Winter's Arrival

Back at the end of 2011, Cary Anne started telling me she needed new rain boots. She would go to her closet, pull out her boots, and yell "Look! Look at how cracked these are! They don't even keep water out!" Soon, she came home from work talking about how she found the perfect pair of rain boots at a shop downtown for a mere $125. Of course, after our big move to Chicago, we couldn't exactly rush out and spend that kind of money, but CA insisted she wouldn't be able to survive the sleet and snow of winter without reliable boots.

"All you need is a big pair of galoshes," I insisted.
"That's all I want, but they're harder to find than you think!"
"We just need to go to Walmart."

In Lexington, Walmart was a 5 minute drive down the road. Here, we have to make a 20-minute cruise out to the suburbs. I was under the impression that all Walmarts are basically carbon copies, but when we walked through the doors, I realized the Lexington Walmart was actually a "nice" Walmart. The Walmart here is cramped and dingy, and the width of the aisles can make you feel claustrophobic. When we finally made it to the boots, we discovered that organization is apparently optional at this Walmart. The boots were basically in a large pile which you had to sift through to find your appropriate size. After about 15 minutes of digging, Cary Anne had 3 boots, and though they were all the right size, they were all also for her left foot. For every boot of the wrong size we found, we tried to place them back on the shelf in an understandable order, but I told CA she could probably throw every one as far as she could in separate directions and no one would notice. Eventually, we did find a full pair of boots for Cary Anne, and I bought myself a box of Skittles as a reward for only spending $23, rather than $125.

It was a good thing Cary Anne got new boots, because we recently received two substantial snow storms here in the Windy City. When we first started telling people we were moving to Chicago at the start of November, all people seemed to talk about was the weather. They reacted as if we were Napoleon telling them we were going to invade Russia at the start of winter. However, despite all the talk, up until last week, winter had been freakishly mild here, with most days lingering in the mid-40s. (I was not expecting to still be riding the Vespa around town at the start of January.) Then, about 10 days ago, roughly 8-inches of snow accumulated over about 18 hours of straight snowfall. Now I feel like we're getting a taste of the Chicago winter I was expecting to experience. Here are a couple photos I took of the lake during a more recent snow storm that dumped about 4-5 inches...

A few days after that first big snow, my parents returned for another short visit thanks to my dad's job. On Tuesday, I gave mom a tour of all the places Cary Anne and I go on a regular basis, since the first time she visited we had just moved to town and had yet to develop any sort of routine. The tour ended with us seeing Skygate (aka- "The Bean") and picking up CA from work. That night, after Pops finished up with training, he headed into town and helped me change the headlight in mine and Cary Anne's car (meaning he changed the light while I held the flashlight). Then, we all headed down to The Pony for dinner. The Pony is Chicago's bar of choice for UK alum, so they show all the sports games. That night, we got to enjoy the men's basketball team demolish Arkansas. During commercial breaks, there was a trivia contest. While we could answer some of the more basic questions about Kentucky on our own, I often texted my brother when it came to the more detailed sports questions. In the end, Jon led us to a 1st place victory, and a $30 gift card prize. It was a great evening all around. Now if we could only get more people than just my parents to visit.

"Each new year brings hope and meaning..." - Paper Route, "Sing You to Sleep"

Happy New Year! 2012 has been great so far here in Chicago. We kicked off the new year with a party at our friend Kevin's apartment. He had the whole church over, which isn't that large of a feat when the whole church is only, like, 25 people.

Since we're pretty far from the heart of the city, driving isn't a terrible ordeal and it's how we usually get around when we're both going to the same place (Cary Anne isn't as keen about driving the Vespa around when the wind chill is in the teens as I am). But one of the great things about New Year's in Chicago is that the trains and buses are free from the evening of the 31st through early morning on the 1st in an attempt to discourage drunk driving (though I guess it could have a negative back lash because if a drunk driver happens to hit a bus it will most likely be filled with more people than normal). So we decided to take the L down to the party, but even without riding the Vespa, we still had to endure the chill of standing on an elevated platform waiting for our ride. Luckily, most stops have heat lamps, which Cary Anne thoroughly enjoys sunning under.


The party was everything you'd expect at a New Year's party for sensible 20-somethings, half of which are married. While there was no drunken debauchery, I was happy to see things were a bit more lively than all of us sitting around a table enjoying a rousing game of "Apples to Apples" (Actually, I think that's how Cary Anne and I spent New Year's last year...). As expected, there was plenty of junk food, alcohol, and loud conversation, and in the end, we actually did play a game, but after about 40 minutes it just broke down into a living room full of people laughing and yelling at each other. And at midnight, we all cheered and drank as Coldplay played on TV, and my new friend Nate made inappropriate resolutions like, "Here's to finally tellin' 'em what I did with Natalie Holloway's body in 2012!" A good night, overall.

The start of the new year also brought with it the start of my first class at Improv Olympic. Originally, we weren't sure how long it would take for us to be financially stable enough for me to start taking classes, but thanks to God's grace and some unexpected generosity, things fell into place rather quickly. So far, I've only had one class, but it was a lot fun, and I'm already getting to know some of my very nice and funny classmates. I think I will really enjoy spending 3 hours a week dedicated to improv. Also, Cary Anne recently got hooked up with a theater company through a friend so it looks like she'll be doing some back stage work over the coming weekends. Since CA hasn't done any work on a show since her last semester at Cumberland in the spring of 2010, you can imagine how excited she is.

During our first small group of 2012, our leaders, Rich and Dori, told us to think back to where we were at the start of 2011, both physically and emotionally. Then, they asked us to examine how we've changed over the course of the last 12 months, and ultimately asked us to boil our entire 2011 to a single word. For me, the word that came to mind for CA and I was "longing." Longing for better jobs. Longing to leave Lexington. Longing to pursue our passions. It's so remarkable to think about how God has answered nearly all of our longings in one way or another in such a short time. We can't wait to see how He moves over the next 12 months.