Get Your Pink On – In Edgewater!

Posted on April 6, 2016 by a.catherine.noonApril 6, 2016

Image used under Creative Commons license; accessed 04/04/2016 from Wikimedia Commons.

And now, Dear Reader, our travels take us east to the lakefront and one of the most striking of the high rises on the north side: the Edgewater Beach Apartments. It used to have a sister property, the Edgewater Beach Hotel, also pink, but it’s since been demolished in the wave of progress.

The interesting thing about this building, besides it’s vibrant pink hue, is its shape: it’s got several wings radiating out from the center. Along the street level, on the side away from the lake, are several businesses. On the side facing the lake there’s nothing but parkland, Lake Shore Drive, and the lake itself: Lake Michigan.

The Edgewater Historical Society has a lovely series of articles on the building and its history, including the Hotel itself, here.

Join us tomorrow when we travel south along the Drive to the world famous Field Museum.

Thank you for joining us for the A-Z Blog Challenge. If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave us a link so I can come visit you too. If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

The theme at Noony’s blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo. Join her as she explores Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

Noony’s theme on Knoontime Knitting – One Writer’s Journey Into 3-D craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year. Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12^th to the 17^th, you’ll be getting live convention reports. Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from Noon & Wilder; the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland. Check it out!

Our friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and we’ll add you!):

Darla M. Sands, Awakening Dreams and Conquering Nightmares with a Pen
Kari Trenten, The Cauldron of Eternal Inspiration

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

Proper English – Devon Avenue

Posted on April 5, 2016 by a.catherine.noonApril 5, 2016

This is Boria the Brave, curled up on my latest knitting project so he can give it his mojo.

This is otherwise known as, furring on it.

But I digress.

Today, Dear Reader, is the Day for D – and with it, our travels take us to the “International Corridor,” or for locals, Devon Avenue.

And here, we must pause a moment, because Chicago’s pronunciation of things is peculiarly idiosyncratic.

Devon, of course, is a famous place in the country of England – and I’m sure, when the founders of this great city were naming streets, they meant that Devon. DEV-uhn. Locals, however, have their own ideas and pronounce it, “Deh-VAHN.” If you get in a cab and ask them to take you to DEV-uhn Avenue, they’ll stare at you blankly and wonder where you mean, because they can’t drive their cab over the Atlantic to England. Not to mention that would be one helluva fare.

Another idiosyncrasy of Devon Avenue is that between about Oakley or Western and about Kedzie, one cannot drive at speed on Devon. This is because the folks who emigrated here don’t drive by American rules football. I once saw two cab drivers, one going eastbound, one westbound, stop dead in the middle of the street to have a conversation. They weren’t at a red light. They were in the middle of the block. They blocked traffic, both of them, for two or three blocks either direction – but by golly, they were going to have their conversation!

On another occasion, my then-roommate and I got off the bus at Western Avenue and walked westbound on Devon to California, a distance of about a half mile.

We beat the bus.

But that’s not why I brought it up – the truly magical thing about Devon Avenue is that despite the city’s heavy-handed attempts to label neighborhoods, it really is the international corridor. Here you can find Indian and Pakistani restaurants, Russian shops, Croatian coffee bars that look like an actual bar inside complete with black light, Arabic hookah lounges, and Orthodox Jewish delis, bakeries, and stores. You can find imported food markets and buy things from Russia, Poland, Ukraine, India, Pakistan, all over the Middle East, and even a few scattered African countries are represented. Wandering up and down Devon you will hear languages from many places and see styles of dress that will open your eyes to the many ways people can express themselves through clothing. It’s chaotic, noisy, and absolutely engaging. It may just be my favorite neighborhood in the city.

I’m not alone. If you enjoy travel, even of the armchair variety, check it out:

A Guide to Devon Avenue

The Ultimate Guide to Indian Food on Devon Avenue

Little India/Devon Avenue

Choose Chicago

Tour Devon In an Afternoon

Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge. If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too. If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

My theme on my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment. I’ll be exploring my daily round, looking for shapes in the natural world and build environment.

The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago. Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year. Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12^th to the 17^th, you’ll be getting live convention reports. Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland. Check it out!

