A visit!

Ruben's symphony season ended in a great concert by the New Philharmonic Symphony on April 15.

Here he is in our living room as we were about to leave.

Here's a little peek of the ensemble before they played their great Brahms concert.

This past week we had a great visit from my cousin, John Robin Stewart. It was his first trip to Chicago for a job interview, and we were thrilled to have him stay with us.

Canon was particularly excited to have John here, stayed by his side most of the time. :)

Since both Ruben and I had to work, John did a lot of touring Chicago on his own. So after his interview Wednesday afternoon, John went up to Wrigley Field and saw the cubs play baseball.

Then on a free day John went downtown and toured through The Art Institute of Chicago.

John walked around the downtown area until I was done with work. We then met up, and Ruben picked us both up to take us out for BBQ for dinner. We took John Robin to this great place called Smoque BBQ. I think, the best place in the city to get genuine BBQ.

After dinner we were really full and tired. Ruben practiced bass, and I taught John how to play a great game called Pente. Here he is concentrating as he plans to make his next move. :)

Nikon gave me advice on where I should play next. :)

Later, Ruben joined in, and we had a great time!

John Robin left Friday afternoon. Before heading to the airport, Ruben and I took him out for breakfast to Eatt, where Ruben currently bar tends on the weekends.

Our Easter weekend was very quiet. Ruben has been preparing for an audition that he has with Kansas City Symphony this week. Not only that, but he also had to work a brunch shift both Saturday and Sunday. So, since I was home alone for most of the weekend, I got a ticket to see "El Nogalar" at the Goodman Theatre. Turns out I have worked with both the set and costume designers on various projects in the city, and I was excited to see their work in action here. It was a new play discussing the social changes happening in current day Northern Mexico. I really enjoyed it.

Early this morning Ruben left for Kansas City. We are really excited he has the opportunity to play for a job opening in the symphony. Any prayers and positive thoughts are all greatly appreciated!

Chicago Speaks

Chicago has a way of speaking to me. Sometimes it makes me laugh. Like in the image below, you assume the artist is spelling out the alphabet, but they missed E, L, &O! Maybe ELO are the artist initials...who knows. But it definitely made me stop and go "Huh?!" and take a photo.

Then there are times, when I have a lot on my mind, and the city has a way to help me focus on what's important. For example, one morning I was feeling kind of down. I've been working on being a more healthy individual, and feel like sometimes I fail at resisting temptation. As I was waiting on the train these words popped out at me. They were written in a sharpie on the train station wall: Head, Heart, U are what u eat, Where u stand. It made me realize just how true those words really are, and not to get myself down about my mistakes, just to remember it's about my head, my heart, to be healthy, and to stand strong.

Then after I caught the train, I notice this message in an apartment window, that confirmed my conclusion from the previous message.
"Keep Looking Up"

My Aunt Janee always says there is no such thing as a coincidences, there are only "God-cidences." I do believe God was talking to me that morning, in a very unorthodox way. A little encouragement not to be downhearted, to take care of myself, and to "Keep Looking Up."

Thanks, God! I needed that!

End of Season, Start of Spring

The opera season ended March 27th. It was a jam-packed season! I am very proud of the productions we produced, but also glad to have some time off and prepare for next season.

This year we had two long time employee's leave Lyric.

In the middle of this group shot is Rick Jarvie, long time head of the wig and makeup department. He was with the company for 20 years. This picture was taken at the goodbye dinner party thrown for him in his honor. He is standing with some members of his make up and wig crew.

The head of the props department, Tom Gilbert, retired after working at Lyric for 37 years!

There was a big retirement party for him in our large rehearsal room. There were a lot of Lyric employee's there to wish him well during retirement. It was a great party. This is Tom, letting us know he "will not miss the long hours," but he "will miss the wonderful people" he works with. A great guy, and I wish him lots of good r&r!

This is a great shot of the room, a lot of my co-workers partying. :)

These are my work buddies, Charlie Reilly and Mike Smallwood!

Now that the season has ended, work in the office has definitely slowed down.

Some of the seasonal staff, who are gone for the spring and summer, left me their plants to care for while they are gone. I have them in a empty office next to mine. I'm calling it the Tech Office Solarium! :)

This past weekend my best friend Sarah's sister, Amber O'Neill, came to visit Chicago. I had a blast hanging with these ladies!! They are so much fun! We got together and ate a lot of great food.

Here we are at Giordano's famous for their Chicago style deep dish pizza.

This is the medium! Huge, delicious pizza!

After dinner we head out to downtown. These two girls are hilarious! They definitely crack each other up for sure!!

We made our way to Blue Chicago, a small dive blues bar. We had a great time listening to live blues!And laughing...lots of laughing!

Early the next morning we met for breakfast and indulged into some greatness! We got an awesome eggs benedict and tried 3 different flavors of pancakes. We all decided that the favorite was the caramel, white chocolate pretzel pancakes. OH MY!

Here is Amber, smiling through the full belly! :)

Later that afternoon, I let the girls have some quality sister time, and I went to support friend and co-worker, Tim Holbrook. He was performing in an a capella choir concert. It was a great concert, with tons of wonderful pieces that embodied spring!

Tim is in the middle standing next to the column.

One piece had audience participation. We helped create a thunderstorm in Eric Whitacre's piece "Cloudburst." It was a lot of fun!

Meanwhile Ruben has been playing bass like crazy. Last week he had 2 auditions. No full time job yet, but every audition he learns something, and that is always a plus. His next opportunity is for Cleveland Symphony. They have asked him to submit a recording of him performing the audition list, and we're excited at the opportunity for him to be considered with out the cost of travel. Ruben has been playing non-stop since November! This weekend he performs Brahms with the New Philharmonic Symphony, and I'm really excited to see it. Life is good! We are blessed!!