esprit de l'escalier

New year, new hair

I'm in Chicago again to ring in the new year.  There have been all sorts of travel mishaps for me and for some of my friends (including one of my hostesses, who finally just arrived from South Dakota!).  Luckily there are lots of people who are willing to let me sleep on their couches (even when they are not home).

I had some time to kill yesterday afternoon and found myself getting a haircut.  It was much needed - the last one was in September.  I called too late to go to my old friend Aime - she's popular and books up fast - so I just did a walk-in some place in Lincoln Square.  I love the flippiness of a new haircut - I can never straighten it like this on my own.

Anyways, I want to thank all my friends and readers who visit this space.  This year hasn't been my most prolific as a blogger, but you all still keep coming back.  Thank you.  I love the communities I visit and thank you for letting me be a part of it all.  Next year my friend Sharon and I are planning to each do a photo every day.  I'll probably be posting many of them here, and always on Flickr.

2009 is feels full of possibility for me.  God willing I'll be able to get a job when I graduate grad school in June (if you know of any urban planners looking to hire - I come with good papers!).  Hopefully the economy will pick up enough for that.  I could be in a very different place (geographically) in six months, and I'm kind of excited for the change and the new beginnings.  

Happy new year!

Couch surfing horoscope

I'm in Chicago for the week! After a day of driving hell! (And no, I don't want to talk about it!)

But I'm here, have already eaten lovely things with lovely people.  I'm still trying to figure out my plans for the week, but at least know the couches I'm sleeping on through Friday.  I was concerned, however, to read my horoscope this morning:

Taurus (4/20-5/20)
Your life is more intertwined with other people's lives than you realize right now, so don't think that your actions won't have domino-like repercussions. The choices you make, from how much eau de cologne to put on in the morning to where you do your grocery shopping, has an impact on other people. So be cautious about where you vent your frustrations -- and how you vent them. If small things make a difference, then big things like anger could do a lot of damage.

It's good to be reminded that it's important to be a good, sensitive guest.  Luckily I'm flitting about enough no one should really get too tired of me.  

Lazy gray day

My parents and sister have cleared out to Chicago and my brother and I have the house to ourselves, before we head there in a couple of days.  My brother is indulging me and letting me watch Howard's End while he fools around with his laptop.  I'm drinking tea in my pjs and foraging through the bountiful leftovers.  Eventually I'll get dressed and go and meet up with some high school friends.  For now, though, I'll enjoy the BBC.

To make tolerable this existence

My family listens to Burgess Meredith reading several stories/poems every Christmas Eve, including Francis P. Church's response to young Virginia in 1897. I wish I had it digitized, because I would share it that way, I wish you could all hear Mr. Meredith's comforting voice. For me this represents my family's belief and whimsy, two things my Grandmother instilled in us. I hope you are all warm and safe tonight.

DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in THE SUN it's so." Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus? VIRGINIA O'HANLON, 115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernatural beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Ratty and Mole at 100

The Christmas season makes me think of both friends and family. Auld Lang Syne comes to mind - making me feel slightly maudlin (in the best way possible) as I think on good times past.  The year is ending, it's cold, and there are reunions with old friends and family members.  It felt fitting to read last week that Kenneth Graeme's masterpiece, The Wind in the Willows, has turned 100.

The Wind in the Willows was not a childhood favorite for me.  My Uncle Rick read it to my siblings, cousins and me when I was a kid.  I remembered Toad's wild adventures, but I think he was too manic for me and I never revisited it.  About five years ago I was listening to a lot of audiobooks and listened to the Terry Jones' narrated version on a solo road trip.  I was surprised to find not only the beautiful prose, but the lovely tale of friendship between the unlikely pair of Ratty and Mole.

The fifth chapter had me in tears.  There is something poignant about how Ratty responds to Mole's need to be home, once he realizes that he's been a bit of an ass in regards to his friend's feelings.  It hit close to home - I was living with one of my best friends at the time and it seemed to encapsulate a back and forth between friends perfectly.

The weary Mole also was glad to turn in without delay, and soon had his head on his pillow, in great joy and contentment. But ere he closed his eyes he let them wander round his old room, mellow in the glow of the firelight that played or rested on familiar and friendly things which had long been unconsciously a part of him, and now smilingly received him back, without rancour. He was now in just the frame of mind that the tactful Rat had quietly worked to bring about in him. He saw clearly how plain and simple -- how narrow, even -- it all was; but clearly, too, how much it all meant to him, and the special value of some such anchorage in one's existence. He did not at all want to abandon the new life and its splendid spaces, to turn his back on sun and air and all they offered him and creep home and stay there; the upper world was all too strong, it called to him still, even down there, and he knew he must return to the larger stage. But it was good to think he had this to come back to; this place which was all his own, these things which were so glad to see him again and could always be counted upon for the same simple welcome.