My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

Darla M. Sands, Awakening Dreams and Conquering Nightmares with a Pen
Kari Trenten, The Cauldron of Eternal Inspiration

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

Dude. Of Course – Chicago Pizza!

Posted on April 4, 2016 by a.catherine.noonApril 4, 2016

Okay, this pizza is only Chicago pizza because it was made in Chicago – but I took the shot, so I can use it on my blog. ~grin~ The real story is this:

I was raised in California. While we are vain about our food in that state, we do not have the religion of pizza. Sure, there are regional favorites, like cashews on pizza in Mount Shasta, the Round Table chain, (how I miss you!), and various yuppy foo-foo places where you can get roasted pear and gorgonzola. Then I moved to the Windy City.

My boyfriend at the time introduced me to Lou Malnati’s – and holy cow, but it was fantastic. My boyfriend casually told me that it was the best pizza in town. (For you foodies reading this, Malnati’s will ship their pizza anywhere in the States. My regrets to you not in the States, but I’d imagine shipping this stuff over the borders would cause problems because Customs Agents would eat it before it got to you. I mean, it would be expensive and cause problems going through Customs.)

Not knowing any better, I parroted his statement to his best friend later in the week.

“What? Lou Malnati’s isn’t the best, that’s Pizzeria Uno’s!”

My boyfriend whipped around and in the next fifteen minutes, I witnessed two grown men, aforementioned best friends since college, arguing like schoolboys over which pizza was “the best.”

Then our other friend walked in and drawled, “Naw, it’s Giordano’s.”

Later, at work, I related this story to my coworker, thinking they’d be flabbergasted alike at the specter of three grown men squabbling over pizza.

With a calculating look in their eye, they asked me, “Which one did they say was the best?”

What do I look like, I just fell off the turnip truck??

And then, I got married to a man from Philadelphia, who likes New York style pizza – thin crust, with slices big enough to be folded in half. (Yuck.) So we order from our local neighborhood place, J. B. Alberto’s, because he doesn’t actually like Malnati’s, even though I do.

Then I took Rachel Wilder to Malnati’s, hoping to get her on my side, but noooo. She likes Alberto’s too.

Pizza. It’s religion here.

Check in tomorrow for Devon Avenue – no, not DEV-uhn, deh-VAHN. This is Chicago, baby.

Thank you for joining us for the A-Z Blog Challenge. If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave us a link so I can come visit you too. If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

The theme at Noony’s blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo. Join her as she explores Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

Noony’s theme on Knoontime Knitting – One Writer’s Journey Into 3-D craft blog is Letterforms In Nature. She’ll be exploring her daily round, looking for shapes in the natural world and build environment.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year. Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12^th to the 17^th, you’ll be getting live convention reports. Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from Noon & Wilder; the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland. Check it out!

Our friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and we’ll add you!):

Darla M. Sands, Awakening Dreams and Conquering Nightmares with a Pen
Kari Trenten, The Cauldron of Eternal Inspiration

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

The Only Place Like It In North America – The Bahai Temple

Posted on April 2, 2016 by a.catherine.noonApril 2, 2016

Today our travels take us north of Chicago to the suburb of Wilmette, Illinois, USA and the first Bahai Temple in the Western Hemisphere. Persecuted in their country of origin, Bahai worshipers must practice their faith in secret in many places today. Chicago is proud not to be one of them. The sense of peace is immediately apparent when you step onto the grounds of the temple, regardless of what your personal faith is. This is truly one of the most beautiful man-made structures I’ve ever had the privilege to visit.

The pathway to the temple is between the tall hedges to the right of this image; the grass spreads out like a lap from the flowering trees in the garden.

The gazing pool has several different colors of tile in its bottom, creating a complex reflexion in the surface of the water.

The color here is primarily of the natural world, as the temple uses no colored stained glass in its windows. The atrium is paned with clear glass and patterned with stone, so that when you look up from inside you see the sky through hundreds of tiny openings. We did not go inside to photograph, as it would have disturbed the worshipers inside.

The stairs surround the temple in a circle, allowing the visitor to fully engage with the structure as they walk up to the doors.

