My Visit Home

I've just returned from a lovely visit to my mother, sister, and her husband.

I've flown to Chicago many times now, but I've never approached fully over Lake Michigan. Usually the plane approaches from the south with land on the left and water on the right. This time we must have approached from the southeast and were completely over the water. I'm glad I listened to the flight attendant describe the way to use my seat as a flotation device.

Lake Michigan or Atlantic Ocean?

Ah... there's Chicago.

When I see this plane next to us I begin to wonder if we will accidentally be sharing the runway?!? Fortunately it stayed parallel to us and landed on the other side of the control tower.

The weather is normally really gorgeous in Illinois this time of year. During my days there, however, it was in the 40's and 50's and raining - November weather. Because I wanted to buy a Chicago Bears T-shirt we went shopping, and ended up at a mall to go "mall walking." While Ken listened to his ipod Martha and I talked and walked.

The benefit of walking at the mall is lunch at Panera.

One of the other ways we avoided couch potato status while it rained was to play Wii sports. Here you can see the screen Ken has set up in their basement with the virtual bowling alley set up. See the little scoreboard in the upper right corner? The little guy on top was Ken, the cute brunette (red square) was Martha, and the dumb blond bimbo on the bottom was me. Bimbo or not, my virtual bowling skills are better than my real bowling skills, but that's not saying much.

Ken watches as Martha begins her swing.

Judging by Martha's expression she must have done well.
Judging by Ken's expression, she must have done well.

We had to laugh a lot at Ken since many of his throws were performed while he was still sitting on the stool, but here he's actually bowling on his feet. With Wii bowling it doesn't matter much!

Here you see me and my blond bimbo Wii person (she's the one in the blue dress) golfing. On one particularly hard hole (par 5) I had a score of 6... yes, it took me 11 swings to get the ball in the cup. Sigh..... We also played tennis and boxing (sorry Martha, I didn't mean to knock you out.)

Each afternoon I went to visit my mother and talk her ear off. Here you see me trying to take our picture, but a nice staff member walked by and took pity on me and offered...

... to take our picture.

I've told her many times before, but I was able to tell my mom again how much I appreciate the way she raised me and everything she did for me and how I have benefited in my life from all her efforts. I cried when I said goodbye... I always do.

Back at Martha's I told her how I always cry when I leave my parents, but she gave me a big sister hug and made me feel better. Here we are ready to leave for a night on the town: dinner at Reza's and then "Cabaret" at Drury Lane Theater.

Reza's Restaurant in Oakbrook has Persian, Middle Eastern and Meditarranean foods. Here you see Ken enjoying his salmon dish.

Martha liked her koubideh combo (one skewer of seasoned ground chicken, one of seasoned ground beef) with baghaleh polo (dill rice) and grilled vegetables.

I loved my vegetarian sampler which had hummus, tabbouli, shami (cutlets of minced vegetables and chickpeas in a pomegranate sauce with walnuts), babba ghanouj, baghaleh polo, salad shirazi, and kashk-e bademjoon. For dessert we had Persian tea and bamieh. Happily it was too much food and I took the rest home and had it for breakfast the next day!

With our tummies full of yummy food we went to see Cabaret. For anyone who hasn't seen this movie/play I have included the director's notes below. I really enjoyed it.

Thanks M & K, I had a great time.

Director's Notes

Willkommen im Kabarett. Welcome to Cabaret. Berlin, New Year's Eve 1929. The "The Golden Twenties" are plateauing. Post World War I inflation comes to a head just six years earlier when one United States dollar is worth 160 million German marks. Money is hauled around in wheelbarrows and wash baskets. Implementation of currency reform and Germany's gradual economic ascent brings about the public's taste for glitter, glamour and light entertainment; variety reviews with kick lines of topless dancing girls. The intellectual depth of the earlier cabarets, sophisticated vaudevilles devised for the aristocracy and art lovers is gone. The increasing economic necessity of appealing to the widest audience possible leads to political punches being pulled. Satire, parody and irony become suspect of an omnipresent censor. The nation's psychic escape from the politically turbulent Weimer Republic and the bloody conflicts that followed are inevitable. The escapism, the voluptuous panic of a generation of youth fueled by an insatiable appetite for drugs, alcohol and sex, sets a nervous, speed driven pace for the city. The velocity is blinding, unthinking and cruel but not without it's charms. A young writer arrives by train to the Berlin station at Friedrichstrasse and entranced, has the time of his life. His "writer's block" cured.