Last week I had the opportunity to speak about my book to a group of senior citizens at a local church. It was my first “real” speaking engagement. I have never liked speaking in front of groups generally… …although I have no problem wearing spandex-y workout clothes and a microphone headset while I sweatily teach cycling to large groups of people, go figure… …oh, and I did earn a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education, something that involves speaking in front of large groups, and taught second graders every Sunday for fourteen years, whatever… …but I really don’t like being in front of lots of people. Anyway, I was pretty excited…
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Reestablishing Chicago As The House Music Capital of the World
I had a conversation on Facebook yesterday that made me positively giddy. I was in a back-and-forth with my friend who you might remember: Jane the Phoole from the Bristol Renaissance (Ren-AY-sance) Faire. One of the things I adore about “Jane” is that she may spend her summer days dressed up in 16th century chic, but she spends her nights listening to House music, which is SO NOT 16th century. The juxtaposition of Jane’s (whose real name is Ann) Facebook statuses cracks me up on a regular basis, because how funny is it to see that one day during Ren Faire season she’s posting something like this: “Join Jane the…
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I Died At The Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Seriously.
I had a fantastic birthday weekend. Jim whisked me away to the city for a show and an overnight stay. When we came home, my sister presented me with the best birthday cake EVER, which you need to check out before you go any further because ohmygodyoujusthavetoseeit. Click here, and then come back. I’ll wait. I bet you’re wondering about the title of this post. Believe it or not, it’s totally true! How many people can say they made their stage debut dying at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, especially if they have never had any desire whatsoever to be on stage at all? (Good question, right? I’ll Google it later.)…
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Yoga On (Okay, NEAR) The Ledge!
One of the privileges of being a Skydeck Chicago Ambassador this summer was the ability to come up with a one-of-a-kind event to put on in the space on the 103rd floor of Willis (formerly Sears) Tower. We ambassadors started with clean slates, and could basically present any idea we wanted to the PR team and management of Skydeck Chicago for approval. For me, incorporating a workout was a no-brainer, because I love fitness and especially because Skydeck Chicago has nothing to do with fitness. I thought that mixing up the two worlds would be interesting and fun. Of course, I couldn’t exactly arrange to teach a cycling class up…
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Analyze This: The Doors and Windows Question
One of the things I’ve learned over the past six weeks in regards to myself as a “photographer” (I have to put that in quotes; I’m not sure why.) is that I really, really enjoy taking photographs of doors and windows. Open or closed, it doesn’t matter. Plain or decorated, it doesn’t matter. What does that say about me as a person? I’m certain that there is some special meaning hidden somewhere; it probably tells something about my personality. Hey Holger, what are you doing there? An “expert” might say that I like to look for other ways of doing things. Or that I am the type of person who…