The gardens surround the temple on all sides, full of lush flowering trees, shrubs, and plants.

The walkways encircle the temple, allowing the contemplative to walk around it in silence as they consider the natural world juxtaposed with the temple itself. This is truly a place of quiet contemplation. The lower level houses a gallery and information center for those unfamiliar with Bahai faith.

Thank you for joining us for the A-Z Blog Challenge. If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave us a link so I can come visit you too. If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

The theme at Noony’s blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo. Join her as she explores Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

Noony’s theme on Knoontime Knitting – One Writer’s Journey Into 3-D craft blog is Letterforms In Nature. She’ll be exploring her daily round, looking for shapes in the natural world and build environment.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year. Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12^th to the 17^th, you’ll be getting live convention reports. Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from Noon & Wilder; the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland. Check it out!

Our friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and we’ll add you!):

Darla M. Sands, Awakening Dreams and Conquering Nightmares with a Pen
Kari Trenten, The Cauldron of Eternal Inspiration

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

Welcome to Chicago with Noon and Wilder! Come Play In the Windy City – The Art Institute

Posted on April 1, 2016 by a.catherine.noonApril 1, 2016

Welcome to Chicago with Noon and Wilder, and the A-Z of the Windy City.

Over the next month, we’ll be visiting parts of the third largest city in the United States – home of not one, but two baseball teams, (Go Cubbies!), an American football team, basketball and hockey teams. And those are just the pros – the city is known for Chicago-style softball leagues, beachfront volleyball, soccer, tennis, and many more. That’s just the sports. We also have some of the best museums and galleries in the world. Of course, the best part of Chicago, if we do say so ourselves, is the fact that our series The Chicagoland Shifters is set right here.

Image used under Creative Commons, retrieved 04/03/2016 from Wikemedia Commons.

Our journey begins at The Art Institute, a museum and a school of art and design.

I first visited the Art Institute my very first week after moving here. It’s a hard place to miss, I’m told – there are the famous lions standing guard out front, it’s right on Michigan Avenue, and it’s not far from the lake.

Image used under Creative Commons, retrieved 04/03/2016 from Wikimedia Commons.

There’s only one problem: Chicago is flat as a pancake.

To someone from the west coast, navigating using natural topographic features is second-nature. The big mount is north, the lower range is west, etc. How do you do that on the flat plains of the Midwest? I asked this of my friends. “Use the lake,” they advised. “Lake Michigan, you mean?” “Yup.” “Um, how do I see the lake, if it’s totally flat and there are buildings in the way?” “You develop lake-dar.”

Lake-dar. Like radar, only for a lake. What do I look like, I bird?

Birds have small iron deposits in their bodies that help them determine where north is. It turns out, so do humans; it’s in the bridge of our nose. It’s not lake-dar, but over time, I have been able to keep a handle on where north is and keep my bearings in a city that defies navigation by mountain.

My first visit, however, I set out with the self-confidence of a tourist and marched down the street to go visit the Art Institute.

And for the record?

I was going the exact wrong direction.

So much for lake-dar.

Visit us Saturday for a trip to Wilmette and the Bahai Temple.

Thank you for joining us for the A-Z Blog Challenge. If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave us a link so I can come visit you too. If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

The theme at Noony’s blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo. Join her as she explores Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

Noony’s theme on Knoontime Knitting – One Writer’s Journey Into 3-D craft blog is Letterforms In Nature. She’ll be exploring her daily round, looking for shapes in the natural world and build environment.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year. Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports. Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from Noon & Wilder; the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland. Check it out!

Our friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and we’ll add you!):

Darla M. Sands, Awakening Dreams and Conquering Nightmares with a Pen
Kari Trenten, The Cauldron of Eternal Inspiration

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

Luck O’ The Irish! Enter To Win $100 Gift Card and Other Prizes. Plus, Blog Posts from Noony!

Posted on March 16, 2016 by a.catherine.noonMarch 16, 2016

Do I have a party for you, Dear Reader! It’s in full swing, and you can enter to win a $100 Gift Card from the online retailer Amazon, plus many more prizes from participating authors. When you go to the site, be sure to enter both drawings on the right-hand panel. Plus, each of the authors can write up to five blog posts each day, which I took as a challenge. Of course I did. I’m Noony. ~grin~

So, what are you waiting for? Check it out!

