Humboldt Park murals

In my ethnographic research in Humboldt Park, I simply fell in love with the murals that lined the streets. Their dynamic color...their symbolic meaning..and their public displays of resistance and Puerto Rican power. These are just a few of my favorite.

blissful announcement

I am now officially engaged to my best friend...

:}

only in chicago...

will you experience the joys of all the 4 seasons in one day. Rain and spring-like in the morning, sunny and warm mid morning...windy and chilly in the afternoon..making room for sleet and snow by midnight...Tis' the winter that refused to go away!

I so need to go on a vacation...BLAH!

Picture from Flikr

two weeks notice

I will not be put down
By you & your status quo
Not again
For, Like the sun
I will rise
Think again
Cuz there will be no demise
Of my soul...
Can't you see
Through conformity and obedience to you
I fail me
I am more than your depiction of a pale reflection
I got soul
I got heart
I got mind
Robustly beautiful and refined
All to which you were blind
I stand before you
Unafraid to be me
and I’m proud of what I’ve grown into
I’ve left a woman...
Strong to the core
A female who won’t take this shit anymore...

catchy song for Barack

This morning on the way into the office I heard this catchy little tune from a Jamaican artist called "Cocoa Tea". The song serves as a unique endorsement for the Illinois Senator (did I mention it was catchy??!). I swear, the hook will be in my head for the rest of the day!!

Cocoa Tea - Barack Obama
Uploaded by jahsensie

it was a lovely day!

This weekend was utter bliss: it was sunny, in the mid to upper 60's and perfect in every way. It's about time! Chicago's winter has been long and brutal and I felt deprived of all sun and warmth. I had to get out and enjoy being alive.

This afternoon - Mike, the mutt, and I walked through Humboldt Park as I snapped the below pictures. This is just a sample of over 75 pictures I took...each which has it's own story. They are a portion of my final research project in Urban Sociology, where we have to research a Chicago neighborhood's social/economic state and observe how residents use public space. Obviously, my neighborhood of interest is Humboldt Park, where I spent large chunks of my childhood. It was a beautiful 2 hours, where I got to meet many interesting people!

Remembrance of a dream

Today is a very symbolic day for me, a day which holds bittersweet significance because of it's ties to two of my biggest heroes of all time. Today marks the 80th birthday of Maya Angelou, whose words and soliloquies mesmerized me as child. It is because of her writing that I began to pick up the pen to write over twenty years ago. And it is because of her eloquent yet harsh words, the flame inside my heart continues to burn to forever mark me as a poet.

Yet today also marks the 40th year anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, whose words were just as powerful to me and the nation at large. He preached and dreamt of change via peaceful processes and despite all odds, stood up for everything he believed in.

The fact that an African American man and a White woman are both serious contenders for the White House serves as proof of progress in this country. And even though there is still much to be done in terms of obtaining 'true' social justice for all and his dream has not fully been realized, I believe Dr. King would be proud of where we stand as a nation today. (apart from the war and Bush's stanky ass that is)

"Take the blinders from your vision,
take the padding from your ears,
and confess you've heard me crying,
and admit you've seen my tears.
Hear the tempo so compelling,
hear the blood throb through my veins.
Yes, my drums are beating nightly,
and the rhythms never change.
Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free"

~ taken from Maya Angelou's poem titled "Equality"

the official I'm getting old post #2

About 3 years ago when I first noticed grays coming in, I made a decision not to color my hair anymore. My mentality was that I had to enjoy the last few years of my natural hair color while I could, because when I turn gray, I could never go back. I had been dying it so long that I didn't even know what my natural color was anymore. As it was, I spent the last 15 years of my life coloring my hair all shades of brown, red, and blond to declare my individuality, personality and to match my mood. For example, I remember when Bush was inaugurated, I dyed my hair PITCH BLACK to mimic the sadness I felt inside.

Well, that 3 year hiatus might soon be over.

This morning on the way into work, I looked in the mirror on the back of my sun visor only to see..not one, not two...not even three..but like fifteen gray hairs smiling back at me. Now don't get it twisted, gray hairs are not a new thing to me. They were, once upon a time, only strays that popped out to bug me every few months. But now, as I am approaching 30, I'm beginning to see group formations of them infiltrating on all sides of my membrane, almost giving my hair the appearance of slight grayish streaks if you look at it in a certain angle.

How can this be? I'm not even 30 yet! As I hyperventilated and pulled them out one by one between red lights, I looked at the heap of retired grays which I built up on my one hour commute...and realized I shouldn't be fighting the inevitable. I'm no longer a spring chicken (hey don't judge me for piling them up in one little pathetic pile!)

I tried to rationalize: with age, comes wisdom, with wisdom comes acceptance of things you cannot change...and the onslaught of gray hairs definitely falls in that category. It's not all that bad, is it??!! Is it?!! I'm trying to hold out on coloring my hair to hide them. I want to embrace my age, my new found wisdom, all so much. But it's so tempting to just wash it all away in a burnt sienna dye!

