Last night I was lucky enough to book a room at the Hotel MarcMikeFornia. I haven’t seen them since they visited the Hotel Careyfornia last year. I’ve been friends with Marc since forever, and he and Mike got married in Montreal two years ago. They live 2 blocks from the Lake, so today at lunch I took their dog Tasha to the beach for a quick walk. Most people don’t realize how great Lake Michigan is to swim in! After work today, I took the train up to my aunt’s house in Winnetka. I’m staying here tonight, and my brother’s coming tomorrow and we’re taking a trip up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to attend a cousin’s graduation. We’ll drive back Sunday and my Dad is flying in to O’Hare, so we’ll all go out for Father’s Day before I fly back to Los Angeles. Have a good weekend everyone!
Sorry for all the boring posts with just pictures, but I’ve been so tired that by the end of the day I just have time to post some pictures and crash. Today was a long day, but I did find a little time to go out and snap these shots before dinner. Cheers!
That’s the Sear’s Tower on the far left. From the time I was in grade school to college, it was the tallest building in the world. That was a long time ago
Some say that Chicago’s nickname of “The Windy City” comes from its political history. Specifically, they reference the “spectator sport” style of politics practiced in the last century, and the adage that when Chicago politicians speak they are “blowing a lot of wind”. It is meant to be a jab towards the Chicago Democratic Machine, which for the most part has been led by the Daley family for the past 50 years. Although machine politics has mostly fallen out of style elsewhere in the United States, it is, for the most part, alive and well in Chicago. Source: Wikipedia
It’s late and I have to wake up at 6 to take the train into Chicago, so I’ll just post a few photos and this quick story. My Mom got an email (excerpt above) from an old friend recently, who told a story about when I was three years old. The friend’s daughter’s name was Candy, and apparently because of that, I bit her (to see if she tasted sweet)!! I guess I had quite the sense of humor even at three. Poor Candy always insisted on being called “Candace” after that. Gee, I hope I didn’t scar her for life (physically and mentally). Candy, if you ever read this, I’m sorry!!
We managed to dodge all the tornadoes around Illinois today, and in typical June fashion it went from hot, humid and stormy this morning to cooler and sunny, to hot, sunny and humid, to huge thunderheads at sunset and finally a dazzling thunderstorm to go to sleep by. I love a rainy night. We don’t get thunderstorms in Los Angeles!
Before breakfast.
On the way to breakfast.
Cheyenne, after lunch!
A photo of a photo of my parents on their wedding day in 1963 two years before I was born.
Me, being butch at my brother’s office.
Dinner, with Mom & David
And the storms move in again!
Death by barbed wire
I played around with different hue settings on the camera.
I flew to “Sweet Home” Chicago today. I haven’t been home in over a year, and since I have a conference to attend downtown this week, I flew in early to spend some time with my Mom and my brother and niece. Before leaving Los Angeles thought, guess who I ran into at LAX??
The plane to Chicago was virtually empty, so there was a lot of room to spread out. The girl in front of me had the cutest puppy with her, and the kids on the plane all had a ball playing with the puppy, as did I.
It was a beautiful day for flying:
The Port of Los Angeles
This cutie’s Dad is a doctor at UCLA and her Mom’s a school counselor. Super nice folks!
My brother picked me up at O’Hare, and brought me to his hometown, about 60 miles west of the city. It might as well be Iowa though! There’s one tiny biker bar in town, which as you can see from these photos is the “hot spot”. I find it hilarious that I left West Hollywood this afternoon, in the middle of Gay Pride weekend, and tonight I’m in a Harley bar 2000 miles away in Elburn, Illinois watching drunk Midwestern girls dance on the bar. Oh, and it was karaoke night. LOL
As I don’t drink, I was a little out of my element!
The guy in the middle is (I suspect) the only gay guy in this little town.
This pretty much sums up the mind set here
That’s my little brother on the right
A robin laid some eggs in his back yard…Spring in the Midwest
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it!! You’re the best!!! I’m
also a huge Get Smart fan (I loved the original TV series, it came out the year I was born, 1965), and you’re not the first person who’s
noticed the Carell resemblance. Thank you so much. And thank you
for not thinking I look like Dewey Cox!!!! If I knew PhotoShop,
you would definitely be my Brad Pitt!
Thanks again!
Carey
Speaking of not knowing PhotoShop, I created and wrote this today after reading David’s entry about Hillary and listening to Jennifer Hudson’s latest single (which is quite catchy) on her website: www.jenniferhudsononline.com.
And I am telling you
I’m not going.
This is the best race, I ever ran.
Even though he’s a black man,
No, no, no, no way,
No, no, no, no way I’m not livin’ in the White House.
I’m not not livin’ in the White House.
I don’t want to be beat.
I’m stayin’,
I’m stayin’,
And you, and you, you will elect me.
Ooh, you will elect me.
And I am telling you
I’m not going,
Even though the rough times are showing.
There’s just no way,
There’s no way.
We’re not part of the same place.
We’re not part of the same time.
We don’t share the same blood.
In fact he’s a black guy.
And time and time we have not much to share,
No, no, no,
No, no, no,
I’m not wakin’ up tomorrow mornin’
And findin’ that Bill’s not even there.
Darling, there’s no way,
No, no, no, no way I’m not livin’ in the White House.
I’m not not livin’ in the White House.
You see, there’s just no way,
There’s no way.
Screw Martin Luther,
Yell, scream and shout.
You can say what you want,
I’m not gettin’ out.
Stop the convention,
Push, strike, and kill.
