30! He was going on about how old he felt. Punk. Yet, there I was shot gunning beer.

I was so hung over on Sunday. After a long morning, reading the paper and drinking coffee I took a nap. Finally made it out to The Art Institute of Chicago to see the Homer/Hopper exhibit. But because I arrived so late I was unable to see both exhibits. I really enjoyed the Homer exhibit. He really mastered light in both watercolor and oil paintings.

It was a nice weekend... but too much drinking. :)

I'm back! Miss me?

Yes, I think I'm back. I'm back to writing on my blog. I've missed it. Writing a bit every day was a great exercise. But I also think I'm getting back to my sassy self. Frankly, I've become a bit of a recluse here in Chicago. First because I was so swampped with work, which was/is fantastic. Work is great. But the first six months have been crazy busy. It's exciting stuff, but now things are slowing down just a tad. My other excuse as to why I'm a recluse is the cold weather. It's freakn cold here.

But it was a beautiful sunny weekend. A balmmy 35 degrees. You know I've adjusted to cold weather when I walk around and say that 35 degrees is balmy. Yesterday was lovely. I popped over to my neighborhood Irish bar for some good bar food and met the owner who was such a sweetheart. The bartenders are so good to me. From there I headed to the Garfield Conservatory. I wanted to be surronded by greenery. And that was the perfect place for it. They have a lovely Fern and Palm collection. It was so humid which is a nice change from the dry air here. I walked into the tropics room and it was actually hot! Loved it! So nice to walk around without a coat, be surronded by green plants and feel sunshine and heat. It's definitely a winter time favorite. From there I went to Oak Park and walked around the shops.

Anyway, I'm going to get out more and do more exploring of Chicago. No more recluse behavior for me! And I'm going to blog more. Hope you come back.

Wordless Wednesday: 9/26/2007

Hancock
Originally uploaded by Moncrief Speaks.

I drive through elk grove to get to my office but never realized there really was an elk grove until yesterday.

Started my PatioScaping business

I started my business and gave it a try. It’s definitely something I want to do again when I feel like I have more of a support structure.

See more progress on: Start my PatioScaping(TM) business

Registering a Car in Illinois

So, my California tags expired at midnight on July 31. When I got to my car the next morning, I had a ticket. The officer gave me the ticket in the middle of the night at 1:45 am. So that day, a Wednesday, I went to the DMV, which stayed open till 7 pm. I thought that my CA car registration would suffice for registering my car in Il. When I got there I discovered that I needed to have proof of ownership, which meant my loan paper work. So couldn't take care of my car that day.

Went back on Friday afternoon, later that week, I got to the DMV 10 minutes before they closed, where I discovered they didn't take Credit Cards. Only checks or cash or Discover. Who carries checks anymore??

So I left and that Saturday got my second ticket. Tried to leave the office early the following Monday and Tuesday, which didn't work. Then I left work to get there before they closed at 7pm, but didn't make it because of the horrible traffic that night. So finally, Thursday, at lunch I raced there and managed to finally get my license plates! And then finally today I got them on my car. It only took me 14 days.

Now I'm going to contest my tickets. You only need to register cars that are moving and my car wasn't moving at the time I received the tickets. It was in the middle of the night.

Weekend in Dallas

Just got back from a weekend in Dallas, where we celebrated my Mom's 65th birthday. It was a nice celebration with my brother and his wife and kids. The other amazing thing is that my Mom at 65 is starting a business. A friend of mine and my mom have applied for a patent for a medical garment that they invented together. It's pretty amazing that at 65 my mom is a patent applicant and the director of a corporation. I'm helping them with marketing their business. It's fun. Just goes to show you, you can reinvent yourself at any age.

While in Dallas, we ate at Salum on Cole street. It was delicious and the restaurant was teeming with Dallasites, all dressed up for Saturday dinner. It's been a long time since I've been to a restaurant where people actually dress up for dinner. I've missed that.