Cold Weather Realizations

First snow December 2009

Since this is my second winter in Chicago, I thought I would share my cold weather realizations with my friends from the south. Some of these I really didn't know until I moved here.

1) The only thing worse than a slow person walking in front of you in 7 degree weather, is 2 slow people walking in front of you in 7 degree weather.

2) In case I haven't mentioned it here before, I realized when I moved here that boogers and eye mucous CAN freeze.

3) How does a vegan live in a cold climate? All the warm stuff includes: down, wool, angora, leather. I guess they fleece it up. I have never seen a dressy fleece though....

4) Chicagoans think that setting their thermostat to 65-68 in the winter and the summer is ok. Totally NOT ok.

5) Snow really does glisten :)

6) My dog has excellent slush vision. I will see snow and step on it only to find out its a layer of snow covering a puddle of water. Mona however does not have this problem. She can tell it's slush from 20 feet away. If I could only bring Mona to work in the mornings. Of course slush won't be here again until April or May, as its completely turned to ice now.

7) Shoveling snow is a daily activity here for anyone who owns a house or car. If they miss a day, you will surely hear about it. People have to keep a shovel in their car. And I hear that if you shovel out a parking space then there is a rule about placing a piece of furniture there to hold the space until you return. If you shovel it, its yours. I, of course, do not have this problem as I own nothing except the items in my apartment.

8) It is possible for your car to be ice enclosed, leaving you stranded without a car.

9) Main roadways are completely snow free, but still white in the winter due to the salt. And salt ruins shoes and pant hems. Alley ways are full of snow and look like Narnia. I prefer them!

10) It gets A LOT colder after it snows

11) No matter how many days in a row you see snow falling, its always beautiful.

Looking for a book

So at the end of work today we started talking about different countries, cultures, ethnicities and races. All very confusing stuff for me. I have been discussing this topic with many Americans since my freshman year in college.

I was saying that I knew a Guatemalan girl who looked Asian, but did not claim Asia whatsoever as a nationality, race or heritage. She was born and raised in Guatamala, her mother tongue is Spanish and she participates in Guatemalan culture. A co-worker said Asian is her "ethnicity." And I had to ask myself once again "What is ethnicity?" Or do I even know what that means? Does a person decide what their ethnicity is? Or do people decide the ethnicity of someone based on they way they look and if so is this what "race" is? I am not sure myself.

A couple of other examples:

I worked with a girl from Jamaica and she said people would always refer to her as "African American" and she didn't like it because she wasn't American, she was Jamaican. So is her ethnicity African even though she identifies with Jamaican Culture?

Friends from Spain were here filling out paper work which asked their race/ethnicity and she asked me "Do I check caucasian? or Do I check hispanic? She is whiter than me (as most Spaniards are, even though people do not believe me) and she speaks Spanish but it is not her mother tongue. If you google ethnic groups of Spain they list Basque, Catalan, Galician, etc. So within each country there ethnic groups that Americans don't even refer to. Hi Anna!

What race/ethnicity are people from Brazil? I know they have a lot of ethnicities within their own country. But to the American, what ethnicity is a Brazilian? The national language is portugeuse, they have many natives (indigenous), blacks, and are surrounded by a largely (hispanic?) population. I put a question mark next to hispanic, because what is Hispanic? I think that Brazilians living in American are often referred to as "Latino" or "Hispanic" but I think this may be incorrect as they do not speak Spanish and their ancestors are not from Spain.

What is my race/ethnicity? My great Aunt has a family tree/recipe book that says my great great great grandfather is Moroccan. My dad's family comes from Poland, France, Ireland, and Russia. But those are all nationalities...can they be ethnicities too? Or can I reach further and have an ethnicity from all the Countries listed? Or since I don't identify with those countries, am I without Ethnicity? Is my ethnicity "American" because I largely identify with American culture? Or is it just my nationality?

What about natives from Mexico that don't speak Spanish but rather the Indigenous languages such as Nahuatl. Are they Hispanic? Language lesson: Nahuatl is the language where words like "Chipotle" and names like "Xochitl" come from. NO Chipotle is NOT Spanish.

Anywho, if anyone knows a good book they can recommend, send it my way. The web is no help. I need something serious, not just blogs. This is one giant question and not intended to hurt anyone. I don't have sited sources, and this is not a literary masterpiece...just my own random questions.

