esprit de l'escalier

Nine things meme

I was tagged by Maryam in Marrakesh to share 9 things that are interesting about myself. Hm. Nine things. Sharing something "interesting" about yourself always comes up in ice breakers and my standard is "I have a twin brother." Which is only so-so interesting because many people already know this fact, but our mom's a twin too, which makes it neat (1). Okay, I'm actually going to dispense with the "interesting", because I just can't come up with anything that seems tantalizing enough. I'll just go with random facts about Claire.

(2) I am currently planning a trip to Shanghai in March. I have traveled alone before but mainly in Europe. The furthest east I've been is Qatar for three months, but that was work-related and I never did anything on my own (besides watch dvds of BtVS and silly British costume dramas sitting on my couch). I'm both excited and terrified. I'm reading up on Shanghai now and plan on making my ticket purchase within the week.

(3) I made more money in middle school babysitting than I did throughout high school. I had quite the empire and kept track of all of my money in a purple lockbox my Grandmother gave me for Christmas one year with "Claire" painted on its lid. In high school (and a couple times in college) I had strange kids come up to me to say hello. I imagine it's because I babysat for them once when I was 12.

(4) I have weird OCD issues and really hate it when there are crumbs on the kitchen counter. My current kitchen disappoints me in innumerable ways, one of which is that I don't think I could get it sparkling enough. And the cabinets are hung incorrectly. (That makes me nuts.)

(5) I usually only will travel somewhere if I know at least two people there. I feel this makes the trip worth it somehow. This also adds to my nerves about planning my China trip. Yes, for part of it I will see my friend Elaine (who'll be studying to the south of Shanghai for a month), but can I plan a trip that's just for me? Eesh! Yes. Yes I can. (Sorry for externalizing the internal monologue.)

(6) Everyone always thought I was the smart girl in high school. The thing is I rarely had my homework done, I was just a good talker who paid attention in class. I could have very easily become a high strung, type A annoying person. I thank my mother's liberal attitude towards "personal health days" for not permanently getting a large stick stuck up my ass.

(7) I really love having parties. Or weekend guests. I like gathering a bunch of people together and baking some cookies and have everyone chat and laugh and dance. I've been told I work a room well.

(8) I also love quiet. Like right now. I'm home alone and there aren't really even any cars out and the crazy cats who chase each other around upstairs are quiet. I have such a headache from the last two days. I can't wait for my bed.

(9) I (obviously) have a really hard time coming up with interesting things about me. I'm a loud person who talks quickly and laughs a lot. I learned in my Language and Power class I am a "highly involved" speaker. Which means I interrupt a lot. But not to grab power or even the speaking part, but rather to keep the conversation moving and to encourage the speaker. It is *so* true. Drives some people nuts, but ever since I had the symptoms spelled out for me I see me doing it all over the place. I nod emphatically, interrupt to agree or disagree, encourage them to go on and ignore me, and finish people's sentences. When we covered this topic in class I came home and told my roommate my newfound fact about myself and she rolled her eyes. This was not news to her.

Gosh, I think I made this longer than necessary. Oh well. Go vote for Maryam for Decor8's Fall Color Contest. You'll all wish that she'd have us over for some mint tea. I'm saving some of my frequent flyer miles for Morocco, once her new house is finished. :)

I'm also supposed to tag some people... so, Jennifer, you're it. I think it's your first meme, right?

Old friends and blog catch-up

[Note from the editor: I have been remiss as a blogger lately. School, work, life seem to be getting in the way of writing. I keep making notes of things to write about (and did a PFR this weekend, so keep an eye out early this week for my write-up!) and so this is a bit of a retrospective for last weekend, which is a little lame. I should be more timely. I will try to be chastened.]

"Discovering Columbus" was a headline staring at me two weeks ago while riding the L home. It was coming from the back of the Travel section of the Trib, which the rider sitting across from me was reading. I was unsurprised to find the write-up to be very patronizing to my hometown.

So here we have Columbus with a population close to 730,000--a city larger, by that measure, than Boston, Cleveland, Las Vegas or Seattle, to name a few examples--ranking 15th in the U.S.

