b&b and r&r

city life is demanding and overwhelming and once in a while you just need to put the break on. away from friends, phones, internet, tv, and jobs. away form the 100 some odd things we feel compelled to do every day and if we don’t we feel unproductive. getting away is far more then a breath of fresh air, it’s good for the sole.

k and i made a break for it to celebrate our three year anniversary. just a quick two day break and then back to work. i did the planning this year and as we sat in bumper to bumper traffic trying to get out of the city on a holiday weekend, my best friend of three years was unaware of where the day would take us. now im bad at surprises, i get to excited and want to spill the beans and i was bouncing with anticipation.

now i must thank my amazing parents for letting us barrow a car. unlike the first time our car was stole then found, this time around it is yet to be found.

soon the city was far behind us (well not sooo soon with all the traffic) and when we took our exit off of 57 i felt as if i had arrived in another world. farm land of corn and soy as far as the eye can see. yes sadly i am sure that most of it was gmo’s of monsanto or something or other (90% of soy grown in the illinois are) but that did not stop me from enjoying the view and feeling a sense of calmness.

our destination for the evening was the greenhouse bed and breakfast in kempton, il. now i had never been a guest at a b&b and did not quite now what to expect and if you know me you would know that i always need to make things interesting. the green house is not your average b&b but an organic permaculture b&b. lots of people that come to stay come and learn about permaculture from mark who for a long time was involved with csa and is an organic farmer and bee keeper. i found him to be extremely knowledgeable, open, sharing, and very hospitable. in fact guia and mark are remarkable people and a joy to be around. both talented gardeners and guia is trained in culinary arts.    

i came to know about the greenhouse through mama be joy. she gets her beeswax for her organic skin care business from them. 

the day found us pulling into the drive way at about four pm. we were greeted by some very cute and happy doggies and some squawking chickens. i must say again that these dogs were so happy. they had the life, not a care in the world! i became very attached to the 8 month old puppy pixie. she had spent most the time we were there fallowing me around and wanting to play and be petted. in fact when we were leaving guia asked me jokingly if i wanted to take her with!

the next thing we did was ask mark for a tour of the house, garden, orchard, chickens (and 1 month old babies), well everything. did i mention they have guineas? i had never seen one before!

then k and i proceeded to lay lazily in a hammock with books but not really reading. the sun was shining in our faces and the trees were filed with singing birds and i relaxed and was at peace. when was the last time i laid in the sun and read? i need to do it more often!

around seven guia called us in for a amazing home cooked meal with veggies grown in their yard. for desert we had berries, most from their yard, with vegan sour cream. the flavors were fresh and it tasted like summer. after dinner k and i sat on the front porch and watched the sunset over the farm land through the flower garden. next we laid in bed with our books and waited for the stars to come out.

come out and shine that night they did. mark armed us with cups of tea and a bowl of popcorn and we sat on the back porch wrapped in a blanket. it was nearly a new moon and not a cloud in the sky. the stars were bright and crisp each constellation could be made out and we could even clearly see the milky way. you don’t get stars like this in chicago. the fireflies came out and did a little dance like they were from the nutcracker and pixie could be heard running through the tall grass and barking a cows.

we slept well that night.

in the morning guia fixed us a amazing breakfast and packed up our lunches for us. i purchased some honey from mark and k laid in the hammock for one last time. sadly it was time to go.

the next part of your anniversary adventure was about to start. after a forty five min drive we pulled up to reed’s canon rentals  where we were loaded into a van with the two kayaks we had rented and were dropped off at the kankakee river. our twelve mile trip would take us through kankakee state park on the river. this so happened to be some of the cleanest water in il!

we took our time and starched our trip out to be about five hours on the water. we made frequent stops and explored Indian caves, picnicked and ate the amazing lunches guia had prepared for us, and most importantly spent time with each other. the kankakee for most part is a very clam river and at points we stopped peddling healed hands and gently floated. it was peaceful and dragonflies and butterflies danced on our kayaks.

this trip made thankful for my life and the people in it. it made me thankful for my relationship with k and the three beautiful years we have shared together. he is my best friend. we work hard and we may not make a lot of money but we have a lot of love and know how to have a good time.        