Thanks for reading. Crafting to come.

Celebrity encounters

Another memory entry! I never thought I would be interested in celebrity sitings...but its pretty fun. Shallow post...I know! But I saw the following celebrities during my 2 year stay in LA:

1) Robert Downey Jr. at the Rose cafe in Santa Monica.

2) Orlando Bloom at Runyon Canyon

3) Skipper from Sex and the City on Abbot Kinney

4) Joshua Jackson on Abbot Kinney

5) Jamie Lee Curtis at Euro Grocery Market

6) David Spade on Abbot Kinney

7) Dog the Bounty Hunter + Wife on Venice Boardwalk

8) Cheryl Hines on Santa Monica Promenade

9) Chris Klein at French Market Cafe in Venice

10) Owen Wilson on Abbot Kinney\

*Updated (Thanks Alicia)

11) Nathan from Heroes at a play he directed at the Geffen in which Justin's uncle and friend were doing the set design. I actually met Nathan (aka Adrian Pasdar) but he was kind of a douche.

12) Umm... if it counts, I went to a screening of Hot Fuzz at the Hammer Museum and Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and the director had a Q&A.

13) Also if it counts, one of our clients was Thom Beers (director of all things History/Discovery Channel) and I helped in turning the famous "Monster Garage" into editing bays.

14) Oh yes, I attended High School with Michael from Barney.

Man shallow posts are fun!!!!

I'm sure there are more so I will update this post as I remember them. Anyone else have celebrity sitings?

Oooh....I also saw Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, and bumped into Woody Harelson (he is short) all on the same night at Martini Ranch in Dallas.

6 Degrees of Eliza

So today at lunch I checked my blog reader and Dooce.com had posted something she ordered from Loobylu off etsy . My friend Kayla sent me Loobylu's blog awhile ago. The content of these two blogs are unrelated. And while I know that everyone these days shops on Etsy.com, Loobylu only has 49 feedback responses so its not a HUGE store (a very good one though). And Dooce resides in the States and Loobylu in Australia. So it got me thinking "That.... that is weird." This seems to happen a lot, where paths crossover. Most of the time its interest related and due to small town encounters, but here are my 6 degrees of Eliza (if you don't have time to read it all, at least read #6, I saved the best for last):

1) I had P.E. with a girl named Angie in Jr. High. She was super nice and we used to be lazy together during class. We went to high school together too, but we didn't talk or hang out. My sophomore year of College I am hanging out with some friends and then Angie shows up. We became good friends again. At the time I was also dating a guy named Conan, and Conan and Angie knew each other too. THEN....Angie's friend, Ann, lives literally 2 houses down from my Dad.

2) I was a girl scout for 10 years (ages 8-18). I didn't make a lot of close friends in my troop. And those last 4 years or so (embarrassed to be a girl scout in high school) we didn't have troop meetings. But right before we all went off to college, the 4 girl scouts remaining, have dinner and go around the table to say where we are going to college and what we are going to study. I said "UTA and architecture" and so did Alicia. We had all of our classes together and we became best friends and roommates. Funny it took 10 years!

3) Went to college with a girl named Ginny. She was from Cleburne. And my half sister, that I did not grow up with, also lived in Cleburne so I thought I would check. Yep turns out Ginny is good friends with my half-sister's brother.

4) Met my current boyfriend, Justin, at my first job in Dallas. He also went to the same university as me but I didn't know it until we started working together. Found out he was friends with Marcus, who I had a sustainability class with. Moved to LA to live with Justin and Marcus, find out Marcus and I graduated at the same high school together.

5) The only 2 authors whose whole collection of work that I own are: David Sedaris and Jhumpa Lahiri. Their writing has nothing in common. I come across a commentary by David Sedaris stating that one of his favorite writers is Jhumpa Lahiri. The are both incredible and wildly famous, no suprise there, but # 6 is WILD...

