Experiencing Art!

Experiencing Art in Chicago

The art scene in this city is something quite special. It is one of the main reasons why I moved to Chicago. I have had a great amount of success in establishing myself in the art scene here, and so excited that one of my best friends, Sarah, has been able to do the same! At the beginning of the year, she started a job working in student affairs for the School at the Art Institute downtown. Having her in Chicago is so awesome! She's always game to see a play, or opera and visit museums. What's even better is, she gets into the Art Institute for free, and on Saturday we visited the Modern wing, which we hadn't experienced yet.

I had a wonderful time spending hours walking with her through the exhibits. Some of the coolest works, I was not able to photograph, like a beautiful Jackson Pollock piece. There were other galleries, where I could photograph and you can see some of my favorite pieces below.

Later, Saturday night, I went to support my intern, Chase, who performed in Northwestern University's production of "The Magic Flute."


It was a really fun production! This is a picture of the set before the show started.

In my own art world at work, we are in process of opening our last opera of the season, Hercules.

Final dress rehearsal is this Wednesday, and it opens Friday. Only 4 more weeks of the opera season. Almost done, and into off season. Good times!

Saying Goodbye & Celebrating Life

The chance to live on this Earth, is an amazing blessing! Our time here is so short, and it is necessary to say goodbye to loved ones, that maybe we aren't quite ready to loose.

This was the case for my Mom's first cousin, Ron Jenson, who passed away on February 7th. Although he's a cousin, out of respect we called him, "Uncle Ron." He will be missed greatly!!

I decided that it was important for me to make the trip down to Houston that weekend. One, so that I may celebrate the life of my Uncle Ron. And two, to celebrate my Mom's 50th birthday which was on February 10th.

I flew down to Houston Friday afternoon and stayed until Sunday evening. My Grandad was so glad that I was making the trip down, that he decided to make the 10 hour drive down to be there as well.

Friday night Mom and Grandad picked me up and took me out to eat at Chili's. :) I haven't been there in a long time!

Saturday afternoon was Ron's memorial service. There I got to meet the new babies in the Jenson family, Addie and Ben.

Here is my cousin, Ryan Jenson, with his 3 week old daughter, Addie! So excited to have the opportunity to meet this angel!

It was amazing to welcome a new soul to our family and say goodbye to another.

We said goodbye surrounded by family, and Ron's closet friends.


Here's a pic of "Grandbelly" Gary, with his grandson, Ben! Amazing energy between these too!

The service was so touching. I learned facts about my uncle that I never knew. For one, I never understood how long of a relationship he had with his life partner, Steve. Twenty two years is an amazing commitment, and really inspirational. I also learned the role that Ron played in his church, and in his community, always working to welcome people of all backgrounds and support them. This is obvious in his 12 years as a boyscout den leader.

After the service we gathered together as a family and celebrated Ron's life through slide shows of pictures, and great stories!

Despite sad circumstances, I loved being together with my family!

After all was done at the church, we decided to meet for an early dinner at a restaurant close to the church. Here is my cousin, Beth, never too old to sit in Grandad's lap! :)

It was a great meal! Amazing food and even more amazing company! I love my family so much!!

More stories about Ron and Steve... On my way home, I thought of how grateful I am to Ron for introducing Steve to our family. He is truly an amazing man, with lots of love and stories to share.

Here we are, all together! A short, and sad, but also a truly blessed family meeting!

The Jenson Family

Chicago Blizzard 2011

Chicago Blizzard 2011!

On Tuesday, February 1, a blizzard warning was put into effect for the state of Illinois. By 3pm that day, my company released their employee's. They wanted to give us the opportunity to get home before the brunt of the storm hit. Luckily my commute home was simple, and had no problems. The Chicago Transit Authority takes great care to maintain safety during bad weather. Below, I'm waiting inside the train station for my bus to take me home. This was around 5:45pm. You can see the storm beginning to blow outside.

A view of my bus stop as I walk home. It was hard to get a focused picture, since the wind was blowing so much.

I was trying to get a pic of myself, just as a gust of wind hit my face. This picture makes me laugh. :)

Once I made it home, we were safe and warm inside. Our new apartment is very sturdy with new window, and a warm heater. We knew the wind was blowing, but couldn't hear it.

A view from our living room windows at 6pm Tuesday evening.

7:30pm

A view from our bedroom window at 8:30pm.





Around 9pm, we noticed some neighbors trying to park their car, and having to dig out a space.



But, we were happy, safe and warm inside!


With the dogs all snuggled up.

10pm from the living room window.

10am, February 2. Still snowing big fluffy flakes, with significantly less wind.

But the storm had made it impossible to commute, so they city had a snow day off! The schools were closed for the first time in 12 years!

You can see the snow drifts that had collected through the evening.

I had on all my winter gear to take the dogs out for their walk. They had their coats on too.

A view of the walkway beside our apartment. Our landlord was great and had shoveled all ready that morning. Look at the drift along the fence!



By 1pm, the sun had come out, and the snow had stopped. Ruben headed out to start shoveling out the cars.

He's so wonderful!!! By the time I got out there, he had cleared out my car, and was in process of clearing his jeep.

He definitly deserved a kiss!

In the process he created this 5 foot pile!

I decided it was my turn to help, so I took over the shovel and got in there. It was actually a lot of fun, and great exercise. Not only that, but the neighbors were out in full force doing the same work. Eventually we worked together to clear out the cars and cleared parking spaces.



Here, I am working with a senior in high school, Nolan, and a new neighbor, Mike.





The dogs were having a blast, checking out all the fresh new snow.

Here Ruben is helping some more neighbors down the street.

There weren't many cars driving, so we let the dogs off the leash and let them tour the block. They had fun mingling with the neighbors.

Here Nikon is saying hello to his buddy, Lenny. Lenny takes care of the dogs when we leave town.

Canon was glad to see him too!

Here Nikon is trying to cross the street to say hi to Jackie, a junior high student from the neighborhood.

A view of my neighbors working to clear their spaces. The consensus was that the weather would be getting to below freezing by night fall. We needed to clear the snow before it froze to the cars and was impossible to move.

We really enjoyed our snow day off. However, the opera house is in the middle of producing Lohengrin, which opens February 11. The show must go on, and so I'm in the office today. The city of Chicago takes snow clearing very seriously, especially for the downtown area. So, as you can see, the roads and sidewalks were pretty clear.

This storm was quite an experience! Mother nature is amazing, and it's nice to stop and take a moment to appreciate the power of weather! (From the safety of my warm apartment, of course!) I know that the storm trailed from Texas to Illinois, and that my Texas family is dealing with snowy, cold conditions. Please be safe, and warm! Much love to you all!