Memorial Day

Todd was out of town attending a special award ceremony for his father. He tells me it was wonderful!  Being alone in Chicago, I thought up a last minute Memorial Day outing for myself and invited some friends.  We enjoyed an outdoor concert at the Pritzker Pavillion in Millennial Park.  The first act was  Soctt Lucas and the Married Men.  The second was Kelly Hogan.  They are both Chicago born artists and bands.   For not being with family, it is great to have good friends!

V-8 Summit

I had a tour at the Merchandize Mart building this morning.  The building was sponsoring a contest for sculptures made from canned food that would later be donated to food pantries.  After this last week, I have to say that the V-8 Summit was my favorite.

I also really liked the light house as well.  I have a view of it from my front window.

NATO on Monday

Today is the last day of the NATO summit.  I saw a couple of small protests from my window.  This quarter circle park I have taken a picture of is famous for protests.  This is where the 1968 Democratic Convention riots started.  If there is to be a protest, it is usually either there or at Daley Plaza.  Anyway, the buses and cars parked on the circular road around the park are all for police.  There are a lot of police around the parameter of the park as well.  They do this to separate the protesters from the general public.  My point is that the protesting crowd was small. 

What a surprise I had in the evening when I looked out my window to see more protesters.  Remember, the NATO summit people are gone!  Still, we had this sit-in on Michigan Avenue and Jackson.  The protestors had a megaphone.  That means I could hear them as well as see them from my window.  After listening a while, I got the feeling that this was a love fest/testimony meeting.  They were taking turns talking about how they had been wronged and discriminated against.  They spoke about the injustice they had to endure and how they had found meaning and friendship with each other and their cause.
 

After a while, the protesters started spreading out into a large circle while holding hands.  A few individuals walked towards the center of the circle.  They started baring more than a testimony.  They were stripping off their shirts.  There was a moment there when I wondered if they would stop!  Thankfully they did just removing their shirts.  (Yes, some of them had to pull up their pants in the processes of walking into the center of the circle to avoid tripping on themselves!)  Then, the whole crowd started to "omm".  After being on the corner for several hours, they finally broke up.

Over the last few days I have observed the following:  First, most protesters in the Sunday parade were legitimate citizen voicing their opinion in a lawful way.  Second, there was an element who wanted to pick a fight with anyone for any reason.  Thirdly, there are several people who felt that their right to free speech allowed them to trample on the rights of others, hurt their business revenues, unlawfully block their streets and traffic and in many ways inconvenience them.  Lastly, I just want to thank all of you for paying your federal taxes which helped to pay for the policemen who had to babysit these people.

NATO's Sunday Evening Hooligans

I thought the days events were over after the large march in the afternoon.  I was wrong.  Sunday evening was a different category.  I won't even give the agitators the dignity of calling them protesters, the majority were hooligans.  They were small in number and split into small erratic groups moving like mobs through the immediate downtown area that I had access to.

 Picture of Jackson and Michigan Avenue.  Police are anticipating the protestors traveling south from in front the Art Institute.

This is the corner of Wabash and Jackson.  (The west side of my block.)  It is difficult to see the police gathered on each point of the corner.  They were there to build police lines across streets should they be needed.  There were lots of agitators around.  Rather than really protesting for a cause, they were trying to stir up problems with police and spectators.  Scarey.

There was a contingent of protesters that stayed at the Art Institute for hours until about 11:00 pm that evening.  This photo was taken about 10:30 pm.  The white vans are all government vans used to move the police around.

NATO on Sunday

This is my good friend and neighbor Annette.  We spent the early afternoon together watching the "parade" from my window.  There were a lot of people protesting.  The Chicago Tribune estimated about four thousand.  Their numbers, however, were not the feared tens of thousands the "Occupiers" threatened.  (Thank goodness!)  I have actually seen more people leaving Grant Park at one time for other popular events.  It was a lively crowd that included mostly normal people.  The predominant message was anti-war.  The group moved very slowly...It took about 20 minutes for them to pass by my window.  I have included some shots below.

This was the beginning of the march.  I believe the double-decker red bus has press people.

