Bye Bye, Naperville... Hello, Evanston!

I had such a wonderful fall semester for many reasons... good times with Abbey and Eric, ridiculous dates with my little cousins (like the afternoon Gwen and I spent creating the ugliest possible Mii characters on the Wii),

and fairy tale-like nights in the city going to the best restaurants, plays, and sports events. Check out how gorgeous Union Station looked at Christmas during my last train ride home in 2009:


Now I'm in Evanston staying with a friend while I collect data from a school in the city. Yesterday was my first day and I was quite proud of myself for taking the purple line and making a connection with bus #22 to get from Northwestern all the way down to Lincoln Park. Let's hear it for public transit! (Though CTA is going to have to cut services basically in half because of budget cuts... ugh). So far, things are going great. My friend and I used to work together out east and we got along really well. I can't tell you how hard I laughed when I saw his baby picture in the living room:


Yep. That's him. How ridiculous is that picture??? The hair. The suit. The little strut. Seriously.

Here's to a new phase of the study and to keeping my eye on the dissertation prize! Stay focused!