World Naked Bike Ride

WARNING: THIS BLOG WILL CONTAIN IMAGES OF NAKED PEOPLE

my dear friends i finally had the pleasure of  riding my bike naked through the streets of Chicago, well almost naked…. i did wear my little hot yoga shorts. i was surprised how many people were all out nude… mainly men!

so the entire point of the world naked bike ride  is to promote independence from oil and positive body image. on our 3 ½ hour, 14 mile, ride through the city (yes including michigan ave) we hit up and protested at two bp stations. i find this very fitting given the current situation.

 the mail slogans chanted in this years ride were “ less gas more ass” , “ im nude but im not crude” or right and then there was the all out right “fuck bp”.  i found it interesting how people stuck in cars of traffic were trying to high five rides. we drew huge crowds, people running out of bars and clubs and gathering on the streets, people on mich ave coming out of posh restaurants and shops. for the most part people were cheering us on and chanting with us.

until about half way through the ride when we stopped at oz park did i look around and say to my friends oh man there are a lot of naked people here! it’s kida interesting being naked in such a large group of people, it’s not sexual and you defiantly forget that your naked, or that that’s not normal anyways. you start to feel very comfortable being naked with a large group of naked people.

 

this is a video of me getting my back painted

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU_BKcFfMzc

try that link if the embedded video is not working

this video is taken near the end of the ride. we stopped and blocked the 6 way intersection of north, milwaukee, and damen in wicker park. needless to say a very traffic heavy area on a saturday night. people started picking their bikes up over their heads and dancing. i was surrounded by naked dancing people with bikes over their heads... naked dancing people far as the eye can see. it was quite amazing.

  and the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBNjUOgk8zE

sky

we chicagoans have been privy to some rather intense weather lately… go figure its chicago right? last friday we had winds so strong the blew out windows on the sears tower (no i will not call it willis that’s just stupid)  . really 77mph winds? i was out riding my bike in that.

well that might be the reason i started coming down with a pretty bad could the fallowing day. then i got k sick. so last night we were both in our pj’s, eating thai food, drinking herbal tee like some cute old couple or something, well minus the pile of tissues.

about half and hour before sunset the rain broke and we had the most amazing sky i have ever seen in chicago. i mean this sky would make a texas sky and a washington sky jealous. k and i ran down stairs and sat on the front stoop, pj’s and cups of tea and all. surprisingly the thick heat had not broken even after the storm. the images i took and that i am lovingly sharing with you do not do justice.

 

32 miles and counting

i must sincerely apologize for the lack of boggling lately. since the start of my new second job at rei i have had two days off. the first was when k and i photographed a wedding for our friends. well i mean it was there wedding. the other day off was my fathers 50^th birthday party. i believe that it was the best birthday party ever and it lasted from 11am to 5pm. i still can’t believe that my father is actually 50. i never ever want my parents to get old. they remain youthful and extremely active and i look up to them so much.

this last sunday, my parents, a few of their friends, k and i all participated in bike the drive. they close off lake shore drive and allow bikers to ride on it. you start at jackson and ride north till the end of lsd, turn around and ride south till the museum of science and industry, then back north to jackson. i believe the entire trip is 32 miles.

i ride a bike most days and k rides up to work in evanston and back most days. however, we don’t usually do long distances. we were not at all tired of riding after the 32 miles and would have loved to keep going. the major restriction was that i needed to be showered clean and at work ready to go by 11am. we were both a little surprised how easily we rode the 32 miles. i was also a bit taken back a how much i enjoyed it. yes of course it was insatiably beautiful to be on lsd early in the morning and watch the sun come up over lake shore drive. but what i enjoyed the most (well besides being with my family) was not having stops light and cars. i felt like i actually got stretch my legs and ride! non stop and at a desent speed and for a girl that does 99% of her bike riding in a urban city that was quite a treat.

