Come, my friends.

You know what I really love right now? I really love this.

Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be that we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
-Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Oh man. It's just so beautiful.

I'm not going to wax all philosophical on it right now because it's 12:30, and somehow I agreed to go work out at 6:00 in the morning. I don't know how that happened, but it's happening.

But as a quick update on life, it's going so well! I'm about to start training to become a CASA (court appointed special advocate) for abused/neglected kids, so that will make my weeks extra super duper busy. Nonetheless, I'm so pumped. I miss that kind of thing. School is keeping me on my toes as always. I'm a NDFS251 TA this semester--it's my second time teaching the class, so it's a breeze and I actually really enjoy it. I spend lots of nights studying, but somehow, I'm finding time for the good stuff too this semester. We have our three-day weekend this weekend and a group of friends and I are headed down to Vegas! It should be a great time. Two other cool things about this semester: 1) I did a doughnut for the first time in an empty parking lot, and 2) I'm learning how to drive a stick-shift. Kind of. Expanding my horizons everyday, I'm telling you.

Wicker Park, Chicago.

I spent New Year's Eve watching Swan Princess with my little sister and playing barbies in the basement. Around 10:30, I tucked her into bed and sat on the couch upstairs until the clock finally ticked past twelve. I congratulated myself on making it to another year and went to bed. A rather uneventful New Year's Eve, ay? But it was still good. It was my last night home of the break.

The very next day, my wonderful dad drove me to Chicago and dropped me off at my hostel. I'm kind of ashamed to admit that I've lived three hours north of Chicago for practically my entire life and never took the time to explore it. However, this year, I got to spend three nights in Chicago, and I had such a great time. Being alone has never really bothered me, and it was awesome to do anything I wanted to for however long I wanted to.

I stayed in the IHSP Chicago hostel and it was a great decision. Great little hostel--clean bathrooms, comfortable beds, awesome stuff, good location. The blue line CTA stop was a block away, which got me to everywhere I needed to go and more.

I didn't get there until later in the afternoon, so after I settled in, I decided to get some honest-to-goodness Chicago-style deep dish pizza. I'd heard that Lou Malnati's was the place to go, so that's where I went. It was within walking distance of my hostel, so I got the chance to explore Wicker Park (the neighborhood of Chicago where I staying) a bit. I found the actual Wicker Park park, bought my three-day metro pass, and just enjoyed exploring.

Part of Wicker Park. 

Lou Malnati's.

I took my pizza back to the hostel to eat. It was insanely delicious and I was insanely full afterwards.

After dinner, I headed back out for the night. I'd heard about the Flat Iron Project building, so I wanted to check that out fo sho. Basically, it's a building entirely dedicated to the arts. It's full of local artists who present their own work, whether it's visual, auditory, or performing. It's full of windy little passages and random little surprises. Since I was out rather late, a lot of the galleries were closed, but there was a lot of artwork painted directly on the walls or hung up outside of the actual galleries. Plus, it was just kind of a cool, quirky building.

the flat iron project.

Flat Iron Project.

Flat Iron Project.

The Flat Iron Project building.

It was a cool bit of time. After that, I wandered around Wicker Park some more until I found a bookstore.

Wicker Park. On the right is the bookstore I spent quite a bit of time in.

I ducked inside the bookstore and read for a while. Then I bought a book and headed back to the hostel, where I tucked myself into a window and read until I felt sleepy.