wait wait… don’t tell me!!!

There is a long list of things I enjoy that as a kid I never thought I’d be interested in. One of those things is listening to NPR on a regular basis. I remember when I was a kid and my dad would turn on talk radio and I would CRINGE and think to myself (and sometimes out loud) “aaagghhhhh now this WHOLE car ride is going to be boooorrrrrrriiiiiiiiinnnnngggg.”

Now one of my favorite pastimes is listening to public radio. And one of my favorite things to listen to is Wait Wait… Don’t Tell me! If you haven’t heard it, you SHOULD. I fell in love with the show in LA during our weekly produce pick-up, and when we moved to Chicago I kept telling Jeremy we should try and go sometime. Well being the perceptive, generous husband he is, my Valentines Day present this year was a ticket to the show.

It was awesome. After the show, the hosts and panelists host a Q&A with the audience and after the Q&A we got to MEET THEM!!!!!

I have to say. Considering these people are public radio personalities, I was surprisingly  starstruck. I mean seriously nervous to talk to them. The moment I approached each of them, every clever, charming, NORMAL bone in my body disappeared and I turned into a hunk of awkward jelly-person. I’ve got photos for proof:

The only thing I could think of to ask PETER SAGAL was “So, is it weird that all these people you don’t know want to have pictures of themselves with you in them?” He told me that no, it wasn’t weird. “It makes me feel like I’m a fish and they’ve caught me.”

Here’s me visibly being awkward with Carl Kasell. Jeremy told me to ask him where he lives. Washington D.C. Flies out to Chicago EVERY WEEK for the show! What a guy.

I told Tom Bodett that I love when he’s on the show and that he’s really funny.

More visible awkwardness with Mo Rocca. I had no words for him. Just “Can I take a picture with you?” Love, awkward Erin.

Jessi Klein was the third panelist, but was gone before we made it up there. It was a great show. And I loved being weird around all of these public radio stars. Major points for the hubs.

haters gonna hate

Valentine’s Day. Some people hate it, and some people love it. And for some reason this year (in my experience) it kinda feels like there are more people in the hate-it camp than the non-hate-it-camp. “Oh gosh, I hate Valentine’s Day.” “Valentine’s Day? I don’t even get it. Such a greeting-card-company-concocted holiday. Puh.LEEZE.”

Ok ok. I can understand why some people feel this way. “AMERICA IS JUST TELLING ME I NEED A BOYFRIEND!!!” “AMERICA IS JUST TELLING ME I NEED TO DO ROMANTIC THINGS FOR MY WIFE TO PROVE THAT I LOVE HER!!!” Mmmk. Is it out of our systems now? Because I am about to tell you how BOMB FRICKIN KICK-A this holiday truly is.

To be historically “accurate” (according to the all-knowing source of Wikipedia, of course), we don’t actually know anything for SURE about St. Valentine besides his name. (We like to think he was a dude who married people in secret when Roman Emperor Claudius II ordered that young men stay single.) According to NPR, the saint’s Day didn’t become a holiday for love until Shakespeare and Chaucer romanticized it in the middle ages through their poetic works. The day gained popularity in Britain and Europe and, YES, GREETING CARD COMPANIES HAD A FIELD DAY.

REGARDLESS of how it began or who invented it or WHO is milking it for all its worth now, I for one am glad we have a day devoted to love.

I’m not getting ready to tell you that I have the perfect husband. Or the perfect love. Or the perfect marriage. OR that my Valentine’s Day is filled with flowers and love notes and presents and grand gestures and sweet candies. I don’t love Valentine’s Day because of what I have or what I hope to get. I love it for what it’s for. And I think it’s for a whole lot more than a whole lot of people give it credit.

Ever since I was a little girl, Valentine’s Day has been a unique opportunity to celebrate and ponder on the amazing thing that is love. Romance is a lovely and special thing, but love itself is far more amazing. I like the way Paul puts it (in his first letter to the Corinthians):

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing… faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Perfect love holds all things together. And although we as humans are not able to love perfectly on our own, God has given us the capacity to love one another as He loves us. Perfectly.

His love is perfectly manifested to us through the provision of his Son, who entered our world to die for us because we cannot love like this on our own. When Jesus died, God made us live, reconciling us to Himself, that we might be made perfect in Him. THIS IS WHY WE LOVE. THIS is why love is so amazing. THIS, my friends, is why LOVE needs a DAY all to itself.

Because of this love, I love my husband. I love my friends. I love my mom and dad and sister, and the rest of my family. What’s so bad about a day that devotes us to reminding one another of this love?