i believe that my dad and i will do the ride for awareness again this year but i would also like to do the 62 mile boulevard ride  the late night and will and i are planning to ride for world naked bike ride. i don’t really know why i don’t participate in critical mass but I really should start. in addition i really would not mind doing some light racing. my mother is about to do her first min tri at age 45! i forget how much she needs to swim but she needs to run 3.5 miles and bike 15. not to bad. i have just re-picked up swimming. i have a pool in my building and last year i didn’t use it a single time! what a waste! this year i am doing laps.

in addition i have always been opposed to the idea of running as a sport. so much impact on the knees especially when swimming and cycling when done right are no impact on the body. besides it had always been one of my least favorite things to so ever. i would like to give it a second chance. i live right next to the lake shore path which would be great to run on and in have treadmills in the work out room of my building for the winter. who knows maybe next year i can do a tri with my mom? Maybe even the chicago marathon? i had always wanted to do something like that but never thought i could, well now im beginning to think that i totally could.

to keep this up i want to go kayaking like no other! k and i have not been in a long time and i really don’t want to go on the chicago rive again. it smells! however, i don’t really know where else to go kayaking. we usually go out to washington/ oregan for an extended time in the summer and do all kinds of amazing things and camp but that will not happen this year due to our jobs. it breaks my heart and makes me what to scream we are going to go for a few days at the end of next month for a friends wedding and i am really hoping that we get to go rafting at least one time.

at rei i work in footwear and have been helping a lot of people with boots for hiking trips. these trips sound amazing! i have never done more then a day hike, i have never been back packing and i really really want to. i would love to camp in the red woods for a few days and im hoping k and i could make that happened soon. also, i am scuba certified and k is about to take certificating classes. we for a while have talked about going to Costa Rica. k went there with friends when he was younger. i have been many tropical places but not there. well we can go diving for a few days and then go hiking in the cloud forest. i really want to do that.

also after a long break i have once again returned to my obsession to bikram yoga. i am considering participating in the il state asana championships this year. however they don’t know when it will be yet this year. the reason i want to do it is all the extra training. last year my yoga studio did competition traing twice a week after the regular class. I think that extra training would really help me go deeper in my practice.

the main point is that im just trying to be healthy. i have always had a horrific immune system and i feel as if i am finally starting to strengthen it. i feel like i can do things i ever thought i could do before and that is just empowering.

True Love

true love is riding my salsa casserole down quiet side streets late at night in a light rain. i ride these roads so often that my body naturally banks the turns and sways to avoid the potholes i am so familiar with that they are almost friends. these streets are still in a city filled with noise and chaos. it’s a fine line and a delicate balance to the alternative, the next block in either direction into an entirely different world.

my salsa cradles my body and is my worrier, my protector. her steal takes the impact of the roads imperfections and i feel the smoothness. her tires on the asphalt are a comfort to my ears. i have never known a bike like this. i fly. i sway. i am in rhythm. i am in love.

spring rain dabs my face and wind runs his fingers through my hair. little beads of sweat form on the small of my back under my rain coat and i endearingly welcome them; anticipating how amazing i will feel sweat drenched moving and stretching in the fallowing days yoga class.

scents of springtime flowers and wood burning fill my nostrils and i yearn with every part of my being to be near a camp fire on the oregon cost. sleeping in a tent under the starry sky.

quickly i am back to the awareness of the present and enjoying my ride too much. it is freedom with clarity. this kind of independence and self sufficiency comes with great self respect and love.

the quiet side streets unavoidably spit me out into congestion. couples out for the evening, gangs of drunk men looking to chase tail, taxies, noise, girls made up and in heels, frat looking boys, evening runners, other cyclists… my senses are overloaded in part to the cardamom and cinnamon spiced coffee i sipped on while having deep conversation with a true friend. he is caring, gentle, honest, and blunt. he is a true friend.  

i fly and the people on the street with their own agendas cannot touch me so i do not judge them. before i blink my eyes again i am around the corner of my home and my final destination for the evening. there is slight disappointment there. the evening ride is over.

soon i am entering my space high over the city with a view and sit and day dream on. this place has been transforming into a sanctuary and a comfort. there, a man i adore waits for me and smiles at me, bear foot as i enter. true love is adoration without forcefulness. my heart is happy as i lean my salsa gently agents the wall.

