holiday

Federal holidays. If they’re not Christmas, Thanksgiving, July 4th, or New Years, they’ll really sneak up on you. Its MLK Jr. Day today, making this third weekend in January a three-day one. To me, while I’m in school the term “three-day weekend” means next to nothing. I don’t usually have class on Mondays and the fact that its a federal holiday does not mean I’m excused from the work that continues to pile up as the quarter moves along. However, I must say this has turned out to be quite a lovely little holiday.

Jeremy (for whom a federal holiday does mean a true day off) took me out to coffee this morning at my favorite Starbucks in the city. There are few things I love more than spending time with a friend over hot drinks in a coffee shop, so hanging out with my husband over a white chocolate mocha at Starbucks was a real treat. We talked about 2012: our goals, plans, and hopes and dreams for the future. It still blows my mind to think about all that’s happened since we moved to Chicago a year and a half ago. Its also crazy to think that in another year and a half I’ll be a Nurse Practitioner and Jeremy will be nearly half way through seminary.

After running some errands (and grabbing some more coffee) we came home to spend the better part of the day cleaning, rearranging, and finally hanging things on our walls. Now I am supposed to be doing homework, but instead here I am just writing for fun and looking forward to seeing all of our small group friends tonight. I suppose I should get to work, but it just seems like coming across a really truly relaxing and wonderful day like this is rare; I can’t help but stop for a bit to write it down and thank God for it.

2% milk makes the world go round

It appears the rain is finally coming after holding off all weekend. It’s my favorite kind of gloomy Monday morning. My husband is working from home, the dog is staying out of trouble, the windows are open, and I’m sitting at my dining room table with a delicious creamy cup of coffee, compliments of a little 2% with sugar. The house is clean and I feel delightful.

My family was in town for my cousin’s wedding this weekend and we had a fabulous time. My parents got to tour the latest house we’re thinking of buying, we had some of the best deep dish pizza in all of Chicago with our cousins, and we all seriously danced the night away at the Trettel-Sullivan wedding.

My parents, sister, future bro-in-law, and husband are hands down some of my favorite people to spend time with. There’s just nothing like having the whole Moore family together in one place. It’s going to be near impossible to wait for my sister’s wedding in September.

Our mini vacation came to an end yesterday afternoon and I’m thankful for Monday off to ease back into real Chicago life. The junior Manns have got a lot going on. Jeremy is finishing up the bulk of his teachers’ first year, I’m waiting to hear on a major scholarship that will determine how I begin school in September, and we’re trying to buy a house as the end of our lease is quickly approaching. It’s a bit unreal not knowing what our lives will look like just a couple months from now. It’s freaky, but mostly exciting. I take solace in telling myself that we’re still young and resilient.

On the greater Mann family front, I’m practically counting down the days until the big Mann Family Vacation in Door County, Wisconsin. The last time all of us were together was for Jason and Natalie’s wedding TWO YEARS ago! Our lives have all drastically changed in some way or another since that time in Stinson Beach, and it’s going to be incredible to spend an entire week together. Also Jeremy and I will finally get to meet our little nice, Mercy!

Life is very good, and I am continually amazed at where God has taken us in the past three years. Can’t wait to see what’s up ahead!

Maytime ramblings

I’m pretty sure whoever said that April showers bring May flowers was from the Midwest. Tulips are seriously popping up all over the city of Chicago and the magnolia trees are beginning to bloom. May Day was one of my favorite minor holidays growing up and it’s no wonder we celebrated it every year in Minnesota. There’s just nothing better than seeing plants, trees, and flowers come back to life after a long, cold winter.

Jeremy and I took Will for a walk after dinner tonight and it was so wonderful to feel the sun and see people outside again. The weather plays a much more significant role in your life when it’s changing all the time.

Jeremy’s 26th birthday is on Monday. Twenty-SIX! I can hardly believe we’re that old. We’re still looking into buying a house and it seriously makes me feel like a kid. I have this feeling I’ll think of myself as 22 forever; old enough to be out of college, but never really getting into my mid-late 20′s. I’ll be 25 in exactly one month from today. Weird.

Today I felt oddly inspired to get back to learning the piano. I’ve really dropped the ball on the piano ever since I decided I couldn’t swallow spending $50 a week on organized lessons. I know enough about music and the piano to teach myself more than I currently know, and I’m determined to get on that.

I’ll close with this awesome picture of Brandon Flowers performing in D.C. Turns out I just love his solo album, Flamingo. Pure gold.

