Thai Festival at Daley Plaza

I (Rebecca) work just a block from Daley Plaza. The Plaza hosts events year round and I find myself wandering over there most days during lunch just to see what's going on. This week was the Thai Festival. There was a show everyday at noon, some food vendors, some gift vendors, and some random displays sponsored by the Thai Consulate in Chicago. The shot above is across the street from the Plaza. What follows are shots from the festival I took during the week.

Is it painfully obvious Dale did not take these pictures? I'm guessing it is. Anyway, the festival featured a Thai woman that carves fruit into elaborate flowers. Check out the huge flower/watermelon! Crazy!

The main stage featured traditional Thai dancing, boxing, fashion, and music (on various days).

These ladies were playing music on instruments I can not name.

It was a gorgeous week overall so I would get some tasty Thai food from one of the food stands and then walk over to the fountain to eat my lunch and listen to my iPod.

I also giggled while watching the birds drink from the fountain! It just cracked me up that they carefully dipped their beaks in for a sip.

Rebecca's view

This is the view from my (Rebecca's) office window. The building in the foreground is the famous Marshall Fields headquarters (that top floor is where Frango mints were made for many years).

The tall buildings in back on the left are the corncob towers. The middle tall building with blue-ish windows is the new Joffrey Tower (once the Modern Momentum building). It's not as big as it looks; it's just two blocks away from my building.

The really big one that's under construction is the Trump tower. The one in front of Trump is 35 East Wacker Dr., I think. And that Batman-like black building in the back on the right is the Hancock.

New Job!

Big news! I accepted a job offer and put in notice at my current company! I start working in the loop and taking the train June 2! Wish me luck.

I'll be writing and editing for construction and architecture magazine...sound familiar? Yeah, it's my old job. But at a different company in a sweet location--in the heart of downtown Chicago!

Rebecca's View-Master Collection....

Finally! Whatever evil bug was keeping me from uploading pictures has eased off this evening. As a test post I offer you my view-master collection.

There are my viewers. I have 16 in total.

That's right, I like the old view-masters! I love the older viewers and I especially love the older vacation reels from the 1940s and 1950s. Whenever I go to a new place I like to collect all the old view-master reels from that place. Dorky but fun!

These are my reels.

I have tons from my own childhood and many, many more that I've collected in the last few years. I especially love finding some in the back of an antique store I've never visited before. I LOVE that.

Graduated! Kind of.

In the last eight weeks I've been taking the manuscript editing course at The University of Chicago Graham School and I completed it this week. This is a picture of my text book--the Chicago Manual of Style. It was a heavy course load but it was enjoyable and will be a nice little boost to my resume!

Stephenie Meyer Book Signing

I've been turning all my gals onto my latest guilty pleasure--Stephenie Meyer books! She writes very entertaining (slightly trash-tastic) novels. Her latest is Eclipse and since I'd pushed Rebecca P. into reading the first two novels, we decided to go together to get the new book on the day it was released--August 7--and it just so happened that the author was in Naperville doing a book signing on the release date.

The event was such a huge deal that the signing was moved from the book store to the local college auditorium. We got there about 15 minutes before the doors opened and found quite a line! It wrapped around the building.

We felt a little old among the crowd of mostly teen gals. We were mostly bitter because it was roughly 1000 degrees with 100% humidity! Still plenty of time for a self-portrait!

The line wrapped around the entire block. When we got inside, we were handed a copy of the book and Stephenie Meyer gave a brief Q&Q. She then sat down and signed each book of each person present. There were 1,000 seats and it was sold out! And people brought all of her other books to have them signed as well.

Because the book is a sequel lots of folks got started as soon as Stephenie left the stage to start signing. We were 650 and 651 of 1,000!

We patiently waited our turn, enjoyed the complimentary water and Stephenie's favorite treat--chocolate chip cookie dough!

And finally--at 9:30--we got our books signed! Stephenie told me she liked my name and I told her that I am a fan of her most loathed character--the guy that is the greatest threat to the main love story--Stephenie gave me a high-five after I told her I am "Team Jacob." We had a moment and it was the bee's knees!

Isadora Ink featured on The Daily Obsession

Exciting news! My craft website was featured today on a cute blog about shopping.

Check it out here!

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

I had quite the adventure this evening! My friend Anne had an extra ticket to Verdi's Requiem at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. It was really a fun event and I'm so lucky to have made friends here in Chicago, especially those that afford me such lovely new experiences!

Click here to get a peak at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra hall. Sorry, no pics from me because they were not allowed. I could have cheated but I'm a good girl.

What's up with Rebecca?

Rebecca took a bookbinding class this weekend.

From 10-5 I learned how to create a book from scrach! Very cool process and it was a neat class at Paper Source! Wheee!

Random Life Stuff

Here is a poor photo of my new beloved lamp! It's THE HOTTNESS. It's so deliciously weird. I really can't take my eyes off of it!

And to commemorate the big day, I took photos of us at breakfast; we were deliriously happy with visions of gold tacky antique lamps dancing in our heads:

I almost look tipsy! And slightly cross-eyed. Weird.
--rebecca