waveland at 6am, facing wrigley field

waveland at 6am, facing wrigley field
Originally uploaded by faithful nomad.

i'm suddenly kind of homesick today. it's not something i get a lot, obviously. we've established that i like to wander. i once warned someone special, "be sure you mean it when you invite me to do something. i can be counted on to leave the country."

this picture is from my apartment one cold morning, one absolutely nondescript day before getting in my car on the way to work.

today's been stinking wierd. nothing seems to work, no ideas are good, everyone's on edge, we're getting discouraged. this is the first time we've all felt our feet dragging. i know mine sure are, but it's because i've been ordered to RE-BRAND EVERYTHING. this project i've been working on for months? that i killed myself for over that grant proposal? we're throwing out the entire thing. it's "too old" or "too... something." vague direction is a wrench in my machine.

i want to walk into this picture today, into a cold harsh morning and walk around the block. i'm feeling a little trapped without a car. i have a better sense of direction than anyone else in the house, so going anywhere with anyone takes at least thirty minutes in each direction. we're talking about going to the grocery store, here.

i want to walk into this picture and sit on the dirty curb and wince as the stench of last night's beer wafts over from Casey Moran's on clark street. i want to walk in front of my church and resist the urge to let myself in and pray by myself in the empty sanctuary, an impluse i have to kill every time i go near it. i want to see my pastors, i want to have coffee with Aimee and Katie at Uncommon Ground. i'm at barnes and noble right now, but i could be absolutely anywhere. i want to be with jeff and effie, hugging them because i just found out my cousin and his wife are going to BE PARENTS! i should call my nana and papa.

i'll be here until i solve this rebranding thing... they close at eleven, right? great.

best day thus far

so today was amazing. my mom and i had a great talk, i felt like we really understood each other and that's not always a guaranteed thing. i have seriously different views from the rest of my family regarding religion and ways to be peaceful, and today we totally connected. so that had me in a good mood for the rest of the day.

the whole house took it pretty easy for the morning, then gary and i went downtown for church around 3pm. this was our second time going and i think we're going to make a thing out of it. it's just so relaxing, we drive into the city and talk about God the whole way down, just sharing things we've learned along the way. we've met a few kids at church already, so it's nice to see them on sunday afternoon, and after the service we wander boston a bit before heading home.

this week we came straight home afterwards and had a little concert in the living room - a band called Gretel that was comprised of some friends of the second floor girls. it was kind of tori-amos-feeling music, two girls and a guy. they stuck around for a bit, owen and i scooted out to pick up some panera, and when we got back everyone had cleared out, so he and i had dinner and watched a movie. i slept on the loveseat in the living room, which is becoming more and more common as the temperature rises :) it's beyond a feasible sleeping temperature in the third floor rooms, as far as i'm concerned. let ashlee have that king-size bed to herself.

gary makes fun of me b/c he leaves for work around 5am and has seen me there, limbs askew. apparently my feet were up in the air? interesting.

newport

newport harbor
Originally uploaded by faithful nomad.

rhode island is neither a road, nor an island. discuss.

we were talking about a group day off, but couldn't help ourselves. we had a minor fiasco trying to get out there, that ended up renting a car at a reduced rate by promising the Enterprise Rent-A-Car manager that Ashlee would take him to the premiere as her date. hmmmmm.

but we got out there, and it was the most charming beach town i've seen in a long time. tons of little high priced boutiques and cafes, and a nice beach. the homes were the biggest i've ever seen, and with my being from Wilmette, that's saying something :) we saw some mansions, schools, and cliffs. then we hit a Guster show and for the first time this summer i did the concert PR thing. we just stood around asking people if they were Dispatch fans and if we found some i lept into a big speech about the movie and how they should come. then in the middle of this scene i get a text message from my mom telling me that my cousin's wife is pregnant! so i'm handing out fliers and wiping my little happy-tears and people thought i was just nuts (in a fun way, i think).

after the concert we got pizza at a local joint and met a woman named Anna who was waiting for her dinner too - so we invited her to sit with us and it turned out she works with a not for profit that takes at-risk kids and sets them up in a photography class - some of the kids she worked with have only gone on to college because she facilitated a place where they could feel a little freedom to express themselves! we traded stories, told her about africa, and you know, made a friend. she was cool.

we got back late, and i totally slept on the couch. that fan upstairs just wasn't cutting it.

BLANK project

i got the BLANK book today... everyone's very excited. check it out here: www.madmadmad.com/blank

i met steve, the facilitator, when i was being shredded on a design forum for publicly stating that in the last election, i didn't vote. i'll be the first to admit that it was an asshole move. but i have my reasons. not going to get into it here.

the point is that Steve reached out to me when i was about ready to burst into tears at work, just wrote me a two line email, and we have this cool thing where we just think each other are cool. and that's it. we email back and forth, maybe i'll make it to ohio for the party when the BLANK project is done, but what if i can't? i don't know if steve and i will ever meet face to face. it's the beauty of the internet and Speak Up. anyway, i have the traveling masterpiece and i hope i can do it justice. i picked up a few magazines to make a collage, and hopefully it will be pretty nifty. sometimes i can pull off being extra-special creative...

the motley crew

the crew
Originally uploaded by faithful nomad.

this was taken a while ago, but is a great group shot. names around the table, starting with the bottom left:
bryan, willhelm, evan, two of evan's friends, sarah, will, eric, another friend of evan's, ashlee (my roommate), ryan ("colorado sly"), and insane shane. the guy off to the left in the background is gary, and not pictured are owen and the girls from the second floor. this place rocks.

banana break

banana break
Originally uploaded by faithful nomad.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DADDY
LOVE YOU

double lives

in my dayplanner i have things written in there from six months ago that WOULD have happened this week, but since i'm on the east coast, they're happening without me.