April

Well it’s finally April. The dead of winter is over and this year spring really feels like spring. Ok, well spring hasn’treally sprung just yet and I hear April is an especially wet month here in Chicago. But this year the changing of the seasons is uniquely coinciding with a whole lot of new and different in my life.

We’re coming up one one year in Chicago this July, which makes it feel like a legitimate home. I’ve felt settled in and connected here since pretty early on, but being able to count ten months between moving in and now is concrete proof to myself that we’ve actually been here a while. I like it here. The Midwest is my true home more than I ever could have guessed and Chicago is growing on me all the time. And I’m thoroughly enjoying that can’t-wait-for-summer feeling you can only get in a place that experiences the sub-zero temperatures of the Dead of Winter.

I’m finally beginning to hear back from graduate school programs. I didn’t get into UIC, but De Paul accepted me and I’ve got faculty interviews at Rush in a week. It’s incredibly exciting and a bit surreal to think of myself in NP school this fall.

Our lease will be up in July and Jeremy and I will move out of our neighborhood. We like our apartment and our landlord is wonderful, but we’re excited to leave Wicker Park in hopes to find a more diverse, lower income community we can be a part of. Lately we’re spending lots of time perusing pad mapper, analyzing all kinds of Chicago maps, and going on neighborhood reconnaissance treks with our friends. We’re also entertaining the idea of buying something. Our dream life includes us buying an old (late 1800′s-early 1900′s) stone three or four flat building to live in and rent to some of our friends as well as local neighborhood peeps.

In other very EXCITING news, my siblings-in-law Josh and Bex Mann have finally arrived to the states with their baby girl, Mercy! It’s funny. It’s not like we get to see them or even chat with them much while they’re in Oregon, but it feels so good to have them back in Salem! Maybe it’s just knowing they’re a quick, easy, good connection of a phone call away that feels so great. We got to chat with them on the phone the day after they got home and it was so refreshing to hear their voices. I don’t think I would have known before they took the step, but it feels so wonderful to have parents and a baby among this generation of Manns. I’m so thankful for their new little family, and I am so looking forward to taking notes as these two incredible people raise a daughter.

I could write about a handful of other wonderful things I’m looking forward to and excited about, but this should do for now. So thankful to be alive!

big Moore fam news

Being married is the best. Good and good for you. I really truly enjoy being married, and I’ve been married almost three years, so you have to take my words on marriage as credible. At the very least, you can’t discredit me for “being in the honeymoon phase.” Yes, it’s work–very hard work, sometimes. But it’s the best kind of work, and I’d wish marriage on just about everyone.

Last weekend was one of the greatest weekends of my life because my parents flew me to Minnesota with my husband to see my sister get ENGAGED.

I am so happy for this new season of life in the Moore fam. Cheers! And congrats to Matt and Fain!!! Thank you, parents!!! It was so wonderful. My sister is the absolute best and I can’t think of anyone in the world I’d rather see engaged. And not only that; her fiancé is the FRICKIN BOMB. I couldn’t have dreamt up a better fit for her. I’m so very happy with my bro-in-law-to-be. Matt’s funny, caring, humble, interesting, talented, and seriously genuine. I love the guy, and it’s a relief to know my sister is marrying someone I both enjoy and trust to be a great husband to her.

A Tribute to 2010

Last year I started off the New Year looking ahead. I distinctly remember feeling like January 1st, 2010 was a clean fresh start with endless possibilities for new and great things. After revisiting a blog post I wrote in honor of the new year, I couldn’t help but peruse other old blog posts to see how the year had turned out. I think reminiscing is a good and healthy practice that everyone should discipline themselves to do every now and then. And so. Here I write a tribute to the year 2010, in the form of “Things that Happened in the Year 2010:”

We got a motorcycle.

Turns out there’s nothing like owning an old Honda CB350 in LA. I think the thing I miss most about living in a place where the weather is always favorable is being able to go for late afternoon rides anytime of the year.

The World’s Fair Book and Supper Club was born.

Inspired by Matt Smith and dreamt up by my husband and Jonathan Charles Wright, the supper club was (and still is) a huge success. Jeremy and I hosted the first meeting. We made a six-course meal complete with wine pairings and Joseph Conrad’s favorite cocktail, the Singapore Sling.

Wes Anderson brought us The Fantastic Mr. Fox.

The fact that my husband saw this movie in theaters twice is testimony enough that its a best film of 2010. If you still haven’t seen it, you’ve been foolish.

Stories Books and Cafe released the recipe for the worlds most fantastic veggie chili.

I still can’t believe the man behind the counter offered to write his very own self-perfected recipe on a piece of paper for me. Boy oh boy, we’ve reaped the benefits of this one more than once.