Sunday, March 13th

(Note – I don’t have any posts on the 12th due to a family emergency, but there is plenty of content from my fellow authors so don’t be shy!)

Monday, March 14th

Tuesday, March 15th

Wednesday, March 16th

Thursday, St. Patrick’s Day!

Gone Visiting… with a Fairy Tale!

Posted on March 13, 2016 by a.catherine.noonMarch 13, 2016

I’ve gone visiting! The fabulous Delilah Devlin invited me back for a guest post, and I wrote a short little ficlet yesterday about early birds and worms. Won’t you join me?

Tuesday with the Tauruses – Bin It!

Posted on March 1, 2016 by a.catherine.noonMarch 1, 2016

Rachel and I are both Tauruses. And, like most Tauruses, we like home and hearth.

This sometimes means that we collect stuff for use in home and hearth that’s seasonal, and needs to be put in its place when not in use – to abide by the dictum, a place for everything and everything in its place, of course.

What to do then?

Rachel came up with a great idea. Use large plastic storage bins for things like holiday ornaments, emergency kit food, and off-season clothing. If you keep your eyes peeled, you can even find color-coded bins available – orange for Halloween, say.

What about you, Dear Reader? How do you store your stuff?

I Don’t Like Green Food – How To Eat Better

Posted on February 9, 2016 by a.catherine.noonFebruary 9, 2016

We all know them – the finicky eaters who won’t eat stuff that’s good for them. I once had a friend try to tell me that taking supplements would mean she could completely avoid eating any fruits and vegetables, (it doesn’t). But what do you do if you’re one of the finicky folks and you know you genuinely need to eat better, but you just don’t want to?

First, know you’re not alone.

Second, start with what you do like. When Rachel said she didn’t like vegetables, and only wanted to eat cheese, some meat, and bread, we sat down and figured out what she would be willing to eat.

Try starting with the colors. Experts recommend that we consume five colors of fruits and vegetables a day. Rachel gleefully pounced on that and said that cheese is orange. Yes, cheese IS orange. It is NOT, however, a fruit or a vegetable. Nice try. ~grin~ What are the colors?

Think of the rainbow:

Red
Orange/Yellow
Green
Blue/Violet
White

Here’s a handy list to help you brainstorm:

Circle everything on this list that you like or can tolerate. Then, focus on including those in your diet as much as possible.

What about you, Dear Reader? What are your favorite fruits and vegetables?

Monday Morning Pages – Routine

Posted on February 8, 2016 by a.catherine.noonFebruary 8, 2016

Routine is habit’s little sister, the one that doesn’t get all the press. It’s the small, daily activities that we do that either give us peace or create chaos. In many ways, our routine can make or break us.

Is it our routine to get up early and putter around the house, maybe do some journaling or chores? Or is it our routine to hit the “snooze” button until the last possible moment, only to careen out of the house with toothpaste on our chin, barely ready for the day? It’s worth considering whether our routines are leading us in the direction we want them to or, instead, hindering our best-laid plans.

The nice thing about routine is that it doesn’t have any drama around it. It just is. We do it because it’s our routine, because that’s what we do at a particular time or day. Morning pages, for example, become a routine. We don’t write them because we’re a writer, and not even because we should write them; we write them because it’s our routine to write them in the morning. What’s more, when we break our routine, we feel disjointed and out of sorts.

Routine, then, can help keep us on track.

So how do we use routine to make the life we want?

We first have to decide what we want in our lives, yes? That’s sometimes easier said than done. Let’s start smaller. What do we want to include in our lives that we’re not yet doing? Maybe it’s writing our journal or morning pages on a daily basis, or going to the gym. Maybe it’s picking up what we put down and preventing clutter from accumulating. Pick one thing.

Now, do that one thing, just because you do it. Not because it’s Going To Lead To Big Things, and not even because It’s What We Want To Do. Just do it because it’s a routine, because it’s something we do at a particular time and place.

So tell me, Dear Reader: what’s your one thing?