And yet...the Cubs, Sox, Bulls and Bears can't play a Columbus home team. And yet...the Chicago Tribune stylebook insists we say "Columbus, Ohio" in the dateline, while smaller cities, such as Des Moines and Akron, are considered so well known they can stand by themselves.

Apparently though the writer goes on to admit there are several other places named "Columbus," he still feels the need to put down the name. Nor did he get the memo that both Chicago and Columbus have teams in the NHL and MLS, but apparently those sports do not matter. (Not that I'm bitter or anything.) I guess it is nice to have an article written, I just don't appreciate the tone, as if the writer just wandered into some forgotten, insignificant corner of the moon or something.

I was traveling home for my friend Dana's wedding, which was wonderful. She and her husband Brian were married in a barn-like church that was beautiful in its simplicity. The weather was the warmest all week (and weekend) and the sky was clear and blue with all of the trees in just-past peak color. Dana is an inspiring friend and I felt very lucky to share such an important day with her and her family. (Dana and Brian were registered at her company, Global Giving, which helps connect funding to locally-run social and environmental projects around the world. Which just adds to the reasons why I am always impressed with Dana.) The reception was fun, the music during the cocktails could have been my iPod set to random, and I even caught part of the bouquet. The bouquet hit a chandelier and split into about five pieces, four of which went flying in one direction a bunch of younger girls went tearing after them. I went and picked up the remaining piece and at least now I know I'll be in the album. :)

Over the weekend I also got a chance to visit with my friend Joe, who I haven't been able to see on my last visits. We had a great time catching up— it's so nice having people with whom it is always easy to reconnect. I am so much luckier to have those friends in my life. (Though I did not get to see a couple other friends who I meant to see. My trips home are never long enough.)

This weekend was full of more old friends. My friend Bird was in town again. I continue to scheme (in conjunction with many others) to try and get her to move here. My high school friend Carter was in town as well. It was great to reconnect with him, especially in Chicago. He and I are a bit like the odd couple. We show our love by constantly bickering. We had two meals together with other friends. This afternoon he joined my roommate and our friends Libby and Ryan for lunch. He's met Libby and Natasha both once a piece, years ago, but he remarked how it felt he's known them much better. It did feel very natural to be sitting at a table with the three of them. It's nice when worlds collide.

Currently listening to The Best of Chet Baker Sings.

Another loss in Chicago history

Yesterday afternoon I got up from my cube to get something from the printer. I sit on the 18th floor, on the south side of the building and glanced out of the windows to see billowing white clouds of smoke. I did a double take and saw flames. I asked my cubemate if she knew there was a fire in the south loop and she said that crews had been trying to extinguish it for over an hour. I gaped for another couple of minutes but got back to what I was doing. I went to class that night and specifically took a route to class so that I would be able to look south on a pedway towards the fire. I wasn't the only rubbernecker; there were many people with their camera phones out.

This morning I learned what building burned and was very sorry for the loss. The Dexter building burned to the ground, the second Louis Sullivan building to be destroyed by fire in a year, built by Sullivan and Dankmar Adler in 1887. (In January his Pilgrim Baptist Church was lost.) This year marks the 150th anniversary of Sullivan's birth, and it saddens me greatly to know that the city has lost yet another building.

Two weeks ago today I was at a lunchtime lecture at the Chicago Architecture Foundation about Sullivan, part of the events celebrating the anniversary of his birth. I heard Tim Wittman, a Sullivan scholar, give a speech entitled, "Sullivan and the Synthesis of Nature and the Machine." I really enjoyed the lecture, as evidenced by giddily recounting some of the facts I learned to my parents when I was home this weekend (Dad's an architect and Mom's an enthusiast, I come by it naturally). I learned about H.H. Richardson and how he abstracted nature to create his wonderful buildings. I knew Sullivan's motto, "Form follows function" but I did not really understand it until this lecture. I saw why Sullivan's buildings were structured to have commerce below and living or offices above, and how that structure mimicked plants. I understood how Sullivan used mechanical means to bring city dwellers closer to nature again. And I left the lecture sad that so many of his buildings were destroyed in the 1960s. I'm sadder this morning.

Links:
Chicagoist post about the fire; Trib article.