Anyway, the holidays are a perfect time to revisit with old friends - both real and literary.  Here's to friends and new adventures in the next year.

Fighting sprawl

Sorry for the lack of posts - I've been having quandaries - about blogging in general and also about the cookie contest. (Only one group has submitted. It seems the cookie contest is DOA this year.)  Here's something I meant to post about last week.

I just finished a project about creating walkable communities for a class on urban design and public health.  The idea behind the assignment was to research some aspect of "healthy" cities, find a case study, and then apply it in some way to Columbus.  I did a case study on an existing project to create a "main street" in Arlington, VA, specifically the Columbia Pike Corridor.  Basically, using form-based code, they are changing 3.5 miles of sprawly, car-oriented stretch of roadway to a dense, walkable, mixed use environment, that is designed to be public transit ready.  The goal is not to gentrify, but to create a vibrant, urban environment.  (Of course whether it will push out completely is still yet to be seen.  A lot of projects say they aren't going to do that but then only build expensive housing - and even if they do build mixed income housing, some people always get pushed out.  I am very curious to see or to know of projects that don't just gentrify.)

Anyhow, as you might guess from the long paragraph above, I have become an urban planning nerd.  I love to talk about things like form-based code, new solar technologies, using wetlands for water treatment, etc.  The reason I chose this topic was that the suburb I intern with is writing a new plan for one its neighborhoods, and I helped at a community meeting.  Also, one of the other interns and I like to have lunch and discuss what we think would strengthen and make this area better.  I saw this project as an excuse to put these ideas to paper, and to think about them more critically.  It was fun - my friend and I did our own mini walking audit, and I think I came up with some sensible suggestions and shared them with the city's planner.

Last week, after I had given my final presentation for class and turned in my papers, I heard this piece on Morning Edition, about Tyson's Corners in N.  Virginia.  (I'm also a huge Morning Edition nerd.)  Over the next thirty years, Tyson's Corners is going to try and change from a sprawled edge city that has a day time population (ie: workers) that more than dwarfs the  number of actual residents (117,000 workers to 17,000 residents - can you imagine the congestion?).  This is a feat that has never been done before.  A lot of the literature I read seemed to suggest that a project like this would be something of a fool's errand - massively expensive and difficult from a legal perspective.  It will be very interesting to follow this project's progress, because I think other cities like Tyson's Corners are going to looking to change their modus operandis, especially if they can't  count on building (and filling) new spec office  parks.

Full moon fever

So, a friend mentioned in an email something about watching the moon tonight. I didn't know what she was on about. I've spent the week dealing with finals, projects, and a mailing for work that just won't die. I've been a little out of it. Then I read this and found out what Jennifer was going on about.

Tonight the moon is at its biggest and brightest in 15 years.  It's been nothing but low lying clouds here for days - gray dreariness.  I thought the moon would be a no show for us, but it peeked out.  I wish I had a tripod tonight.  Pull on a coat and check it out for yourself!

BWA-HA-HA!

Illinois might have two successive governors convicted of corruption.  It was only a matter of time until G-Rod got caught doing something.  

This is what the Chicagoist says: "This thing is...amazing. We wish we could curl up on the sofa in front of the fire and under a blanket and live with this thing like it was a Danielle Steel novel. It's just. That. Good."

Follow the link to read their favorite excerpts of the 76 page document.  Mine?  That he is/was interested in running for president.  HA!

Thanks, Blago, for reminding me why I was happy to leave Illinois when I did.  (Sorry friends there.)

Open Cookie Season

The cookie season for the RoD Holiday Bake-off is currently open! We are now accepting cookies!  As a recap, here are the rules this year:

• Each contestant may enter up to three items.
• Cookies or bars only!
• No cookies can contain any nuts!  (Please be stringent about this, one of the judges has an allergy.  Nut allergy = anaphylactic shock.)

Besides me, my co-judges are the runners-up from last year, Team Chicago (Shannon, Von and Marty). This year we're adding a special guest judge, Snag's son, Snag Jr. 

Please message me or leave me a comment if you want to participate!  Cookies will be accepted through Dec. 19!

Some recent Flickr faves

I am thankful for Flickr and all the inspiration I find there.  Click to see the mosaic larger or follow the links below.

1. The Fowler Theatre, 2. Untitled, 3. Birch Trees 111108, 4. ferry building, six fifty-eight, 5. 'round and 'round we go, 6. There are ghosts in my room, 7. Out My Window, 8. valley ford barn, 9. Untitled, 10. Donut Day., 11. Dunes Walkway, 12. Halfway between Rügen and Ruden, 13. France08: Pelleportal 1 (#33), 14. another, 15. Frank Lloyd Wright in Stitches (2), 16. beacon, 17. morning like a night, 18. on the way home; 11/17/08, 19. Untitled, 20. Untitled, 21. img055, 22. film.366, 23. Untitled, 24. hope gocco, 25. France08: Metro V2 (#12)