Some people say that Valentine’s Day is about getting a boyfriend. Those same people might tell you that if you haven’t got a date or a ring or a bouquet of flowers on Valentine’s Day, it’s proof that no one loves you. Here’s the thing about these people: THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT LOVE IS. And here’s another secret: sometimes these “people” are not people at all. Sometimes they’re voices in your head that do not come from the One who knows what love is.

Take hold of this day. It’s a day of love. REAL love. Remind yourself that YOU are loved. LOVE someone because of the love you’ve been shown. You don’t have to bake heart-shaped cookies and frost them or have a fancy dinner out or be uber Romantic. But take the opportunity this day gives you to really celebrate love.

I, for one, have painted my nails glitter pink.

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.

things to love in the fall

I always thought spring was my favorite season, but after returning to the midwest from six years in always-sunny southern California, autumn may be moving into the lead.

It’s especially great in Chicago, because I think fall lasts a bit longer here. It’s November 2nd, we’re still hovering around 60 degrees, and the trees are still filled with colorful autumn leaves. I love the excuse to have a cup of coffee or tea by my side through most of the day. The skies are often gray, but not dark like they are when the clouds are filled with rain. The inside of my house is filled with a cozy sense of productivity, like I could be content to work here for hours.

September brought us into a fall that began with a host of new responsibilities, sources of stress, and an endless list of to-dos. As I sit in my dining room today (pathophysiology books and study materials close at hand) I’m struck by a new sense of gratitude for this season. There’s just not enough time in life not to reflect on the good things that come our way. Of course many of those things are immaterial; the blessings of good friendships, peace in the midst of uncertainty, the license to spend time working toward a meaningful goal. But some of them are very much material. And these, I pass along to you:

I love this stuff. My favorite way to enjoy the morning is to put on a pot of this, burn my pumpkin nutmeg candle, and let the delightful smells of fall fill our apartment.

This is the tea that just might be able to break me of my coffee habit. Smooth, delicate, floral; this stuff is simply a delight. I especially love it with a little bit of milk and honey.

How many times have you been told by avid Harry Potter fans: “you have to read the books.” It took me hearing that about thirty times before I finally dove into the series. Jeremy and I read them one after another in two months, just recently finishing book seven. I loved them. Partly because they’re great stories; I had to force myself to put them down every now and again so that I could continue doing normal life things. But also because they’re great to talk about and ponder over. This has become the best selling series of books ever written and I think it’s important to be a person who can understand why.

Now I’m reading this. I’m only half way through, but I think I can recommend it. First off, I think it’s really healthy to read good books about real things that happened to real people. Fiction tends to be my favorite recreational reading, but often a good biography is just as enjoyable and can be far more rewarding. It gets a little intense at times (I probably wouldn’t give it to my kids to read), but it’s an incredible true story about a rebel kid turned olympic runner turned WWII bomber pilot.

This actually has nothing to do with my fall this year, but in the spirit of reading books (a wonderful pastime for these cozy days inside) I had to mention this. I just realized I never wrote about this book, which I intended to do when I finished it in June. It’s actually real inappropriate that this is at the end of my blog post, because this ishands down the best book I have ever read (barring the Bible, of course). Unbroken is great so far, but it doesn’t even begin to hold a torch to Eric Metaxas’ Bonhoeffer Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. Metaxas is an incredible biographer, writing about Bonhoeffer in a captivating yet immensely informative way. This book amazed me, inspired me, and repeatedly caused me to consider my own Christian life. Bonhoeffer will forever be a hero of mine, and I’d read any biography Metaxas wrote.

Well I suppose it’s about time I get back to working on the things that need to get done and won’t do themselves. I’m encouraged by this season, and excited to see the beginning of November. Here’s to hoping and praying for the ability to keep our lives in perspective, always.

our new neighbor

St. Hyacinth Basilica

sweet tea in the afternoon

Lovely Bakeshop. A lovely lovely place in Chicago that appears to live up to its name has apparently been hiding from me for the past year. I found this place on Sunday (thanks to some friends of ours) and thought to myself I just might have found my favorite neighborhood coffee shop in Chicago.

It’s simple. It’s just off one of my favorite streets, next to a place called The Butcher and Larder (point for location), there’s lots of natural light and an adorable patio that’s usually about half-shaded (point for charm), it’s got lots of space and not lots of people occupying it (point for low-profile), and they serve Intelligentsia coffee (ten points for my favorite coffee-game over). Good news for me.