Uptown Cafe

the day before my birthday i volunteered at uptown café for the first time . this is a kosher anti-hunger program supported by jewish united fund. this is the sort of thing i talk about doing but never actually do (usually around thanksgiving) but this time i had resolve and fallow through. this particular volunteer opportunity coordinated by birthright next.

they are a wonderful organization i have been trying to get more involved with and failing miserably. i recently got excepted to go to an weekend retreat with them, eco shabbat, and can no longer attend to due new job training that weekend. it would have been wonderful to spend a weekend meeting peers who are like minded and driven for sustainability. however i digress.

uptown is not set up like a food kitchen. i feel that it shows more respect to the people that come there then that. it is restaurant style and the clients sit at tables, there are menus, and the volunteers bring the food. after all are served the volunteers sit and eat with the clients. the people that come to the café are not only in need of a hot meal but positive social interaction. some are low income, some are physically or mentally disabled, some have phd’s, some are immigrants.

personally for me it was an extremely humbling experience. chicago can be a cold and isolating city. we are extremely untrusting of strangers, do not make eye contact, and always have head phones in. to be completely honest some of the people i served i would have secured my purse if they sat down next to me on the ‘l’. that’s just a closed minded way of thinking but however we are somewhat conditioned that way.

it was a pleasure to sit and talk to the people at my table. Unfortunately, i can’t go into to much detail due to the confidentially agreement i singed. but the café and the people really made me think about the way i interact with strangers on the street. the people at my table were good honest people that have had a few issues and some bad luck in life. i defiantly will volunteer there again in the near future. it will help me progress to being a more patient, less judgmental person. a better person. isn’t that what we are all striving for anyways?                            

                        

   

my life is saw dust part 1: research

the first thing that needed immediate attention to make my home inhabitable again (read my bolg post a tail of two kitties) was my floor. k, will, and i made quick work of ripping out the old fake hard wood laminate and saved about four hundred dollars on having  contractors come do it. there is a down side, the contractors would have come and taken the flooring with them. i soon found how hard it was to throw away any kind of construction marital in the city of chicago. i could not simply throw it out in my condo building without facing huge fines nor could i just take it and drop it off legally at a city dump. i also soon found that it cost ridicules amounts of money to have it picked up and disposed of.

luckily i have a wonderful and clever grandfather. he suggested that we cut up all the long planks in smaller pieces and he would drive them over to my parents house in the suburbs where it would be slowly over time thrown away.

we spent three days cutting up all the planks of wood so they were small enough to be carried away. this is where the saw dust started and sweep as i may i could not get it under control.

finding and picking a new floor was quite an extensive process for me. these are things was looking for in a floor:

sustainable material

very low or no toxic chemicals used

fair labor

would not scuff or dent easily

avoid formaldehyde at all cost ( yes most flooring the boards are glues together using glue containing formaldehyde. scary.)

so many products available to us on the U.S market just scare the living daylights out of me. its not only the way that the earth is pillaged of her resources but they way people growing wood and processing it are treated the urkes me. people don’t give much though when purchasing things like wall to wall carpet which trap allergens and dust mites. nor do we think of the coating on flooring gassing of and the toxic glues we are using. we are breathing in fiber glass from the foam in our wall insulation and our flooring underpayment. did you know that most tampons have fiber glass? give this a thought lady’s, once again most tampons have fiber glass in them. we as human beings should not be exposed to such things. that should be a given right. or we should be more educated consumers and understand exactly what is in the products we are buying. companies don’t make it easy however, do they?  

i was extremely disappointed by anything i saw at home depot and other home improvement big box stores. big surprise there. they had one bamboo floor which they called sustainable. just to clarify: sustainable is a very subjective word. yes it is true that bamboo is one of the fastest growing pants and grows at two inches an hour. where as it would take most oak trees something like 120 years to reach maturity and be used as building martial.   