But I will abstain as long as I can...gray can be sexy, right??

good friday confession...

mmmmmm meat!
I'm officially a non practicing Catholic. Most of the time, I don't even really consider myself that, as I don't go to church and haven't prayed in years. This is because as I have grown older I have realized that in many ways the Catholic church & I just don't see eye to eye. Gay marriage, the non existence of women priests, no sex before marriage, and abortion are just a few of the few examples of this disconnect. Not that I don't believe in a higher power, but my version of God really doesn't fit the mold of most conventional religious faiths. However, to be honest, I was born and raised to believe in the Savior Jesus Christ, and I never really fought that association.

Being the non-practicing Catholic that I am, I don't partake in the usual lenten activities. I do not give up something of value (like chocolate or swearing) as a symbolic remembrance of the occasion. I don't go to mass on Ash Wednesday nor do I abstain for eating meat on Fridays. However, my mom adamantly insists on no meat on Good Friday, the holiest of all Fridays during lent. As usual in life, I give in to her wishes, mostly because I don't want to upset her and not eating meat for one day is a small price to pay for her happiness. Thus, this past Good Friday I did the same thing as usual. All day, I abstained from my beloved carne, eating the equivalent of twigs and veggies..only to be hungry a mere hour later. I don't get it, how do vegetarians ever feel full???!! It is horrible!! Horrible I tell you...

But I digress..my real confession is...at the tune of midnight, I dug into the leftover Beef Fried Rice and drank a few beers and life was good! Blah to no meat. Blah to a symbolic day which holds no value to me whatsoever!

WHEW! There...I feel much better gettin' this off my chest!

fate

That's what i would call it...This email hit my inbox as I was reading this article

This Sunday from 8pm - 9pm.

All you have to do is turn off all electricity for one hour! NO TV, NO COMPUTER, NOTHING!!!

So grab some friends, candles, cards and some games for one hour and let Earth take a breather.

Check out the website and sign up today! Please repost this so everyone knows about it.

CLICK HERE FOR THE OFFICIAL EARTH HOUR WEBSITE

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Climate change is perhaps the most significant issue facing our planet today. We are beginning to witness dramatic impacts as a result of the amount of carbon we load into the atmosphere. To alter the current course of climate change we must act now.

That's why you are invited to join thousands of your Chicago friends, neighbors and businesses and millions of people around the world to make a bold statement about climate change on March 29 from 8 to 9 p.m local time.

Turn out your lights for one hour. Earth Hour.

As World Wildlife Fund's flagship city for the United States, Chicago, a leader in environmental initiatives, is encouraging its residents across the region to make the pledge to help fight global warming by voluntarily turning off their lights for 60 minutes. Signature skyscrapers, key landmarks, theater marquees and shops on the Magnificent Mile will voluntarily turn off their lights.

ComEd, the northern Illinois power utility, is a major sponsor of Earth Hour.

Earth Hour's not just about cutting back for one hour. It's about taking a stand and thinking ahead about what you, your neighbors and your city can do to slow climate change.

Seize the Earth Hour moment and change some of your outdated energy-wasting light bulbs to new, efficient and inexpensive compact fluorescents. Think of other ways you can cut your energy usage and trim your electric bill after Earth Hour has passed.

One person can make a difference. Cities, working together, can change the world.

One hour, Chicago. Earth Hour.

cabin fever

All weekend I have nursing a sore throat, a nasty sinus headache, and a wrenching couch. Today, despite the fact I had a stack of projects in my inbox at work, I called in sick from work. And even though I know I wouldn't have been much use in the office, a part of me wished I went just to get out of the freakin' house! Other than running to to store for meds and walking the dog, I haven't really left the casa since Friday night. Well, it doesn't look like I missed much, as the weather in Chicago has been about 20 degrees below normal all week and they are calling for more snow within the next 48 hours (blah).

Given these circumstances, my mind and my body have been restless. Theres only so much daytime television that I can take! Thus, I starting playing around with the design of the old blog. WAA-LAA! While, I am not happy with the overall design of it, there are new elements which just made my day. Upgrading the template design allowed for some customization which I will be tweaking as my headache subsides. I once again added the tea cup wisdom quote, which I seemed to have lost during my last template upgrade. Also, I added the word cloud on the right, which shows my most used labels in order of use. With just a click of the word, it will take you straight to the appropriate posts. I found the code for the cloud on this site , so if you have blogger and are looking for a cool widget, here it is.

Anyway, peace n love to all.

it's high time for a pillow fight!

from flicker

Hey, ya'll. I'm so excited! I just read that Saturday is International Pillow fight Day, and much to my amazement (and excitement), there are cities from all over the globe partaking in my favorite childhood past time.

I think I might just head up to the Art Institute downtown on Saturday afternoon to take a few pictures and perhaps get out a little stress with my old pillow. Who's with me??!

Luminosity

That's a word, right ? Hee hee. In either case, today I am wearing a smile from ear to ear. I am officially on Spring Break for almost two weeks and am looking forward to being a couch bum and partaking in some pleasure reading, watching the Daily show, and consuming a few beers. :> Life is good.