Louis Sullivan landmarks in Chicago here.

Home again

Chicago skyline from the plane
Originally uploaded by clairehelene7.

Here's a picture I took from the airplane on my way to Ohio on Friday morning. Didn't it turn out nicely? You can see the whole Loop— even Soldier Field and Navy Pier!

I'll write up more later.

A Musical interlude

My posts have been very spare lately. I had some things due this week and other activities in the evenings. I'm going to be away this weekend as well, though I may post once or twice from my parents. Since this is on hold, I thought I'd put up some music to entertain you.

I just heard this Damien Jurado song called "What Were the Chances" off of his new album. I thought I'd try my hand at embedding mp3s, inspired by the Blue Girl. (Also, you can download it at his myspace page, if you are so inclined.) I like the spareness to it.

I recently purchased M. Ward's latest album, Post War, and it came enhanced with the video below. I think it's a great video, very sweet and fits the song very well.

At the moment I'm listening to a Johnny Cash mix I made for someone a while back and making some shoe, purse and dress cookies for my Project Runway finale party. Now I really must run.

Last chance for ice cream

Zephyr
Originally uploaded by clairehelene7.

I read last week in the Chicagoist that one of my favorite ice cream places, the Zephyr, is closing on Oct. 22. I've been going there with my friends Elaine and George ever since they moved in the neighborhood several years ago. Tonight we dropped in for one last over-sized sundae amidst the obscene art deco decor and mirrors. The menu has been pared down for the last couple of weeks, but there is still plenty of ice cream to be had. It's always sad for an old standard to close, and I really don't know what they will do with all of the mirrors.

An old email I wrote

There has been some rumbling by Tom Watson in some of the comment sections of a couple of my favorite bloggers. In fact, it's almost come to fisticuffs. Tom wants the liberal bloggers to not write about tv or flowers in the weeks coming up to an extremely important election. He wants us to keep motivated about politics! Let us not be swayed by the shiny, pretty things that distract us from the horrors of the current administration.

All of this has reminded me of an email I wrote to many friends the day after the 2004 election. I had worked as a poll watcher that day and hadn't had a very good experience. (It's a long story, probably better heard in person.) My roommates and I threw a party the night before to watch the numbers come in, and we even got cable so we would have Jon Stewart to keep us laughing, which turned out to be very necessary. I woke up the next day not very jazzed about the world. This is what I sent to my friends and loved ones:

Dear Friends,
In times of trial, we often turn to beloved and revered texts to search for higher meanings in our earthly struggles. This morning I woke up with a burning need to read the Federalist Papers today. Federalist X has always been my favorite, and today seemed an appropriate time to revisit Madison's thoughts on the perils of factions.

"Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith and of public and personal liberty, that our governments are too unstable, that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.”

Madison defines a faction:
“By a faction I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.”

Madison then explains that the sources of factions (liberty and diverse opinions amongst the electorate) cannot be cured, because doing so would be like “annihilation of air” because it “imparts fire to its destructive agency.” He stresses that the effects of factions must be controlled.

This is easy, of course, with a minority faction, but with a majority faction there is danger for the democracy. “When a majority is included in a faction, the form of popular government, on the other hand, enables it to sacrifice to its ruling passion or interest both the public good and the rights of citizens.”

He says that it is the question of how to control this “overbearing majority” that he desires to answer, though I do not find much hope in his answers. “Either the existence of the same passion or interest in a majority at the same time must be prevented, or the majority, having such coexistent passion or interest, must be rendered, by their number and local situation, unable to concert and carry into effect schemes of oppression.” Unfortunately, if this cannot be avoided, as it has not been avoided in this election, Madison offers little. He concedes that “neither moral nor religious motives can be relied on as an adequate control,” especially not if the overbearing majority sees itself as morally and religiously superior to the rest of the electorate.