Highlighted in this photo are the US service men and women who were the "grand marshals" of the protest.  They were going to throw away their war medals at the end of the march. 

 The police led the march and were also the rearward.  The finale were the street sweepers as pictured below.

Creativity On the March

I have selected creative winners from this morning's protest.  Although the occupy people were only a drop in sea of protesters, they were certainly the creative winners! 

"Don't trade on me" is a pun on the Revolutionary War motto "Don't Tread On Me."   (I don't think these protestors realized they had their sentence reading from right to left.)  Very cute!
 

The gentleman with the yellow banana head is the object of this picture.  Please double tap on it so that you can see the picture enlarged.  His sign read: "Reelect Imbroke Obanana". 

There is good humor in any group!

NATO on Saturday

I have posted pictures from today's  events.  These pictures were taken from my window or within a block of my building.  I have seen a lot of police, very professional and friendly.  

I believe this was a police wall done in anticipation of some motorcade.  This photo also shows the quarter circle park that is a destination point for the protestors.

This picture again shows the quarter circle park located across the street and one block south of my building.  At this time, all the black dots in the park are police.  They are awaiting the protestors.  The white vans are amazing.  Between the vans, the horses and the bikes, the police can move rather quickly. 

These two picture of of the protestors and police are taken from the sidewalk on the building side of Michigan Avenue between Van Buren and Congress Avenue.  The blue helmets are the police.  Okay, you cannot even see the protestors.  Part of that is because I am on the other side of the police line.

Although the protestors were peaceful at this point, there were more chants and rants against the police than  for any cause they were supporting. 

This is a photo of the police and protestors as they left the park and moved north along Michigan Avenue to the Art Institute which is located one block north of my building.  There were several short scuffles on this pass in front of my building.  It looked to me that other "noble" protestors would pull their feisty comrade away from the police.  The people in the street and leaving the park include protestors and police. The people on the sidewalk against the buildings are spectators.

So far, I have been unimpressed  but not surprised with Occupy's ability to inspire many protestors.

NATO on Friday

The city area called the loop seemed a ghost town today. 

This photos was taken on Dearborn Street between the two federal buildings.  The number of federal police vehicles around town was amazing!  I asked a policeman how they got them all to Chicago.  He said that the police drove them to the city from wherever they came.

These photos are of the occupy protestors.  There are not many of them.  Maybe there are forty and at most fifty.  Still, you can see they have at least one nasty sign.  ( I am not talking about the "tax the rich" sign.)  They are currently standing on the corner of LaSalle and Jackson. My building is about 4 blocks away.

An Embarrasing Moment

On Monday, I accepted the invitation of a good friend to be a guest at her water aerobic class.  I went with her and enjoy it.  While walking to the dressing room.  I noticed that the fabric in one small place by the side seam was deteriorating.  I made a mental note to check the suit out when I got home.

When I checked the suit out, this is what I found on the back.  It is one of those moments that you think...if I had only known. I have since purchased a new suit and thrown this one away!

Mother's Day

Todd took me to dinner on Thursday evening to celebrate Mother's Day.  The restaurant he selected was "TRU" entertainment!  To the left is the menu of the dinner we enjoyed.  Not listed on the menu is the assortment of breads offered.  The fennel and raisin bread  was really good.  I will try it at home sometime.  Thanks Todd!

Slave Day

Todd and I made a bet wagering an eight hour slave day on Saint Patrick's Day as we sat outside at a cafe on Michigan Avenue eating lunch.  First, sitting outside in March in Chicago is a miracle of miracles.  The position I took on the bet was that the official temperature for Chicago would dip to freezing or below at least once between March 17 and May 15.  I thought I was going to lose!  On April 11 and for one day only, the official temperature in Chicago was 32 degrees. 

To cash in my slave day, I decided to use it to go to the temple and do work for my direct ancestor.  I went onto new.familysearch.org and found them.  I had Todd do work for one of my ancestors also.  It was a wonderful experience!  Other things that made the day great included being with Todd but also being able to make all the decisions without any consultations.  I got to drive, decide which route to take, and where to go after.  The only one I had to please for eight hours was myself.  It was fun!