6) During my first job in Dallas I enter a competition. I need help learning about Sao Paulo so I contact a professor, Jessie Marshall, because she is a knower of all things South American. She tells me to call Eurico Franscisco. I meet up with Eurico Franscisco at his very large office of RTKL architects. He is incredibly interesting, gives me a fabulous book and tells me he knows my boss Jorge Gonzales. Fine...dandy...this is all in the same city. THEN...I move out to LA, work for 2 years and tell my LA boss, David Reddy, that I am moving to Chicago. David's wife, Betty, works for Westfield and sets me up with an Interview in Chicago. I get to Chicago, have my interview with a guy named Mike. Mike says he worked for RTKL in Dallas. The ONLY person I know that worked at RTKL is Eurico Francisco, so I say "The only person I know from there is Eurico Franscisco and he gave me a great book." Mike in Chicago says to me "You mean that book that's right behind you?" I turn around and there is the book! THEN he tells me that Eurico is in Chicago on business that very day and that they are having dinner together that night. HOW WILD IS THAT? From school, to Dallas, to LA, to Chicago. Whew...

Anyway I doubt that anyone read all of this post. But I think from time to time I will use my blog space to record memories, even if it bores you all. I think its great, you can't lose your blog like a piece of paper, the ink never fades and you can access it from anywhere. If you have any six degrees of separation stories I would love to hear them. They are fun and hard to follow, kind of like word problems.

Realizations

Since I have been absent I figured I throw some realizations in here (I'll start bitter and end optimistic):

1) Why is it that only American women are pickpocketed? In Europe the only people you ever hear screaming after their bag are American women. Come on ladies!!! Protect those bags!

2)Wanna know what makes a city a great? Pedestrian only streets. There is an art festival outside my apartment this weekend. They have shut the street down and I wonder why it can't be like this everyday?

3) Earlier this week something died in our elevator and was really smelly. Today it smelled like a hair perm!

4) Why is it that America loves to watch people dancing, but they don't like to dance themselves? Come on and shake your booty on the dance floor!

5) I thank the people who don't follow the rules of fall clothing colors, I saw a woman the other day wearing a magenta coat and carrying a bright green umbrella. She stood out from all the blah neutrals like myself and made everything seem so beautiful and surreal.

6) I am a season ticket holder of the Joffrey Ballet this season!!!!

7) I owe my desire to learn to crochet to Amanda Hutt and possibly a random girl crocheting on a bus in Turkey.

8) Yoga really works for stress.

9) The easiest 3 miles you will ever run is when there is a show choir performing on the sidelines.

10) My dog has super cute toes! See photo!

Elizabeth Stewart

I really am becoming a serious homemaker. Today I crocheted, hemmed my clothes and justin's clothes, made some banana bread and cleaned the house. If only I could get paid to do all these things *sigh* I have to go to work tomorrow.

Riding to work with Doogie Houser

Everyday I walk to the corner of Belmont and Broadway and take either the bus to another bus or the bus to the train. I've noticed that when I take each route I see the same people. I guess that is what happens when you take public transit. When I take the bus to another bus there are a few characters on my first leg. 1) A short blonde girl who carries her lunch in various department store bags 2) A nanny who takes a 5 year old girl to school 3) A french lady who has the cutest 3 year old on the planet. 4) My bus driver who is super friendly. The second leg of that same trip which is approximately 3 miles north of where I live includes: 1) A philipino girl that goes to high school and 2) DOOGIE HOUSER.

These characters never cross over on their routes until today...

Today I took the bus/train trip. The only character that is consistent on the train is a girl I have never spoken to that we will refer to as "Linda." Linda lives in my neighborhood, and we might be neighbors because I see her walk her dog some mornings. And she works across the street from me. We exchange smiles but thats about it. BUT TODAY....Doogie Houser was on my train. What in the world? I figured he lived 3 miles north of me, but now I am not so sure. I say "Doogie" because he looks like the younger Neil Patrick Harris. Anywho. Doogie sat in front of me on the train. Maybe because he is not used to the train and felt more comfortable sitting next to a familiar face. That or he is stalking me.

There is another girl on my floor, Elisha, who used to leave at the exact same time as me in the mornings. We would take the elevator down together and walk to the same bus, but it was so akward that we would walk about 2 feet apart and never sit by each other on the bus. Once I sat by her and started the small talk, but after the small talk we were left with yet another awkward silence. I see her on the weekends sometimes, but never on the way to the bus anymore. Maybe she adjusted her schedule to avoid those awkard moments.

Isn't it weird though? I see these people everyday, but I do not know them. Elisha, Linda, and Doogie are all my age but we are at that age that you can't just talk to some random person and become their friend. It's kind of sad because I think they could make good friends. Elisha has carries a fun orange purse, Linda has fun shoes, and Doogie looks like he might have a couple of good jokes. How does one make friends at 28?