I read this book:

And what a great idea it was. Everyone should read George MacDonald’s fairy tales. I recommend reading this entire collection. I have yet to read his longer works. Better add this to my list of things to do in 2011.

We discovered Scoops.

Scoops: the place that made me believe in gelato. Once we found this gem, we went there all the time. What flavors! One of my personal favorites: pear white wine.

I ate artichokes for the first time.

When I lived in LA, I learned of the glory of fresh vegetables. I wish Abundant Harvest could have followed us to Chicago. It was thanks to our CSA these artichokes found their way into our hearts and bellies.

My husband got a masters.

All those long nights at LMU finally paid off. I was very proud.

Jeremy finished his last year at JCMS (Johnny Cochran Middle School) and was hired by Teach for America.

Getting hired by TFA in Chicago was a surprisingly new direction for our lives. We made the decision to leave LA and packed our bags to leave within the next two months.

We said goodbye to our first apartment.

I’m convinced there’s a very real possibility we may never again live in a place as wonderful as 1331 1/2 Laveta Terrace. I loved everything about it.

We drove across the country in a giant Penske truck.

We lost our AC in the middle of the dessert, blew a tire, busted our trailer and still managed to make it to Chicago in one piece.

Chicago became our new home.

Summertime was a great time to come to Chicago. We quickly grew fond of the place and settled right in.

I got a new job.

I was amazed to find a job in a CTICU so quickly after moving to a new city.

I finally convinced Jeremy it would be a good idea to get a dog. Enter William.

What a brilliant idea. We love this little guy.

I discovered Mumford and Sons, and also fell a little bit in love with the music of Sufjan Stevens.

I’m late, yes I know. But boy have these two discoveries added lots of good to my life.

Jeremy and I rode 50 miles on our bikes in Hancock county, Ohio.

My trusty steed made it the whole way in mint condition, but we suffered two bum tires on Jeremy’s bike.

I survived the dreaded GRE.

I never thought I’d have to take this test, but I made it through with no major casualties.

I took up knitting.

Here’s the beginnings of my first project: a scarf.

I became an aunt.

Thanks to two of our favorite people in the whole wide world, we have a baby niece named Mercy in Ethiopia. Josh and Becca finally received news of a baby girl waiting for them to become her legal parents in just over a month!

We dove into wintertime for the first time in seven years.

It’s been a long time since we’ve really known winter. I am now the proud owner of a down parka. My husband has started drinking coffee. Big changes, people.

So there you have it. It’s hard to believe 2010 started out on a motorcycle in sunny California and ended in a down parka on the streets of Chicago. What a great year! I’m so blessed. Here’s to another great year behind us, with high hopes for the year ahead! Happy new year, folks.

Study Time

It’s risky business blogging without a plan, but here I am. And here you are.

I’m sitting inside Letizia’s Bakery on Division PREPPING FOR THE GRE, of all things (!).

When I tell people I’m thinking about going back to school, I get this a lot: “You’re changing careers already? I thought you liked nursing.” Some of you may be thinking this very thing at this very moment. I’m not offended, but you should know there are many many post-baccalaureate Masters and even PhD programs for nurses.

I myself am looking into NP (Nurse Practitioner) programs. This means roughly three or four years getting a Masters or DNP (Doctorate of Nursing Practice). Programs start next fall, which means applications are due early next year. So here I am, studying for the GRE which I’ll take mid December.

I have to say, while taking the GRE seems a bit daunting, I found myself getting pretty excited about making color-coordinated flashcards for prefixes and suffixes. I guess that’s a good sign I really am getting ready to go back to school. Sure, I only have about a year of experience under my belt, but in the nursing world, one year can make a huge difference. And since being at Northwestern, I feel like I’m getting experience at turbo-speed.

Today I can honestly say I enjoy my job. I think I can even say I love it. I could not have said those things two and a half months ago. What an adjustment it’s been to move from UCLA to NMH. Who would have thought moving from one CTICU to another would bring so many new challenges and difficulties? It’s great to finally feel like I’m on the other side, once again enjoying being a nurse. I like my co-workers and really respect them. I’m being challenged and stretched as a nurse, and am beginning to have a confidence that I have learned some things and my experience is significant. I’m really thankful for this, and encouraged to feel like approaching grad school is actually a pretty good option for the next few years.

I’m still not sure which program or specialty is going to be best suited for my interests and goals, but I’m excited about moving ahead. I’ll keep you posted.

