taking a solo

It's day two of living single... Ben has embarked upon another world adventure. He just called me from LaGuardia; in a few hours he'll be flying to Israel, for free, with these guys. I'm jealous but it's an awesome opportunity and I'm excited for him too. But I'm not happy about being home alone again for two weeks. Luckily Adeline is keeping me company. I just made a yummy breakfast: mushroom onion pepperjack omelet with toast and some sauteed little tomatoes and half a grapefruit and coffee. I am determined to eat well while Ben is gone, to prove that I can in fact feed myself.

Friday night Ben and I got dinner at Bite and then went to see this show our friend Margaret helped write at Second City, which was pretty cool. Woke up early the next morning to see him off, played a bday party, went to my Cardio Jazz class (dancing myself into shape), grocery shopped, made guacamole (although I didn't remember then that guac/beer dinner is par for the course), went to a party at Jeremy's, lost myself rocking out to Queen. Today's the Hootenanny, which is sold out. I have to get my jammies together, tune up my geetar and get Cheeser looking his best. I'm a little nervous, but I'm sure I'll feel better once I see the kids. That's my style.

It's damn cold. The heater is blasting and blasting but our thermostat can never reach the temperature it's set to. Yesterday for much of the day the temperature outside was: a degree.

Ten images from yesterday, 1/19/08

1. 2-year-old birthday girl dragging her little blue folding table over for pizza
2. Hot dancers in Jeremy's living room lit by a blue disco ball, muted He-Man on TV and YouTubed Thriller video.
3. Backpacked Ben
4. The sign for Sunflower Market ahead on Clybourn
5. Kevin, arms up for a hug/pose, at the front desk
6. Xaviera's slick slide/stomp move
7. Half-skirted bad-toothed gamers at the party
8. Embroidered hippie shirt on a long-haired girl
9. Adeline curled up by my face in the middle of the night
10. View down into the vent of the space heater

Why hello!

Happy new year, friends. I've been quite negligent when it comes to the ol' blog. I finally feel like writing a little update.

My life has been kind of sitting at status quo here in Chicago, and I've been feeling very grateful and trying to recognize the fact that, for right now, things are good. I love my city, my job, my house, my boyfriend and my cat.

Christmas was nice. I stayed home for 9 days, which is the longest I've been on vacation anywhere in quite a while, and certainly the longest stretch at home since college. It was great to be with my family. Times have been tricky, as my grandparents have been in transition from their apartment to hospitals to nursing homes to a nice assisted living facility. It has been hard work for my family members and it was good to spend a lot of time with them.

I bought a new toy. It is so good to have a (digital) piano at home again. I got it because I am teaching Monday afternoons in the , which is an exciting development in my involvement at the school. My classes have started well. Lots of returning WW students, which is a great sign and a lot of fun as I get to know the kids better, but also presents a challenge to find fresh songs. I'm also going to be involved in a sweet kids concert on Sunday; bring your teddy bear! Work at the front desk has been a little nutty; we have a brand new operating system and we've been working on ironing out the many kinks during our busiest registration time of the year. We're finally in week 2 of classes and are breathing the sweet fresh air of downtime in between phone calls! I am excited for this system to get to the point of running smoothly because it will be awwwwwesome.

New Years Eve was spent in a tiny lake cabin in Michigan with Ben, Taavo & Meredith. We ate and drank well, as is our custom.

Ben's doing pretty awesome these days, working on lots of film stuff, taking Italian classes, playing with his new toy, starting to swim laps for exercise. He is going to Israel this weekend for two weeks; he will be gone for three weekends. I'm gonna miss him, but I am super glad that I'll have Adeline to keep me company.

Adeline is funny and awesome and totally lovable. I could tell you one million things about her but I don't want to be a crazy cat lady and I recognize that stories about other people's pets aren't that interesting. But if you want to hear any, trust me, I've got 'em. I can't believe how much she makes my life better. Here is a picture of her, taken with Ben's fancy new camera:



While my life is currently pretty nice, I have been feeling a lot of empathy for friends and family who are having some rough times. I know friends dealing with life-changing moves, the tragic loss of a friend, identity theft, mistreatment by others, high/law/grad school blues, financial hardship... I'm thinking of you a lot and I love you!

I was lucky enough to be one of five staff members to get a spot in Lynda B@rry's two-day writing workshop that we hosted at our school. It was like yoga for my brain. All of us felt very alive and stimulated at the end of each day. And exhausted. Afterwards Julie B, who had also been in the workshop, came over for Ben-cooked dinner and story sharing. It was wonderful, even though the writing sample you are currently reading is definitely lacking in creativity. Lynda focuses on the power of images, and suggested journaling in the form of remembering ten images from the previous day, whatever they may be. So as a closer, her are ten images that come to mind when I recall 2008:

1. Julia on the couch with Sundae and a blanket
2. Ben's new brown glasses sitting next to his black glasses on the bathroom shelf
3. Aerin in her top hat at the (smoke free!) Empty Bottle
4. View of Miki walzing from the stage at the Dankhaus, OTS holiday party
5. Adeline sitting in the puddle at the edge of the counter by the dish rack
6. Seeing my breath in the car as I drive north on Ashland
7. Farm Hustle screen
8. Call waiting lights blinking on the phone at work
9. Scrap pieces of denim, covered in litterbox-dust footprints, on top of the slightly-clawed speakers on my new piano
10. Meredith and Taavo kissing by the table to ring in the new year

Happy 2008!