Just like Ralph Nader,
There’s no way I will.
And I am telling you
I’m not going.
This is the best race, I ever ran.
Even though he’s a black man,
No, no, no, no way,
No, no, no, no way I’m not livin’ in the White House.
Oh, I’m not not livin’ in the White House,
I’m not not livin’ in the White House.
I don’t wanna be beat.
I’m stayin’,
I’m stayin’,
And you, and you,
You will elect me.
Oh, hey, you will elect me,
Yes, ah, ooh, ooh, ‘lect me,
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ‘lect me,
‘Lect me,
‘Lect me,
‘Lect me,
‘Lect me.
You will elect me.
This still gives me goose bumps when I watch it. I remember seeing it at the Arclight when it first came out. There were a bunch of celebrities in the audience, including Whoopi Goldberg and Ron Howard. Everyone stood up, in the middle of the song and started applauding until it was over. It was the first time I’d ever seen that happen in the middle of a movie!
Lisa and I took the boys to Costco tonight to finally return my third camera. They took it back, no questions asked (2 1/2 months after purchase), and gave me cash. Gosh, I love Costco. (The only thing that bummed me out was that my SD850 (that I spent an addition $100 repairing) was on sale for $275 and it came with a free flatbed printer scanner!!)
After shopping we took the boys at met Joel at Pei Wei, where they both tried their hand at chopsticks, with a little help.
Andy and his knock knock jokes. LOL. By the way, check out YouTube’s new annotation feature. It’s not available yet for embedded videos, so take a look here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=gJ8XpEHrjQg
When I got home, this little fella was blocking my way into the garage. I got out of the car to try to shoo him away and he was hurt and moving really slow. I felt kind of sorry for the ugly bugger, and directed him toward the bushes.
I know it’s not a muskrat, it’s a possum, but it gave me the opportunity to post this ridiculously cheesy song from the 70′s. LOL
Once again, I couldn’t resist posting this video of Colin, who watched Spiderman last weekend, and has been playing “Spiderboy” with his Daddy non-stop ever since. THIS is how parents should treat their children:
This however, is NOT how parents should treat their children: (Since I posted this, YouTube disabled the embedding of this video, so you can click here to watch it.)
I ran across this video randomly on YouTube a few weeks ago, and my heart sank for this poor little boy. I have no idea who he is. The father obviously must not have realized how terrible he was being, since he posted it on YouTube, right? Judging from the comments people left on YouTube though, most people think it’s hilarious. I know it’s hard not to laugh, especially since the kid is so cute, but it’s such a terrible way to treat a child. My friend Marcelo, who teaches this type of development in children and has a PhD to prove it, summed it up best when I emailed this to him:
Oh my word!!!!!!! I am going to use this for my class on “the way parents unwittingly fuck up their children for life” next semester!!! I can see how the father thought it was funny. But from my viewpoint this is an awesome instantiation of the horror in the making, especially after 4 days of intense debate about the development of the mind, self, and society. One young human is showing the utmost concern about another, younger human. He is trying so hard to communicate in the way adults seem to prefer. He is sounding off his vowels and the final consonant with such care and determination that his mouth and whole face are contorting into exaggerated expressions. The struggle for communication is so primal, so feral, so desperate. And then, he is making the same critique that I, a professional in the area, is making watching his father’s way of responding: It’s not funnyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! My heart broke. Beijos –Marcelo
I wish everyone could have parents as wonderful as Colin’s!! Every child deserves that kind of love.
When my little buddy Colin decided he wanted to play “train”, but had no tracks, he improvised. I love this kid more than life! xoxo
Carey Anthony
Tonight
1 messages
From: Hillary Clinton
Tue, Jun 3, 2008 at 8:56 PM
Reply-To:
info@hillaryclinton.com
To: Carey Anthony
Dear Carey,
Over the course of this campaign, I have seen the promise of America in
your courage and character (Ummm….you have??), your energy and ingenuity (Well, I am rather ingenious), and your
compassion and faith. (MY faith Hillary? Are you sure??)
Your spirit has inspired me every day in this race. (It has? Really?) While I traveled
this country talking about how I wanted to help you (Hillary, you know who this is right??) — time and again,
you reached out to help me (Wait, are you talking about this?). To grab my hand or grip my arm (Sorry to disappoint you Hillary, but I never touched you ,honest. I’m not sure who you’re confusing me with (obviously not your husband), but honestly, I never laid a hand on you!), to look me
in my eyes and tell me, don’t quit, keep fighting, stay in this race
for us. (I hate to burst your bubble, but I switched over to Obama shortly after I voted for you in the California primary. Are you sure this email wasn’t meant for Jim Carrey?) There were days when I had strength enough for the both of us
– (Gee, thanks, I guess) and on the days I didn’t, I leaned on you. (Cue Bill Withers)
I want to congratulate Senator Obama and his supporters on the
extraordinary race that they have run. Senator Obama has inspired so
many Americans to care about politics and empowered so many more to get
involved, and our party and our democracy are stronger and more vibrant
as a result. (But my Grandma will still freak if I vote for a black man!)
Whatever path I travel next, I promise I will keep faith with (Cue Billy Joel) you and
everyone I have met across this good and great country (Cue God Bless America). There is no
possible way to thank you enough for everything you have done
throughout this primary season, and you will always be in my heart. (How did you even know I voted for you? Do you read my blog?)
Sincerely,
Hillary Rodham Clinton
(Really Hillary?? Are you frickin’ kidding me??)
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It’s late and I have to wake up at 6 to take the train into Chicago, so I’ll just post 