Real love for this city

Truth is, I’ve had a difficult relationship with the city of Chicago over the past few months. Objectively, it’s a great city; better than LA. It’s got a lot going for itself. Decent public transportation, incredible architecture and history, successful sports teams (for the most part), actual weather. People love Chicago. And I think that’s my problem.

I don’t know when or why, but somewhere in my growing up years I developed a value of loving the underdog. Loyalty to places, ugly animals, sports teams that no one wants to be loyal to. This has made it very difficult to love Chicago with my whole heart. PEOPLE GO CRAZY FOR THIS PLACE!

But what a silly reason not to love a place. It really is great, and–more importantly–it’s mine now. So let’s quick reveal to the world the things that are not peachy about Chicago, so that the world has the truth and I can get on with enjoying my new home city:

1. Nature is far from here. Yes, there are trees, but where is the hiking? Where is the camping? Not that close. (Side note: did I miss fall? I saw some yellow trees, but what about the reds and oranges? Was that it?)

2. The air is not that clean. I smell trash sometimes.

3. This place is seg-re-gated. I see one person in this coffee shop who isn’t white.

4. Watch out if you own a vehicle here. The City of Chicago is ALL about taking your money. 6 hours at an impound lot, an hour in court, and another impending court date and we still haven’t gotten our $170 back for parking in what was NOT a tow zone, thank you very much.

5. People are way too into sports. (We’ve only been here four months and I know the mascots for all of Chicago’s sports teams.) I am skeptical all the people who claim to LOVE the Bears, the Blackhawks, the Cubs *or* White Sox, AND the Bulls are real sports fans. (Can you seriously be THAT into EVERY sport?)

Ok. You’re informed. Now we can all love Chicago with a real love!!!

Recently we saw this guy (Sufjan Stevens!) at the historic Chicago Theater. Boy what a great concert to see IN CHICAGO. Great great great times. That’s three greats. Props to my husband for suggesting attending this concert AND for laying down the cash to do so. Something else great about the concert was that we got to have drinks with the Van Elswyks beforehand AND we convinced them to stay the night at our place (instead of making the long trek back to theirs late in the night). It was a wonderful evening and we got to enjoy a delightful morning with them as well. Win.

Something else recent and completely unrelated: my friend Emily Schmunk is engaged to her boyfriend Kyle!!! Emily is this wonderful girl I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know since moving to Chicago. Turns out we went to Biola together. Also turns out she’s one of my favorite people to spend time with. I feel like we see the world through similar eyes, and she’s just great to be around. What a blessing to have found such a friend so quickly in a new and unfamiliar city. Her and her boyfriend have been dating longer than Jeremy and I ever did, which gives you an idea of what a neat thing it is to see them engaged. Jeremy and I are going to an engagement party for them tomorrow night. FUN.

Also fun: I’m really starting to feel at home in my job. I like the people I work with and I’m learning so much. I spent the past three days taking care of one of the sickest patients in our ICU. I made it through intubating her, bronching her, scoping her, placing central lines, starting her on continuous dialysis, giving her 15 rounds of various blood products, keeping her blood pressure stable, fighting to control all her bleeding, and talking her family through everything. The first day I had her she didn’t start out crazy sick. I was with her when she went downhill and after my first day with her I figured they’d pass her off to someone more experienced. To my surprise, I had her for two more days. It was sort of a wake up call: I’m not so inexperienced anymore. What an encouragement it was to see that my superiors and co-workers allowed me to take on so much responsibility. I had a lot of help from them those three days, and they were three difficult, long shifts that undoubtedly made me a better nurse. This is the kind of job I’ve been hoping for.

God has been so good to us in Chicago. William is behaving much better. Ma and Pa come next weekend. My husband is doing great at his new job AND is making our closet/dog room/book-stashing room into a lovely, cozy little office. It’s chilly outside. It’s November. Life is so good. It’s incredible how many things I get to enjoy. It has to be true that I take far too much for granted.

Lovely things

I don’t think it’s great to begin every post apologizing for disappearing. On the other hand, it’s been far too long since I’ve taken the time to write here: I’m aware. Here’s me acknowledging my absence.

Well would you know it, I think we’re slipping into winter over here in the Midwest. Many leaves have fallen, most of the remaining ones are dead and brown (or might as well be), and the low for tonight is 31 degrees. I’m inside a coffee shop wearing a scarf and a down coat. ‘Nough said.

