Par-tay!

I realize that I haven't posted anything about my birthday party yet, which was ABSOLUTELY TOTALLY AMAZING and likely to be one of my favorite nights ever. Here is a play-by-play:

6:30 - Rush over to Brocach, the Irish pub where tons of family and friends from every part of my life are waiting for me (Mandy from junior high/high school, Ann and Erin from college, Garcias, Swalwells, Dad and Karen, Abbey and Eric, Bobby, etc.)... those poor servers had their hands full

8:00 - Head over to the basement of the Argus where my best friends have helped set up food and decorations... including posters Dad made of pictures from every year of my life - yes, even god-awful ugly pictures like the huge blue glasses I had or the costume that makes me look like a leopard / hot dog creature with a penchant for sequins. You don't want to see it.

8:30 - Start dancing (which doesn't really stop for another several hours) - the band (Tani Diakite & Co.) was a Malian blues band that knocked my socks off. Both Dad and Rob played djembe with them. I was totally impressed with my friends' energy and willingness to dance like nobody's watching. That's pretty much all I did all night... I could have talked with everyone who came, but I mostly just smiled, waved, and kept dancing. The only time I stopped was to hear my dad give an incredible toast to me and our family welcoming everyone (several people told me later that they called their dads that night to tell them they loved them) and to blow out my candles on the GF/DF cake that Abbey had made for me. Amazing.

10:00 - Talk several of my girlfriends out of leaving their boyfriends for Robert given his incredible charm and unbelievably delicious guacamole (said one of my friends the next day: "If I had to choose to go to your party again or sit in a closet and eat that guac, I'd choose the guac").

11:00 - Start an ill-fated drinking contest with Robert every time the band leader says "Thank you!" ... let's just say that whenever I heard some say "Thank you" during the next week, I tasted gin and tonic.

12:00ish - Pack up and head home after the band finishes its grand finale. Best part of the drive home is Eric getting pulled over and being issued a ticket. The streets of Madison were so much safer, let me tell you. I have no doubt in my mind that Eric was the most sober person driving in Madison that night. It was ridiculous. I'm mostly just impressed that Rob and I kept our mouths shut. Eric, of course, was a perfect gentleman to a very misguided traffic officer.

6 am - Realize how bad an idea it was to get involved in a drinking contest with Robert. I realized this on half hour intervals for awhile, actually.

8 am - Get up with Abbey, Eric, and Rob to go over to the hotel so we can say goodbye to Garcias, Swalwells, and my Dad and Karen... I think I should win some sort of award for being able to actually accomplish the movement needed to do this. It was slow going, but worth it.

10 am - Rob makes me a delicious breakfast, we nap, and then drive to Milwaukee so he can catch his plane with a quick stop at Jamerica for a snack. What an incredible weekend.

Everyone who couldn't be there was definitely there in spirit. And I'm pretty sure I'll hire this band again for my graduation party... though instead of drinking gin and tonics every time Tani says "Thank you", I think I'll just give high fives.

Spring Has Sprung!

Aren't these pretty? The vase is from Karen - it's this cool ceramic pot with holes for each stem on the top. Red tulips are my favorite for it so far. I bought them to celebrate spring which has clearly sprung in Madison (I wore sandals and a cotton skirt yesterday! with no coat!) as well as to jazz the place up a bit since I have a roommate for March and April. Alice is from London and is a visiting scholar who needed a place to stay - since I'm hardly ever here, I offered her my spare room. Lois has welcomed her by peeing in several spots on the carpet, which is so generous of her. Sigh.

It's great having somebody else to come home to and cook dinners with. The accent is getting to me, though - I've started saying "Hiya!" in the morning like she does and reading everything I type with a British accent. It's weird, I'll be the first to admit. So far, it has shocked her how big all of our jars and cans of things are at the grocery store, how quick people are to abandon coats and shoes once the temperature breaks 50 degrees, and how Americans take doggy bags home with them from restaurants. Her favorite things about the US thus far, however, is reading the headlines on weather.com every morning: "Storm Shreds Northeast!", "Cyclone Slams Fuji!", "Temps Crash In Denver!" "They all sound like tag lines for horror movies," she remarked. She's right.

High Times In Evanston

I've been very delayed in getting up any posts - whether as gratitude logs or just a general recap of what's been going on lately. This lack of documentation is mostly due to my Chicago routine: Monday teach in Madison, Tuesday morning drive to Evanston and take the train into the city, take the train into Lincoln Park Wednesday and Thursday and Friday, Friday night drive back to Madison ... and then do it all again with a few weekends in Janesville thrown in for good measure. Lots of singing to music and car dancing. And no speeding tickets... yet.

I actually like the commute and kind of appreciate having parallel lives in these two places. It's also been great to get a taste of living in Chicago... which I looooovvvve. I'm actually not too crazy about Evanston, but am open to that opinion changing as the weather gets nicer. I'm only a few blocks from the lake and can't wait for the spring thaw for walks and jogs along the shore.

Here are a few of the recent highlights:

There's a cupcakery just a few blocks from my research site that serves (drumroll, please) gluten and dairy free cupcakes. Are you kidding me? Yes, I will give you $3.50 to taste the most decadent, rich, unbelievably scrumptious goodness ever. And yes, I will walk as fast as I can to sneak one in between classes. Almost every day. I also just stumbled across a gluten-free cafe in Evanston with the best bread I've ever had (no sugar - agave syrup instead and sprouted gluten-free grains... so nourishing). I also treated myself to a carrot muffin AND devoured an entire piece of GF/dairy-free cheeesecake in the four minutes it took to drive back to my place. It was not my proudest moment, but one of my most delicious.


This is the view from the living room at the condo where I'm staying. It's truly breath-taking and every sunset has been better than the last. I need to stop taking pictures with my phone, though... the reflection of a huge digital clock doesn't really add to the aesthetics.


This is taken (from my phone camera... not too shabby!) on the L tracks near the Fullerton stop on the Purple Line. More than anything else about Chicago, I love taking public transportation. First of all, no nap is quite as good as a train nap for 15 minutes in the middle of the day. Secondly, trains are the best place ever for people watching. You just have to remember that you're being watched, too.