“However, there are still plenty of problems with bamboo, and reasons that the plant hasn't taken over trees as our primary source of construction material—for one, it's a lot less tough than wood, and a lot less sturdy. Secondly, nearly all bamboo used in the US now is shipped over from China (where, by the way, the industry sustains 6 million people's livelihoods). Finally, most bamboo is not yet in a position to be seen as a truly green alternative: growers use pesticides, clear cut rainforests to plant it (thus voiding its tree-saving advantages), and there's no fair trade system in place to ensure bamboo growers are adequately compensated.” planetgreen.discovery.com

for example when i found bamboo yarn for knitting i was really excited for it was cheap and really soft. i quickly learned that possessing bamboo into yarn is an extremely toxic process and i find it completely unsustainable. same goes sadly for most bamboo bedding and clothing. in fact the wonderful health green goods has this warring on their site:

Linens: Organic cotton sheets, duvet covers, shams & bed skirts plus organic cotton towels.  We don’t carry bamboo because most manufacturers still use a lot of chemicals when processing and dying bamboo (even certified organic bamboo because it is only the plant that is certified organic, not the processing – buyer beware!).

 no one at home depot knew much about this one bamboo flooring, home legend,  they had and all my questions were left unsatisfied. they did not know where and how it was grown and who and grown it. also i was quite easily able dent it with much easy. in addition I found tones of reviews of it online with people saying it damaged very easily.  

in my continued search for flooring i came across a product called marmoleum. i completely feel in love with the concept of it. when i this image of the ingredients of marmoleum on tree hugger  i was sure that this might be the correct flooring for me.

the main ingredient in linseed oil and its and extremely simple and non toxic prosses to make. however when i saw marmoleum in person i could not imagine it being in the bulk of my living space. if i was doing my bathroom or kitchen i would have hands down used it, but not in my main living space. i was very saddened by this decision.

i started looking at cork flooring. some friends had just put sustainable cork in their bed room and it looked stunning and felt great to look walk on. unfortunately i found the cork to soft and it showed marks to easy. i think it’s perfect for a bed room but not in a studio. im constantly moving my bikes in and out and could have seen the floor getting damaged quite easily.  

eventually on suggestions from friends i found my way to the green depot . i know cheesy name but a wonderful store. there i met jenny who was delightful and so helpful in my process for finding my perfect flooring. seriously if you are ever going to do any green building go talk to her.

im going to have to leave it at this for now and talk to you about my perfect flooring and my many adventures at the green depot the next time i blog dear dear reader! 

a tail of two kitties

i have been an extreme procrastinator when it has come to writing this particular blog entry. to me, all the thing i want to touch upon and explain have seemed like a daunting task. so in order to begin i find that the best thing to do is break this into two or more entries and  just to start from the beginning.

for my sweet 16^th birthday i gifted myself a kitten. behemoth (hippopotamus is russian)  i called the little black fuzz ball after the character in my (and my mothers) favorite book the master and margarita . he was my littly buddy and came everywhere with me including party’s. 

at six months old my poor kitten drank some antifreeze and his kidneys proceeded to fail. i am to this day unsure if he came across it on his own of was force feed due to the fact that he is a black cat. There was a lot in his system. my mom found him laying on the door mat in a pool of blood and unable to move. we immediately took him to the animal hospital and over night his condition worsened and he started to slip away form us. early in the morning we got a hold of our regular vet and he immediately came and took behemoth under his care. it was a miracle but somehow dr. shaperio  brought him back from the bricks of death.   