Madison goes on to discuss the importance of how our Constitution balances power between the minorities and majorities, and how this balance should hold in check the dangerous factions that are inherent in our form of government. The bicameral legislature, and the checks on it by the executive branch, was created to make laws difficult to enact. Our government was designed to move slowly, so factions could not quickly rise to greatly change the legal landscape of the country. It is difficult to change the Constitution for that reason as well, as it should be. This slowness is an incredibly important check on overbearing majorities, but what happens when both the executive and the entire legislative branch are in the hands of one faction? What happens when they fill the judicial with other members of that faction? How do the checks work to balance the needs of majorities and minorities? How does our democracy continue to function as it was originally intended if the country is so divided, yet one side holds all the power? These are the questions that plague me on this sunny November morning. Unfortunately Madison has not assuaged any of my fears, only underlined them.

I spoke with my mother today, who went to bed early last night, confident and exhausted after a long day of canvassing and poll watching. She awoke this morning, as many of us did, aghast. She told me she feels like maybe the South did win the Civil War after all.

I’m sorry to fill your inboxes with such a gloomy missive. Though we may have lost this battle, I don’t think it is right to concede the control of the nation’s hearts and minds to a single faction. I think this election underscores the massive work that is needed to be done with our political parties and electoral system. It’s hard to feel energized on a day like today, but it is important to remember that our democracy constantly needs to be fought for; it is a goal that we should always be working towards, even when our causes seem lost. It is so important that we continue to fight, we cannot lie down and let a faction rule with no recourse, we must continue to make our voices heard.

My friends, you are all in my thoughts and heart today, as is this uneasy future of our country. I’m not willing to give up yet, and I hope you aren’t either.

Love,
Claire

__________________________________________________________
"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood."
-----Daniel H. Burnham

I kept the quote at the bottom because I forgot that used to be my email signature and it's a great quote. I forwarded this on to Blue Girl today and she encouraged me to post it.

Remember to vote!

It's snowing right now

Seriously, it's Oct. 12th at 9:30 am and it is snowing. This weekend it was in the 70s. Gusting snow. Really. SNOW. EARLY OCTOBER. Please don't let this be a sign of the winter to come.

Magazines from Morocco!

Yesterday I received a fabulous mystery package with magazines all the way from Morocco! They were from my bloggy friend Maryam. We were swap partners in Decor8's international magazine swap from a while back. (Hopefully mine make their transatlantic journey to her soon.) She also sent me this awesome bracelet that has already been threatened to be stolen! I can't wait to go through them and try and brush up on my French. The photos are fabulous. And, Maryam, they make me excited to see what you and your husband cook up for your guest house.

Today my roommate had jury duty and she got picked for a trial. She's currently incredibly stressed out with her job and jury duty does not make her life any easier. I did what I could to soften the blow. I went out and got supplies for gin and tonics and made kielbasa and mashed potatoes and bought a package of oreos. Apparently that's how I say, "I'm sorry you have to fulfill your civic duty in this way, please eat some encased meat." But tonight was part I of the Project Runway season finale and our friends Elaine and Libby were here to help us laugh our way through it. I ate too much of things that should probably NOT be mixed. Ugh. I think that the dra-ma being set up on PR is a big old fake-out. They are kind of obvious with the fake-outs. Well the at least most of the clothes are pretty and there is still Tim Gunn. How could you not love Tim Gunn?

Waves of nostalgia

The last couple of weeks I have been getting increasingly nostalgic. Is it the turning of the seasons? Does the smell of dried leaves and their crackling underfoot make me think of high school football games? Does all my pie-fixation stem from wanting to be in my Grandmother Jane's kitchen, sitting on an old milk can with a piece of elderberry pie in front of me? Does the fluctuating temperatures make me use rhetorical questions in obnoxious ways? All of these things are probably true. Anyhow, I've been nostalgic and emailing old friends to make sure they are still out there (hi old friends, if you're reading). I made the roommate go through a box of photos of mine from college (most of which she was in) and wished that I could inflict all of my high school photographs on her (somewhere she sighs in relief). Luckily she convinced me to get off my nostalgic ass and go out to a honky-tonk bar. There she ran into someone from her high school and I found someone to spin me around the dance floor, which helped me forget for a while. In a couple of weeks I'll be back in Central Ohio for my friend Dana's wedding (hi Dana, I can't wait). I'm lining up coffee dates to catch up with people and am trying to decide the restaurants I want to hit. Is anyone else getting nostalgic for days gone by? Is it the season or just me?