Republican

This has been a week full of annoying, disrespectful school kids and annoying visitors! And I don't know what people have been reading this week, but more than ever before, this week included numerous visitors who acted totally surprised and even offended when I told them that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. As part of my house tour, I include that Lincoln was officially nominated as the Republican candidate for President right in his own back parlor--150 years ago this month. Some people pulled me aside after we finished our tour the other day, and the husband said, "You meant that he was a Democrat, right?" No, he was a Republican. "Are you sure???" Yes. He was the first Republican Presidential candidate. The wife said, "Well he freed the slaves right?" Yes. "That doesn't sound like something a Republican would do." It was all I could do to bite my tongue at this point. (As a government employee, I cannot talk politics with anyone while in uniform.) What I wish I could have said is that it was something a Republican would do because Republicans have always stood for whatever is moral. The very next day I had another lady grill me on the fact that Lincoln was a Republican.

Then, today I had a meeting with my supervisor Laura. She had reviewed a new program I developed to be presented this summer. I must say it's an awesome program--I talk about all of the photographs and paintings that were done of Lincoln in 1860, illustrating the Lincoln that was presented to the American people at the time of his election. I discuss how his image helped him become President. Anyway, Laura said that I should include a section about Obama in my program. NO!!! I said, "Well, Obama compares himself to Lincoln a lot, and some people [including myself--but I couldn't say that] don't agree with that comparison. Also, a lot of people, as I have found this week, are confused by whether Lincoln was Republican or Democrat. I think that talking about Obama in a Lincoln program would only increase that confusion. It would also make it appear as if the National Park Service agrees with the idea that Obama is similar to Lincoln." She did not agree with me, but after my continued refusal to include Obama in my program, she finally gave in. Politics were crazy then, and they're crazy now.

All I can say is that I am so excited for a break from everything when I head out to Utah tomorrow! I will really miss Greg and the animal children, but I am SO excited to see my family and to get away from the Lincoln Home for a few days :-)

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day, Mom! Mother's Day is a great day. It's kind of like Christmas--it focuses on someone very important, and it would be nice if people remembered that someone all year like they do on that one special day. We should treat every day as Mother's Day! I know there are a lot of wonderful moms out there, but I think I have the best one in the whole world. She is so patient, loving, kind, and caring. I love you, Mom! I also have wonderful grandmas, and my sisters are great moms too. I'm so happy that Sarah got the best Mother's Day present ever--Baby Leo! He sounds like quite the snuggle bug. Speaking of babies, I think we are running a bird nursery out behind the condo. Greg and I could hear a lot of little chirps the other day, and he found the nest in the enclosure surrounding our air conditioning unit in the backyard. They are quite the boisterous baby birds. Then today when I was out in the backyard with the dogs, it was like I could hear surround sound chirping. I looked over and saw a mommy bird up on our neighbor's air conditioning enclosure, and I realized that they have a nest too! There is just something special about moms--whether they are mommy birds or people mommies. And I'm so grateful for my mom.

On a random note, remember the giant pink elephant with the martini glass I wrote about a couple of weeks ago? Well, I was on my way home from work yesterday when I saw the pink elephant driving down the road! It wasn't actually driving, but it was in someone's trailer. It was so funny and weird.

BIRTHday!

Early this morning I received the happiest text message ever--Sarah and Joel's cute little baby boy arrived healthy and happy! He is so adorable. Look at his big little hands holding on to Sarah's finger. He looks so cuddly. Today I went out and found some St. Louis Cardinals gear for the little guy, as he will soon be moving to St. Louis Cardinals country--and he must be prepared. We're so happy that Mommy and Baby are doing well! I wish I could snuggle with him!!

Weird Illinois

The other day I was driving, and I saw this--a ginormous pink elephant with big glasses holding a martini glass in its trunk. All I can say is Springfield is a strange place. The elephant was just sitting in a parking lot like it belonged there. I would have expected something like this in New Orleans or someplace like that, but I guess you never know what to expect in Illinois.

Greg would agree with that! Last night (actually this morning) at 2:00 a.m. he got a call that someone had died, and he and his boss Rich had to go pick the person up. As they were driving back to the funeral home, Rich slammed on the brakes. Greg thought Rich had seen a deer. But it wasn't a deer. It was a big pink pig. In the middle of the road. At 3:00 in the morning.

Then today we had a strange tornado experience. My past tornado experiences have been really scary, but today's wasn't very scary--probably because there ended up not really being a tornado. But anyway, when I got home from work this evening, we checked the weather and saw that there was a tornado warning headed in the direction of Springfield. Pretty soon Sangamon County was included in the warning, so we headed over to Wal Mart, where we figured we would be safer than at the condo (although we did set up a safe spot at home for the animal children). Once we reached the Wal Mart parking lot, we could see these funny bubbly clouds in the sky. It didn't look very threatening, so Greg and I went to Wendy's and got a hamburger. Never would I have imagined myself eating a hamburger in the middle of a tornado warning. It took a little while for the storm to reach us.