almost losing him was one of the hardest things i have ever had to go through in my life. i was overjoyed beyond words that he has made it though and was staying with me. however the experience was extremely traumatizing for him and he was altered. he became skittish and somewhat ornery with a little bit of aggression and very protective of his back side. He would claw and his hiss if you happened to pet him anywhere near his tail. He also become somewhat afraid of his litter box. maybe if reminded him too much of how sick he had been and he just developed a negative association with it.  

while living with my parents this was not much of a problem. for we had just cut a little kitty door for him and he could go out and in as he pleased. it became more of a problem in my various apartments but was under control. he lived with my parents for a while i was living in italy and once again he regained his joy and command of the outdoors.  it must have been quite a shock to him when i moved him to my new home, a studio condo in a high rise in the middle of the city with absolutely  no accesses  to the outdoors for him.

at this time i was a full time student at columbia college chicago  and working various jobs. needless to say i was not home much and my kitty lacked attention and companionship. he had been close with my parents late golden retriever sunny. she passed away two years ago now and i missed her terribly.

i was dating a guy at the time that was out of town on business trip all the time. his roommate and her boyfriend wanted to get a cat and since we has out of town they asked me to come along. we went to kinda of strange place called touched by an animal. i wont get to much into it but it was run by a crazy cat lady who was a nun and wrote high school science books. this is where i meet toreno. 

he was found wondering the streets not far from touched by an animal. his family had been evicted from their apartment and he was abandoned there. when the land lord came he found him alone in the empty apartment and opened the door and shooed him out. the lady at touched by an animal got wind of this and caught him wondering the streets. it was she that named him for he was white as snow and the olympic games were taking place in toreno italy. I found all this fitting and having just moved back from florence myself the name stuck.

the above image was create by my dear talented friend will endelmann

    

i was not intending to get another cat but toreno was so sweet and affectionate he had to come home with me.

both my boys were with me for two years until my health slowly started to decline. my docter informed me that i had developed sever allergies and was starting to do permanent damage to my nasal passages. i could not spend much time within my home until i became puffy and congested. my small studio was not large enough to contain the three of us comfortably. new homes needed to be found for my boys. once again one of the hardest thing i ever had to do.

toreno went to a co-worker of my moms. she has two sons and they all welcomed toreno warmly as a member of their family. he likes loads of attention and much doted on in his new family. they also have a groomer come and pamper him every two weeks or so and have ample outdoor space for him to roam. i have an open invitation to visit and am given photos of him every so offen.

behemoth had liter box issues and aggression issues and was much harder to place. chicago no kill shelters are so over crowded that they only have room for strays, nor did i think his temperament could handle the stress of shelter life. i posted many honest craigs list adds hoping to find someone out in the suburbs with space for him to be outdoors. no such people were found via craigs list.

my deer kind wonderful friends in the giving tree  live out in yorkvill. they have some wonderful neighbors including tom and toby. tom and toby are both vets and have a little farm about ten min form their home. on this farm they have horses, goats, pigs, chickens, donkeys and other wonderful animals i am currently forgetting to mention. these kind hearted people agreed to take in my kitty and give him a home on the farm. i could not have thought of a better outcome for him. i am free to vist him when i am out in yorkvill and have found him adapting to his new life.

i miss them both more then my heart can handle but i am fully convinced that the outcome of their new living situations are better then anything i could have hoped for. in addition i have began to regain my health and am not as chronically ill. hopefull come of the damage that has been done will revert.  

so this is the back story of the renovations that i have been working on in my condo. i temperately lived with k for about 4 months and owe a lot of gratitude to his roommate joe r. it as taken a lot of time, hard work, research and planning to turn my condo back into a wonderful home for me. i will be talking about all this in the blog entries to come. all these remodeling are bitter sweet to me. my home is coming along just as i had wised. however part of me feels trapped now. a lot of money has gone into it and therefore i will not be leaving any time soon. i still daydream about k and i having a small home in the pacific northwest where i can have a garden and a bee hive. however i am yet young and don’t need to rush into such stability.