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

It’s two weeks until Halloween and I just saw my first Christmas advertisement. I’ll be honest, it made me a little sick to my stomach. I’m just barely beginning to adjust to summer being over, and now the commercial world wants me to be thinking of winter, red and green lights, the smell of pine trees, and gifts with big bows. No thanks. Not yet. Nope. As I’ve said in previous posts, I’m on a mission to enjoy my life. Appreciate being alive. And ultimately take care of mysel

I’m done with doing things just for the sake of saying I’ve done them. If I’m going to commit time, energy, and money to something, I’m going to make sure it’s something I truly want to do, something that I’ll truly enjoy experiencing. I’m done with going through the motions. Tuesday before last I went up the 103 floors to the top of the Willis (Sears) Tower in Chicago... the world’s 2nd tallest building. It was a cloudy morning, likely to have no visibility. But at those hei

Fear is a powerful, persuasive, often overwhelming thing. Fear is sometimes so intense that it can be paralyzing, or can bring on waves of anxiety. A few weeks ago I wrote about joining an ultimate frisbee team. And it's been going marvelously- I've been having lots of fun and it's grown in me a sense of enjoyment of both this city and my life. However, this last week I got hit. Quite hard. I felt my body go one way and my head snap the other. I hit the ground knowing I was

Planning on leaving this amazing city has made me feel so appreciative of all it has to offer. It's made me linger on the lakefront watching the sunset for a few extra minutes. It's made me check out the restaurants and bars I've walked by dozens of times but never gone into. It's made me revisit places like the zoo, galleries, and gardens that I hadn't been to in ages. And it's made me think... Think about all the things I've taken for granted, missed out on, or underuti