Got the Gerd

Went to the doctor today, my wheeze has been attributed to GERD. I thought I was eating "healthier" but among the foods to avoid is tomatos and mint and I used 7 tomatos, garlic and fresh mint for a sauce last night. Who knew? Well at least I can't be blamed for getting my co-workers sick. I'm thinking of trying chiropractic care, because amazingly, my new insurance covers it partially and I can't imagine taking prilosec for 2 months. Anyone have any opinions on that? Marilen, David, you should ask Melissa for me.

June Gloom

Sorry for the double post. But its been gloomy lately. Ok we had some sun this past weekend, but besides that it has been rainy and cold. Today in the 40's. It's June and in the 40's. So I remembered the term "June Gloom" from when I was in LA. I googled it, thinking this may be a typical occurence everywhere except Texas. But wiki confirms its a 'Cali' thing. Well the Wiki article ends like this....June Gloom has been reported by some Californians to bring on symptoms consistent with seasonal affective disorder. It is often cited as a time of depression.

Are you kidding me? Come on Californians...you have 186 days of sun a year, that's more than half the year. I remember wishing for rain when I lived there. But I seriously think I have the seasonal affective disorder, simply because Los Angeles spoiled me with sun.

Elbow Sleigh

Elbow Sleigh Definition: The act of grabbing another's elbows and saying "hi-ya."

Commonly used during long walks with other people, when one feels as if they cannot walk further and must be dragged by another person.

Back to life... back to reality

Yesiree Bob! I am done with that stinkin' competition. Now for a 2 week wait , to see if I won. I can actually have a weekend this weekend. I already made plans! Yay! Let's just hope it doesn't rain. I am looking forward to doing some targeting and joann fabriking soon too. So be on the look out for a craftier Eliza. Sorry for having such a boring blog lately.

Spin

So I had to drop off exit diagrams that my office drew for the bar we designed, now that they are officially open. Earlier today the Owner said I could leave them with the bartender. So I arrived at 4:45 and the music was already loud. I approached the bartender explaining who I was and what was enclosed in the envelope I slid across the counter. He gave me the strangest look and said "excuse me?" I repeated myself. Again he said "I'm sorry, I didn't hear you." This went on a couple more times before he noticed the owners name on the envelope. But it left me thinking...I have never been into a bar where a bartender couldn't hear me. Aren't bartenders supposed to have superpower hearing ? I guess the superpower hearing only works for words like "Budweiser" and "Vodka Tonic."

My name is Elizabeth and I'm a weirdy

I apologize to the sqeamish amongst us. But I can't help it. The above, is a hair stuck to the wall in my bathroom, its been there for months. I leave it there because it looks like a woman in a headdress wearing a clinical mask. Does it not? I really like when random things take shape into something. Maybe its just my imagination. But I'm sure you have had the same experience with clouds.

Oh Deary!

So I just realized that my blog name is shared with that of a mega bible site. I don't like competing with something like that. I might be looking into changing the name. I just thought, ok my name + the end of creation and realization (thoughts) because I create things and think. And believe it or not, it took me forever to come up with that. Which is one reason I didn't start a blog for so long. Hmm...any suggestions?

Well, I think I came across that mega bible site for a reason. A prayer is definitely in order for one of my friends and her family who are just having a really rough month.

Don't Stop Believin'

Yeah well I was going to bed, but then Dooce's blog mentioned Journey and it made me miss LA. While living in LA, I would sigh every time Journey's most famous song came on, for some reason they play it EVERYWHERE. No kidding. Well its about time for some Journey. We could all use a little bit of that song these days. So I would like to dedicate this song to first and foremost Kayla and you know why. And secondly, to all those out there who have lost their jobs or may be losing them. Thirdly, to Justin, who I am sure believes Ramona the beagle will never grow out of her bad habits. Fourthly (is there ever a fourthly?), to all those in Chicago who believe summer will never come. And lastly, to those Angelenos that sing this tune daily.

A message from your small town girl, living in a lonely world....

Im ouuut.

umm yeah

I don't always wear the same clothes...I just happened to photograph all this stuff on the same day. But I really do love that shirt...I got it at buffalo exchange for 5 buckaroos.