Other things that put a smile on my face lately

~Pandora, a free, intuitive radio station that gets me through the work day every day. Search by favorite artist(s) and it plays music similar to your tastes. It's a great way to find new artists. I have about 10 stations and play the Quickmix to get a taste of it all!

~ Getting some much needed art therapy (click on the mouse to change the color!)

~ The smell of Springtime and the birth of new buddings on the trees on my block

~ Listening to Barack Obama's "A More Perfect Union" speech. I have to say this man moves me like no other politician has in the past. I believe today he proved he has true character by sticking to his guns and not disowning his pastor. He has passion, he has vision, he is insightful beyond measure. If you haven't read the transcript or listened to it, click here. Be warned though, it's nearly 40 minutes in length.

~ The fact that Taz, my beloved pooch, is 100% recovered from a terrible stomach virus. To see him with a wet nose, running around the house like a crazy ass, and back to his old hi-jinks again - fills me with the kind of joy only a "mother" can understand.

~Reading other peoples insightful and creative blogs, which has somehow sparked the urge for me to write once again.

Peace n love!

recession

You can barely listen to the news or partake in water cooler conversation without hearing the word uttered. Gas prices are the equivalent of highway robbery, even milk and eggs cost exponentially more than they did a few months ago. Other tell tale signs is that the dollar is practically worthless and the price of GOLD is once again skyrocketing. I can't say that I am surprised, though. I saw this coming nearly 8 years ago when a bonehead was elected to be president. I'm serious, you can ask my ex. Though, I predicted it would only take 5 years to hit, you couldn't fool me.

Anyway, what's really disturbing to me is my observations driving around each day; the growing number of boarded up houses in Chicago...a direct result of the sub prime meltdown. Its just sad because each house symbolizes yet another family down on their luck, possibly homeless...who knows. I'm sure other cities like Sacramento, which are being hit harder by the foreclosure crisis, are even more depressing to see.

But, as I drive down these streets with abandoned & boarded up houses, I can't help but think about the social ramifications of it all. Debt has so long been ingrained in the American culture that like many others, I can't remember a time where I was truly debt free. I get paid so I can adequately pay another bill and attempt to stay afloat until next month, when I will do it all over again. It's like a rite of passage in the U.S. or something...and the finance companies, they greedily gobbled it up for as long as they could. Well, it appears now that our beloved country is paying tri-fold for that greedy mentality. The social ramifications have spilled over into every crevice of the economy and will not go away as easily as it was put there. In other words: we are in deep shit!

The next question remains: How do we fix this crisis? How do we prevent the eminent recession? Who will help us help ourselves get out of debt? Who will cut up our credit cards, consolidate our loans, and set realistic budgets for us to follow? Who??!! Because it appears we do not have the will power to do it for ourselves?!!

They say the government should lead by example, but yet our country is currently facing the largest deficit in history.

Despite all these DEPRESSING facts, I have hope...One thing is for certain: I AM READY FOR CHANGE. I am a woman on a mission to disillusion myself from the glory of "material" purchases. I have closed out a number of high APR cards, and am reducing costs like removing my HBO package from Comcast (which never has anything noteworthy on it anyway!) Little steps, I know..but maybe after some time it will really pay off. I just hope the future face of our country adheres to the same mentality. After all, the White house doesn't need that $3,000 toilet bowl cover, now does it??!!

hell has frozen over

Yes, it's been a while and hell has frozen over because here I sit, cafe con leche in hand, writing again on my old faithful blog...something I thought I might never do again. I missed writing for pleasure and the form of self expression it used to be for me...but somewhere inside me still exists a spark hibernating...

It's not that I don't write anymore. It's quite the contrary. Officially a full time graduate student in Sociology, words fill my brain even in my dreams. I read an average of 1000 pages a week and write essays averaging 8 pages per week for school. There are no tests in my field..in essence my homework is my test. Not that I'm complaining...urban sociology just turns me on! My classes are insightful, my classmates are unique, intelligent, quirky people whom I've come to enjoy. As for me, I'm beginning to work on my thesis, which is tentatively called "Drop Outs in Chicago: A Look into the Role of School as an Influencer". I'm excited about using a relatively new grassroots method called photovoice, where I will ask dropouts enrolled in GED programs to take pictures of how they see the world. The goal is to try to finish both my classes and thesis by next spring (so excited)!!!!!

Approaching the big 3-0 , I've come to realize life is everchanging. Unlike when I was younger, I notice it happening more and more...you know, little changes...all of them small enough to fall under the radar solo, but taken together, they surmount into changing your persona right before your eyes. I'm trying to slow down and just savor these changes and be thankful that I had the opportunity to just experience all that life has to offer. The happiness, the pain, the indifference, each leaving a footprint on my soul...making me unique.

Before I have a chance to press delete on this post, like I've done countless of times within the last few months, I will sign off by saying peace n love to all...