I'm not in Kansas anymore... I mean Milwaukee

A Twister, a twister!  Ok, there were no twisters but there was lots of potential!  Our last class on Friday was interrupted by sirens and the threat of having to seek shelter. Everyone was too busy making luscious silver and gold pendants to heed them and we felt pretty safe where we were. The warnings passed and then there was the fun of having to pack everything up - for 5 hours! Ugh!  

We spent Saturday shopping at the Bead show (woo-hoo!) and shopping around town.  Little did we know that we would be smack straight in the middle of another storm - what felt like a hurricane.  We leisurely lunched and hit up a thrift store and boy was it getting dark out. We walked outside and it was just downpouring.  We thought we could wait it out in the best shop in Milwaukee, ArtAsia.  This place has transformed in the past 2 years.  It is now a ginourmous gallery/museum.  We saw it being set up last year and now, like magic, it is all done and fabulous.  Deep in the bowels of the dimly lit store, I was surrounded by the drone of monks chanting through the speakers, followed by huge thunder crashes.  Suddenly the experience was very heady and I felt connected to my time in Japan, and the same feeling as when I play a singing bowl.  OmmmmmmmmmmmmmCRASHmmmmmCRASHmmmmmmm.  

We called a cab to take us back to the hotel and got drenched racing from the store to it. The streets were flooded, the lightning as if we were under a strobe, I WAS TERRIFIED!  Was this the apocalypse?  We made it back to the hotel and crowds of people were in the lobby and standing by the doors.  The roof was leaking, cars looked like they were about to float away, things were chaotic.  And then it was over.  

Until yesterday when sheets of rain were coming down before we left for the airport. We were so lucky that are plane wasn't delayed, until it was.  We sat on the tarmac for 2 hours waiting for a new route to get us around massive storms in Michigan.  Ugh.  

All was forgotten when I was reunited with my little pup!  We got home late last night to an enchanting star-filled sky and fireflies and apparently a jungle that was the yard. Everything shot up 2 feet or more and its a little intimidating!  I'm writing this inches from a fan cause it is crazy hot.  I plan to finish many of the pieces I started out there and have them in my Etsy shop at the end of the week.  

Here's a few random shots from the trip.

Here's me, dog tired, at the end of the day.  

This was the view from our hotel room (not bad).  

I took the last shot on our walk downtown, someone placed a bubble machine in a window (awesome!).