Once the storm came, we went inside Wal Mart, but I kept wanting to come outside and look at the sky. At the moment I took this picture, I was about ready for Abraham Lincoln or someone to be beamed down from the sky--it kind of looked like something like that was going to happen. But alas, no Abraham Lincoln and no tornado. We stayed at Wal Mart for about 45 minutes while the storm blew over. There was some serious rain, thunder, and lightning, but no storm damage. At one point we determined that the storm had passed over us, so we went out to the car. But at that moment it started to POUR. So we decided that would be a good time to go to Dairy Queen for a Blizzard. :-) It was a strange date night, but turned out to be a date night nonetheless!

A Tall Adventure

Here it is--Chicago from the sky (but not an airplane)! Yesterday was an absolutely perfect day to venture to the top of the tallest building in the United States: the Sears Tower. (It's actually been renamed the Willis Tower, but that sounds silly.) My friends David, Teal, Melissa and I took off early Saturday morning to head up to the Windy City for our friends Rosie and Chris' wedding. We thought we might as well make a trip out of it, so we started off our day at the Sears Tower. The elevator ride to the top was pretty crazy. It only takes 60 seconds to go up 103 stories, which makes your ears really start popping. We were anxious (and a little nervous) to experience the tower's newest attraction: the glass balconies, which just opened last year.

So here's what it looks like to be standing 1,353 feet above the streets of Chicago!!! The glass balconies were really cool, but also really scary. Walking out onto them was kind of like a thrill ride that didn't move. I didn't think it would bother me at all, but seriously, the first step out onto those things is really SCARY. Even though you know in your head that it is (supposedly) safe, it still feels like you're walking off a ledge. And knowing that a piece of glass is the only thing between you and a 1,353-foot fall is slightly unnerving.

The glass balconies extend four feet out over the edge of the building. When you walk out on them, you are completely enclosed in glass--top, bottom, and sides. It's really clean glass, so you sort of feel like there is nothing there. The three of us girls were all pretty nervous when this picture was being taken. After our adventure at the Sears Tower, we headed to the shore of Lake Michigan to grab some lunch. We found a really fun pizzeria called Pizano's. Oprah says that they have the best thin crust pizza in the U.S., so being an Oprah skeptic, I thought I'd try a thin crust cheese pizza. It was delicious, although I think I would award the best thin crust pizza title to the Imo's pizza chain in the St. Louis area. But it was very tasty pizza, and quite the Chicago atmosphere at Pizano's.

After lunch we made our way to Navy Pier. Along the way, I literally found a little slice of Utah!! They had a building along Illinois Street that featured stones from each of the states and several countries. Utah's stone was very fittingly from the Salt Lake Temple. Seeing it made me feel nostalgic.

Navy Pier is such a fun place. It was quite chilly there right on the water, but there were still a lot of people out enjoying the sunshine. It brought back fond memories of the last time I was at Navy Pier--with Mom back in 2007 when she and I came to Illinois for a symposium. That was in February, so it had been even colder that day!

Being history people, we are also statue people, so we found this interesting statue there at Navy Pier. Lake Michigan looks so beautiful from there! It looks just like the ocean because you can't see the other side of it. It is indeed a great lake. You may notice that my attire changed slightly--I was so cold that I had to buy a Navy Pier sweatshirt. When I looked at the weather before planning what to wear, I had forgotten to factor in the wind chill. But anyway, continuing our water-based adventures, we decided to take a water taxi back to Union Station where we would then catch a train back to the wedding reception location.

Chicago is a beautiful city anyway (although it does produce some icky politicians), but seeing it from the Chicago River adds an entirely new element of awesomeness. They pour green dye into the river for St. Patrick's Day, and I don't know what you think, but it appeared that the dye hadn't quite worked itself out of the system yet--the water still looked pretty green :-) In this picture you can see the Sheraton where Mom and I stayed, which is probably one of the nicest--if not the nicest--hotel I have ever stayed in.

As we were floating down the river, we got to see something pretty cool--one of the drawbridges opened for some sail boats to pass through. It was really interesting to watch the entire episode. The bridge was up for about seven minutes, and during that time about ten sail boats came through. We could see the traffic--foot and car--backing up as they waited for the bridge to go back down. We passed under a lot of drawbridges, and we wondered how long it would take for a sail boat to make it the same distance we went in 30 minutes, if they had to wait for each of those bridges to open. We were really glad that we took the water taxi because we had been tired of walking, and it was a fun, new way to see Chicago.

After the train ride back to the suburbs, we went to our hotel, changed, and then it was off to Rose and Chris' wedding reception. It was so much fun! We met up with some of our other Lincoln Home friends there, and we enjoyed a beach-themed evening. The wedding reception featured an open bar--all the alcoholic beverages you could drink, all night long--scary! :-) I heard and saw my co-workers do things that I never would have imagined. I did have an accidental run-in with some alcohol though. For dessert they brought out cups of ice cream. I dug into mine. It was soooooo good. After a minute I said, "This ice cream is DELICIOUS!" Melissa said, "That's because it's topped with Kahlua!" Kahlua is a Mexican coffee-flavored liqueur. Ooopsie! So that was the end of my dessert. I woke up with a really bad headache this morning, so Melissa, Teal, and David were teasing me about having a hangover. No thank you! But anyway, we had a really great time. We were pretty tired this morning, so we slept in a bit, but then headed back to Springfield. It was nice to escape the Lincoln Home madness for a couple of days. It was just the remedy that my Travelocity roaming gnome cabin fever needed!