13th: neocon with tracy and ashley.
16th: AIGA Chicago member's meeting.
18th: block party at Edison Park. i was going to paint faces.

wierd, wierd, wierd. all the places i could be right now... i have such faith in my walking with God, that i'm being led. richard stine said: You are where you should be, doing what you should be; else you'd be somewhere else, doing something else. i have total faith that this is where i should be. usually i feel like wherever i'm not is like a ghost town, like i'm unaware of what's there. but today i am aware, and it's funny to me.

the lovely couple

the lovely couple
Originally uploaded by faithful nomad.

so this is the best "how we met" story: at our cousin tommy's wedding, my nana introduced my cousin andi to the bride's brother. we were all like, "oh, nice, they're having a good chat." eyebrows were raised when they were still chatting a few hours later. when andi left chicago to visit st. louis two weeks later they raised some more. when she moved in with johnny, they lowered and we smiled at the divine providence that led to nana rose connecting two beautiful souls.

look who's married! today we had a beautiful wedding. everything was perfect. i had a bit of a whirlwind going on - i came from boston yesterday and i go back tomorrow - but for as for today, there is a cinematic blur unfolding that has bright spots of babies, grandparents, and the occasional shot of tequila.

i took over two hundred pictures. check out some of them by clicking on the photo :)

freebies for the kids

300x250
Originally uploaded by faithful nomad.

here's what i do during the day! i make a lot of things, some of which are things that people can use to litter other websites. if you want any of it, email me and i'll send you some web banners.

TEAM DISPATCH

TEAM DISPATCH
Originally uploaded by faithful nomad.

today we walked a 10k for AIDS Walk Boston. our team raised a total of $640! big THANK YOU goes to my parents, my grandparents, my nana rose, and my aunt cindy, who all helped me come up with $115 of it. my family's generosity is unceasing and i'm very grateful for it.

everyone was kind of wiped out afterwards - we were passing out Foundations Records CDs while we walked, so i met a TON of cool folks and heard a lot of good stories. i told people about Zimbabwe, the Elias Fund, and Dispatch, and many of the people i met told me about their siblings, parents, or lovers that they had lost. the CDs were a great icebreaker, and i'm a sucker for a heartfelt story. cool to hear so many.

after sitting around for a couple hours and hanging out, we swung into action for another barbeque in the evening, this one for our team and for Dispatch fans that came to walk with us. the second floor kids came along too - we love the open door policy!

[insert three's company theme song here]

the sun sets
Originally uploaded by faithful nomad.

as i've mentioned, the second floor has its own home and life. there are three girls and one guy that live up there, and tonight we had our first home cookin BBQ house party.

we have: BETHANY, a rocker who has a few piercings and very very short hair, who has a the most beautiful smile and soul. KATIE is a lovely redhead whose singing voice is breathy and sweet. ANNA manages musicians, she's very warm and easy to talk to. GARY is a nice fella from west virginia (awesome accent).

after the backyard fun, we had a major jam session in the living room with Katie, Bethany, and Owen. IT WAS AMAZING -- this is why i came out here. we're a bunch of hippies and we're playing music and having late night dinner. this is seriously how i pictured it :)

introduction to boston

government mule at fleet pavilion
Originally uploaded by faithful nomad.

tonight we had row twelve seats at the Fleet Pavilion, courtesy of Xavier Rudd, whose CD samplers we had to lug around all day. but it was totally worth it. after getting to check out the back-end of the Fleet and meeting a couple people (like Dispatch's former manager), we got to chill right up front for one of the best concerts i've been to in years.

shane, matt, bryan and i started out with dinner at this sweet little restaurant right on the waterfront. side note - on the way we passed the NO NAME restaurant. the only time i've been in boston before was when i was eight and we went to the "No Name." during that meal, my dad had lobster and for the first time i was exposed to the way in which people eat that kind of meal, and to this day i won't eat seafood of any kind. this was back when i wanted to be a vet and from what i'm told, i literally turned green when i saw what he was doing to that poor beast. ANYWAY

opening at this concert was Xavier Rudd, whose voice sounds a little Dave Matthews-ish, but this kid is a one-man show with TWO DIGGERY DOOS, a snare drum, and a box that he kicks. he does all these things at once and it's unbelievable. then you realize that he's CIRCULAR BREATHING, like in the nose and out the mouth at the SAME TIME. he was very cool, i keep describing him as "a rather floppy kind of kid," like between his dreadlocked hair and bare feet, he seemed like he would be a great guy to give you a hug.

after Xavier Rudd was Robert Randolph and Government Mule, both of which i'd never heard of but loved. Gov't Mule is very much like Grateful Dead, and Randolph... nothing to compare him to. the energy of that guy was fantastic. he just rocked out, the band was changing instruments mid-song, people were coming on stage to dance, and there was one song for "just the ladies" where all the women went up there and had some fun. all in all, great show, great night.

...not at home to hug you myself

overlooking florence
Originally uploaded by faithful nomad.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM
LOVE YOU