Let me just begin and end this with one sentence: Stop teaching our girls to not be victims; instead teach our boys to not be predators. I thought, at the beginning of Covid, that the pandemic would make people kinder. More patient. That being uncertain and fearful and all hurting for the same reason would make people pull together, form community, have a better underlying feeling of unity and compassion. And for a short while that did happen. We rallied to support small busi

Is living in fear of COVID the new normal? Are we ever going to return to a less anxious state of mind? Is fall/winter going to bring a decrease in cases or an increase? Will the city shut down again into quarantine since we haven’t gotten the numbers under control? These are the worries I have. Constantly. Especially now with the shifting weather ushering in rainy, gray days. I have struggled with seasonal depression for as long as I can remember. The disappearance of the su

What makes you fall in love with a city? With a house? With a neighborhood? What’s the difference - key differences - between simply living somewhere and actually feeling like you belong there? I’ve moved A LOT in my life. Multiple cities/states and many, many apartments... so maybe that’s why my sense of ‘home’ is a rather elusive thing. Chicagco does actually feel very much like home to me: the vibe of the people is great, I love the lake, there’s always something to do, th

Well, happy August. The year is now officially more than half over. But, boy oh boy, does it feel like 2020 has been going on for so much longer than just these last months. We’ve faced disease threats, including an ongoing pandemic that put us into quarantine. Animal threats of murder hornets, blue dragons, squirrels with bubonic plague, and swarming monkeys and locust. Political threats both foreign and domestic. And now we’re coming into a new age of social justice because

It makes me sad that I have to say this but wearing a mask isn’t political, it’s simply an act of empathy. It’s not about you - about what you believe in, who you vote for, or what science you think is real or not - it’s about being compassionate. It simply is a matter of caring about the people around you. If there’s even the tiniest little chance, the slimmest smallest tiniest percentage of some chance, that you could make someone sick, or could kill someone by breathing/co

It’s the Fourth of July, and with the state of the USA right now (Covid-19 quarantine, Black Lives Matter Protests, political unrest, accusations of violence and racism) you might be feeling somewhat guilty for wanting to celebrate this weekend. You might have conflicted feelings about uplifting the country’s successes. I understand. The best analogy I can think of though is that the USA is like a rescue dog: It’s excited and scared, constantly on edge but super loving. It ch

So this is less of a blog post and more of a check-in. I feel that, with the country starting in on its reopening, anxiety and overall stress levels have got to be high. COVID-19 is still a threat. Lots of people are still out of work. There are protests and riots. There are murder bees and swarms of cicadas. Fear is high. Uncertainty is our only certainty. And 2020 seems to get be getting more bizarre and frightening by the day. So, mental health check. Have you showered in

So I feel like many of you are aware that I’ve been planning a big Europe trip for the end of the year. That I’ve been working toward emotional and mental health. And that I’ve been very focused on being the best version of myself that I can possibly be. All with the point of accepting my life, living as fully as I can, loving myself, and feeling at peace — truly whole — within my existence. Not an easy thing at all. Well, not at all unlike many of you... my life has been tur