43 posts tagged “chicago”
On Tuesday night, while watching the election results, I had a sudden memory/realization that gave me pause. I remembered the day Prince E and I first got together (the day of our IKEA date) and how one of our first conversations was about politics. Specifically the conversation was about the upcoming Senate election. It turned out that we were both supporting Barack Obama. We talked about what we liked about him and I was relieved to learn that this guy I was already starting to like shared the same political beliefs that I did.
Fast forward to more than four years later and I was sitting with Prince E, married to him, and waiting to see if that same guy, Barack Obama, would be our next president. Who could have imagined that at the time?
Photo below is of celebratory banners currently hanging outside of City Hall downtown.
I decided on Friday afternoon that this past weekend would be the one where I tried to tackle #37 on my list of 101 in 1001: Go 48 hours without using the internet. Since it was the start of a three day weekend, I would not need to worry about having to use the internet or e-mail for work, so it was a good weekend to do it. I did not find it as difficult to stay away as I thought it would and really did not have to fight any urges to check e-mail or blogs or watch videos on YouTube. I guess because it was a holiday weekend, but I was surprised to find only about 40 new e-mails when the hiatus ended on Sunday.
Here is a list of some of what I accomplished this weekend because I wasn't sitting in front of my computer:
* Watched Raging Bull OnDemand, which means I am one movie closer to completing #71 on my list.
* Went biking and running on Friday, practicing my bike to run transition in between.
* Biked for 10.3 miles on Saturday.
* Ran a 5k time trial on Sunday. I was going to run in a 5k race but slept late instead.
* Sat in the shade in the front yard and watched Prince E work on the car.
* Acted as Prince E's assistant as he worked on the car.
* Finished another level in Cake Mania 2.
* Finally got my shower drain unclogged (actually I assisted Prince E)
* Cleaned my bathroom.
* Went to Target just for fun, like I used to do.
* Went to see Wanted (Enjoyed it a lot. I thought Chicago looked very pretty).
* Watched three episodes of Flipping Out.
* Slept into a blissfully late hour of past 7:00 am both Saturday and Sunday.
* Watched a lot of baseball.
* Watched the Tour de France live on Sunday morning.
There was probably more, but that is all I remember right now and since I couldn't blog about it as it happens I have forgotten it. From the list it looks like a lot of television. I am sure had I tried to tackle #36 (go 48 hours without the television) it would have been a lot more difficult.
For those of you who do not read my running blog, I have posted my full recap of Sunday's events.
Check it out at: http://princessrunner.com/?p=122
Remember when I posted the photos of the tree that broke in our front yard after a severe storm? The management company finally had the broken branches cut off. It makes for an extremely bright and sunny morning in the apartment, because the tree did a great job of shielding the sun. The only one that seems to be happy with the missing branches is our friendly black squirrel friend. (If the squirrel picture is not showing up click the "black squirrel" link to see it. Not sure why it is not showing up).
We had some more rain today and after the showers, we had this nice rainbow.
If you thought about entering my charity raffle, but figured you would not win, you should give it a try because I have only had one person enter so far!
Am I the only one in the Chicagoland area who is disappointed that I don't have cicadas in the trees outside my apartment? Other suburbs have them! I saw it on the news. Maybe we picked the wrong suburb to move to. I know that most people think they are loud annoying pests, but it is historic! They won't return to these parts until I am nearly 47 years old! I don't want to wait that long to see them! I also want to see how the cats freak out at their presence! And imagine the photographic opportunities!
To all the cicadas: We have a nice, pretty tree right outside our window. Why don't you come on over??
Prince E and I went to the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois. In addition to being able to view hundreds of beautiful trains, you can actually ride on certain trains. Today they only had the electric train running, but other days you can ride the diesel train, an old Chicago transit train, and others.
Here is the train that we rode today and our conductor:
Prince E and I participated in our first running race together yesterday. My mom and sister also came to town to run with us. It is was also my first race under my new name, so technically I set a personal record because I (with the new name) never ran this race before.
The race was the 8k Shamrock Shuffle, which goes throughout downtown. This year they increased the number of runners to 30,000! It was unseasonably warm yesterday (at least 75 by race end, high of 80 at some point that day) and I really wish they would have added another water stop.
Since our training kind of fell off toward the end there, Prince E and I decided to run as much as we could and take long walking breaks. We just wanted to finish. We were quite discouraged by the Chicago Police Officer that came up behind those of near the back and kept repeating "if you are going to be walking and not running, you have to get on the sidewalk, because the course will be closed soon." She was mean and not friendly and not encouraging. In reality, the course was not being closed as she passed, she was just being pesky.
We really were going as fast as we could and we were by no means the last of the group, so I don't know why she kept yelling at all of us. Someone yelled "when was the last time you ran 5 miles!" Then another women went up to the car and was yelling and gesticulating, although I couldn't make out what she said. I did hear the woman yell out the police car number. I guess she threatened to report her for being a bully.
Despite the heat, our poor training, and Prince E's asthma acting up (thankfully he had brought his inhaler), we did manage to finish about 10 minutes faster that I had predicted. We were tired and crabby afterward, made more so by the fact that my mom and sister failed to stick to the AFTER RACE PLAN, we had so carefully devised, and we had to end up waiting for them to get to the parking garage. It would not have been such a big deal if we hadn't just run nearly five miles in the hot sun and were tired and crabby (did I say that already?)
After we got back to the burbs and went to lunch, we were all in much better spirits. I think the people coming in to the restaurant in their Sunday best got a kick out of the four of us still in our running clothes.
I was glad that my mom and sister came to town for the race. This was the longest race either of them had completed and I was proud of them both for beating me. Next year though, they better stick to the plan, or we might leave them in the city!