Lately I’ve been thinking about taking up a hobby I probably can’t afford to start. I’ve never really been the hobby-having type, but the other day I was hit with an overwhelming desire to get a real camera and start taking pictures. I’ve always told Jeremy he needs to take up photography so we can have great pictures of our lives and future kids. I’ve also always thought it was kind of lame that 90% of the pictures on my blog were taken by someone else.

My dad got a fancy pants camera a couple years ago. Not a crazy professional one or anything, just a pretty simple but high quality digital camera with a great lens and manual capabilities. I loved photography in high school, and I love messing around with normal pictures when I get them onto my computer. I’m pretty nit picky about aesthetics and I think I could really enjoy developing the skill of great picture taking.

The hang up is that I’m definitely not getting a nice camera anytime soon. Our family is on a hard core spending hiatus. Believe it or not, its looking like this house thing I’ve mentioned once or twice is actually going to go through. It seems we may just be the proud new owners of a multi-family home come July 26th. It’s pretty unbelievable and I’m still telling myself it might all fall through, but we’re keeping our wallets closed in the mean time.

So for now I’m looking for ways to keep myself busy this summer that don’t involve much cash. Any bright ideas?

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.

hearts

A recent discovery I’m making about myself as I live through my early adulthood life: I love hearts.

I’m not talking paper hearts for Valentines Day or knitted hearts all over my sweater or sterling silver hearts hanging from my earrings (although I loves me some of these). I’m talking real live hearts, people. That fistish-sized muscular organ generally responsible for keeping the rest of your body in working order.

 

I didn’t have to spend much time at my first job to discover I loved taking care of cardiac patients. I loved it. They were challenging, complex, interesting and rewarding. I fell in love with cardiac surgery and discovered cardiactransplant, an even more unbelievable feat of modern medicine.

The more I spend time with these and other patients, the more I love being a cardiac nurse. I love my job, and I feel so lucky to be doing something I love.

Northwestern is an incredible place to be a nurse, and an incredibly unique feature of our ICU is our procurement team of nurses–yes nurses–who play a major role in bringing donor hearts to sick patients awaiting cardiac transplant. These nurses work with others to coordinate transplant AND they get to go with the team who physically goes to procure the donor heart. So. Awesome. I was talking to a nurse today who told me she just flew in to get a new heart to the patient she was currently taking care of.

I would LOVE to do this someday. What an exciting way to see the organ donation and transplant process come full circle. Here’s to hoping.

Dear west London, thanks for the music.

It’s official. I’ve found a favorite.

I hate when people ask me what my favorite of anything is. Movie? Color? Place to eat? It doesn’t matter what it is; I hate it. Favorite is such a strong word. It’s not fair. I can never provide an answer that represents myself well and is actually true. It drives me nuts. (You should know that I’m aware I am a little crazy. That’s beside the point.)

Moving on. I have a new favorite band. A favorite band. Perhaps someday I’ll regret claiming that Mumford and Sons is my favorite band, but today I just cannot help myself. I bought their album on itunes. It’s official.

I found these peeps at Lollapalooza, of all places. “Lolla”–as it is affectionately called by music-loving Chicagoans–is a huge 3-day outdoor music festival that happens in Grant Park every summer. Jeremy and I coughed up the cash to attend one day, to take part in a major Chicago summer tradition.

One of Jeremy’s friends had told us that, as crazy as giant outdoor festivals can be (not to mention sweaty, crowded, boozy), Lolla was a neat opportunity to discover unfamiliar bands and new music. At the time I wasn’t so convinced, but still was looking forward to seeing bands like MGMT and The Arcade Fire perform live.

We arrived in the early afternoon, and stumbled upon a crowd waiting for Mumford and Sons to perform. Jeremy knew of them, and I remembered my friend Emily saying they were really great, so we stood in the hot sun under an umbrella and waited for them to come on. As I watched and listened, I said to myself, “I think I’m becoming a fan right now.” And I was.

photo by: Matt Ellis

Everything about this band is awesome. They’re described as four young men with “fire in their bellies, romance in their hearts, and rapture in their masterful, melancholy voices.” They come from west London and play the most brilliant music with clever lyrics and a wide variety of instruments. You’ve got to love a band that utilizes an accordion, a madolin, a banjo, and a dobro (have you ever even heard that word?). They all sing. They all play all the instruments. It’s clear they play music for the love of it, and that they don’t take themselves too seriously. Need I say more?

This music reminds me of all the reasons I love music. I’m so glad I have eardrums.

just in case you didn’t get it the first time

Don’t take it from me. Take it from my eloquent, smart, good-looking husband: See the Fantastic Mr. Fox. Now.