uptown

I had to go to an immigration services office, which is located in Uptown. It's kind of a skeezy area, but it is quite beautiful when you start to just look up. Not to mention it's home to one of my favorites in Chicago- the Aragon Ballroom. I've seen some of my faves there - the Black Keys, the Decemberists, and the Avett Brothers (all my favorite "The" bands).

olympic obsessions

It is no joke when I say I love the Olympics. I mean, I love the Olympics. And it doesn't hurt that they're in London which is making me increasingly more antsy/excited about making it my new home. But for the time being, this couch is my new home, with Olympics morning, noon, and night.

And here I am putting good use to my temporary home by watching online and on TV. Yeah. It might be a problem. But I had to watch Iceland's first handball game against Argentina (P.S. they killed it!).

belmont

sleepless nights

I've been having intense issues falling asleep at night. Maybe I'm full of worry. Or stress. Or maybe excitement over the OLYMPICS STARTING! 

I think I'm going to go with a combination of the three. 

roscoe

My neighborhood is filled with not only beautiful houses, but beautiful (expensive) dogs.

southport

Phew! Excuse my absence on the blog- I guess I've been sort of a busy bee. But this is what it looks like when you look straight down at my train stop.



And what it looks like at night. (I love this view)

rest in the bed of my bones

what time is it? adventure time!

I had a moment of panic that I hadn't taken a photo for the day, but remember that at least captured this one. I drew this for my coworker. To be honest with you, I'm very proud of myself. I think I did a really good job. Also, if you're not watching Adventure Time, I think you should be. Glob! 

the el.

denim

My denim collection is getting out of control.

the lake

I was on my way home from work and I arrived at the Belmont station at around 8. I decided to be lazy and wait for the Brown Line (for one stop) and it would be a 4 minute wait. I was restless so I walked out to leave, but instead, I jumped on the Belmont bus and took it to the lake. I sat there for about an hour, watching the sailboats float about and I watched as the silhouettes of the trees faded into the dark sky. I had waited all day for my day to be done, but in that moment I didn't want the day to end, because it would be one less day in Chicago. It's really starting to hit me that I'm leaving and I think I'm having a hard time with it. I've only had two other "homes": Wooster and New York, and with both of those, I didn't have a choice to leave or not. I just had to. But this is my decision to leave, and I think it's going to take a bit to come to terms of leaving a home for good. Sigh.

the floor

I had one of the lonnnngest days at the 'Shop, I just about collapsed on the floor when I got home.

mike's birthday

It was Mike's (365 buddy) birthday. Happy birthday Mike!

in the alley

porch daiquiris

I found a frozen daiquiri in a pouch in the freezer section of Jewel. It was two bucks, so I decided that I needed it. It told me to enjoy it on a porch, so I did.

field museum

 

 

I think I remember the Field Museum being a lot cooler than it is. I might be biased because I fully believe that the Museum of Natural History in NY is one of the best museums in the world. But I guess my distaste of spending $12 and finding most of the permanent collection either closed or being renovated (in the summer, really??) didn't really stop me from taking a bunch of photos. I also kind of fell in love with that coyote. It might be my spirit animal.

snapshot part ii

I may be having too much fun with my new little camera.

snapshot

When I had my interview for grad school, the head of my department suggested I come up with a personal project to work on while in London. He told me that I could be easily overwhelmed by being in a foreign land for a year, and I should try and make the most of it intellectually and artistically. The other week, I had this idea of the "snapshot". I've been obsessed with this notion of not forgetting, to try and remember all the things that I possibly could. My first adventure in photography came when I was nine, and my parents gave me a disposable camera on our trip out West. They told me I needed to make it last through the whole two weeks. During our first stop, St. Louis, I used up the whole thing in probably an hour. I didn't want to forget that feeling of riding in that tiny car, riding up to the top of the St. Louis arch. I can still probably remember most of that day, or at least, that hour I spent up there. Life goes by quickly, and I'm going to attempt to not forget it. I'm sure the project will be a little but more developed in time, but for now, I bought a cheap point and shoot camera off eBay and it will stay with me every step of the way of my endings in Chicago and beginnings in London. If you're ever interested, you may follow my tumblr blog I started. It's gonna be a lot of pictures...

team usa

 

Stacy and I maybe went overboard on the decorations for the 4th, but it's okay, because we can keep them up during the Olympics too! Our day was filled with construction paper, delicious strawberry daiquiris, food, friends, more alcohol, and puppies. 105 degrees be damned! (Although yeah, it was still really, really hot.)