I spent a weekend in Minnesota at the beginning of the month. It was quite possibly the most delightful weekend I’ve ever spent visiting (the only downside was the absence of my husband). It was the first time in 7 years I had been back while autumn was happening. I couldn’t believe how much color was in the trees, and how much I took this for granted until I’d been away from it for so long. We enjoyed the season by going for chilly family walks and visiting an apple orchard. My grandpa turned 80 and my grandma threw him a big bash. It was so much fun spending time with all my grandparents’ neighbors and old friends. My grandpa is a really wonderful man, and it was so special to be able to actually celebrate him in person.

I think the best thing about this trip was how normal it was. We’re usually in Minnesota for the holidays or a lengthy, fun-filled summer vacation. Everyone is on vacation and there’s lots going on. Going home for a short weekend in the middle of fall was a totally different experience. Everyone was in the middle of living their normal lives. My mom and I bummed around town together. I met my friend Katie’s new baby twin girls in her home. We ran into a wonderful couple we know and love with all five of their kids at the apple orchard. My sister and I had coffee one morning before she worked. I was struck by how precious the normality of life felt. I love my family so much and I have always loved going home. But this trip made me long to live near them like never before. I came back to Chicago feeling disappointed at the complexity of life.

This trip made me want to move to Minneapolis and have kids, oddly enough. It made me want to be able to have my parents over for dinner without having to ask an entire weekend of them. It made me want to be able to call my sister up and meet her in uptown for coffee and walking. I can imagine such a wonderful life for us in Minnesota.

On the other hand, I’m 100% sure God wants us in Chicago now. He’s made it far too clear for me to think otherwise. And I like it. I’ve been so blessed by the people we’ve connected with here. My job has been so good for me. I’m excited about going to grad school. I love our church. I’m excited for Jeremy to start seminary. We’re experiencing another great city, and learning a lot along the way.

I guess for now the best I can do is pray that someday God brings us back to Minnesota for a time. And I can be thankful for the proximity he’s offered us to family in the meantime. We’ve got such great families. I’ve spent many days recently thinking about what a great life I have. I’m not sure how or why it turned out that way, but I’m beyond thankful.

hello again, everyone.

It’s not officially autumn, but the most pleasant fall breeze is blowing in the window next to my desk. It’s my day off. My favorite music is playing, I’m drinking coffee out of my favorite mug, and the dog is close by. It’s times like these I’m convinced life is significant, and short, and that I might be the most fortunate person in the world.

Jeremy is in New York City for the day. Teach For America sent him on a 24-hour-trip for some training to prepare for the rapidly approaching selection season for new TFA applicants. It’s incredible how quickly we’ve settled into our lives here. It feels like we’ve been in Chicago far more than just half a summer.

Both of us are back to working full time. My new job is a handful, to say the least. I’m finding it far more difficult than my previous job. I was oriented to the hospital, NMH (Northwestern Memorial Hospital) nursing, and my unit (the CTICU) in five weeks. My second day on my own I admitted a patient with open heart surgery straight from the OR (in all the months I worked at UCLA off orientation, I never did this). My third day, I pulled a patient’s chest tubes (something only doctors and nurse practitioners can do at UCLA). My fourth day I extubated a patient (which I also never did on my own at UCLA). Never a dull moment. Never a slow day.

All that being said, I’m really enjoying how I’m being challenged at this new job. Every day I’m being pushed to be a better nurse (and human being, for that matter) whether I feel like it or not. The transition from UCLA to NMH has been just the thing that I needed at this point in my nursing career (and life), and also probably the very thing I would not have chosen, had I known all it was going to involve. For this reason, I’m so thankful God drew our hearts to Chicago and put me in this job immediately.

Something else I’m thankful for:

This is our church! Covenant Presbyterian. It’s wonderful. It’s a PCA church, just like the one we’d found in Pasadena before moving. Jeremy and I are leading a small group in our apartment with a girl named Abby, who is really neat. We had our first meeting last Monday evening, which was a delight and a blessing. Something else I have been incredibly excited about and blessed by at Covenant is the ability to be involved in worship. They even have a choir. Yes, please. Yes. Music is an element of my life that never seemed to fit into my California world, and being able to participate meaningfully in it here makes me feel like I am my whole self again. The church is not quite a mile from our place, so we bike there a lot. We love this.

SPEAKING OF BIKING. Jeremy and I drove to Ohio last weekend to participate in the big Hancock Horizontal 100, a bike race in Findlay, OH. We got really sore, and sunburned, but we made it 50 miles. Jeremy’s grandpa (!) went 62, and his parents rode all 100 on their tandem. It was great to spend some time with family, and get a little exercise while we were at it.

Well. I don’t have much else to say, and I hate to say it but I have no clever way to end this post. So I guess I’ll just end by saying YOU SHOULD COME VISIT US HERE IN THIS WINDY CITY.