Ancient Reflections

Fenced Flowers

Chicago

The Chicago Theater

I just read a post on a blog I follow asking which destination would be a good weekend getaway: LA, Vegas, or Chicago. I've never been to the other two but as I've mentioned before, I have spent a great deal of time in Chicago. I even lived there one summer in college while interning at World Book Encyclopedia. The internship was rather unmemorable, but I loved living in Chicago!

Thinking about Chicago has made me nostalgic for "my" city, which I would love to visit again, as well as all my friends who still live there. In honor of my old Chicago home, here are some old pictures from my many trips there over the past eight years.

Chinatown


Random building near Millennium Park

Michigan Ave. down by the parks


One of my favorite things about Chicago: the Bean!


A Bean tradition


The lobby of the Palmer House Hilton, an iconic Chicago hotel, at Christmastime.

Sandstorm

This morning when I got on facebook, there was a message on my wall from one of my high school friends asking if I was affected by the large sandstorm. My reaction was, "huh?"

I had no idea what she was talking about. So I got on the local paper's website and browsed the headlines to see if there was anything about a sandstorm. Nothing.

Then I branched out and did a google news search.

Bingo! I found this:

The Phoenix Haboob of July 5th, 2011 from Mike Olbinski on Vimeo.

HOLY. CRAP.

I haven't been in Arizona very long, so needless to say this is my first glimpse of a sandstorm. All I can say is, I'm rather disappointed to have missed out on something this awesome and scary, yet relatively harmless.

Another joy of life in the Arizona desert is monsoon season. While we might have missed out on this lovely bit of desert living Tuesday, we were fortunate enough to experience another aspect of it on Monday afternoon: a monsoon!

I've been here long enough to expect nothing less than blue skies and sun all day every day, so needless to say these storms are surprisingly violent and regular. Also, after it rains the roads flood to the point where you feel like you're driving through a lake. To a midwestern girl who had the mantra "Never ever EVER drive through a flooded road because your car will be swept away and you will DIE" pounded into her head since birth, this can be a little nerve-wracking.

Offerings

Offerings left at the shrine dedicated to the "apparitions of the blessed virgin mother of God at the Grotto of Lourdes" at the Mission San Xavier del Bac in Arizona.

Don't Blink!

This is a somewhat creepy statue at Tohono Chul Park. I'm not embarrassed to admit that statues freak me out. Don't blink!