My wish list (for today)

1. I wish that kids’ shoes had the size number stamped really big, in really dark font, on the bottom of the shoe, rather than  in really small, light font on the inside, where it rubs off.
2. I wish that there were signs in every el station which told you how long it was until [...]

Are we there yet?

I mentioned in yesterday’s blog post that I’m leaving for Paris on Friday.  I’m going with a group of DePaul leaders, to spend a week “walking in the footsteps of St. Vincent DePaul.”  (It’s like a pilgrimage, but with less spirituality.)  It’s an all-expenses paid trip to tour Paris, learn about St. Vincent and the Vincentian [...]

A list of things I don’t do

My friend Stephanie commented to me on Saturday that she doesn’t know how I do all that I do.  I don’t think I do any more or any less than anyone else does, but I’m very intentional in deciding how I spend my time. (Other people may be every bit as intentional, but I don’t [...]

I’ll take my daylight in the morning

I don’t know who’s idea it was to move up the start of Daylight Saving Time, but I’d like to give the person a piece of my mind. 
First, some background. Each year, I’m caught off-guard by how much my body is affected by the change to DST (the change back in the Fall doesn’t bother [...]

10 things I miss hearing

I lost my dad to congestive heart failure a little over two years ago.  He was three weeks shy of his 90th birthday.  Because he was so sick in the last year or so of his life, my immediate reaction to his death was mostly relief, as I didn’t want to see him suffer anymore.  [...]

Deep pockets

Every couple of years, I feel the need to clean out my coat pockets.  Here’s what I found this morning in the pockets of my winter coat:
1) My crumpled-into-a-ball black leather gloves
2) My CTA card
3) My Blackberry
4) 6 1/2 used tissues (and I mean REALLY used)
5) One lavender “Dora the Explorer” glove
6) $.23 (two dimes [...]

And then you’ll be a man, my son

My son (my only son, David, 5) adores his dad.  Adores his dad so much that all he wants to be when he grows up is a daddy.  This is after he marries our neighbor Fen, who is an older woman at age 6. (“Someday, when Fen and I are married…” he muses. )  (The marriage [...]

10 Things I Don’t Understand

1. Why people go on talk shows if they don’t want to talk (Joaquin Phoenix).

2. Why potholes happen.  I know it has something to do with ice and snow but I don’t know what. Probably involves physics, the only class I dropped in college, because I couldn’t understand it.
3. What Rod [...]

A great day in the worst month

I think February is the worst month.  (I know, I know, I complained a lot about January.  But my birthday is in January, so there’s always at least one bright spot in the month for me.)  But February, despite the fact that it only has 28 days, always feels like a very loooonnng month.  But [...]

January blahs

I try really hard not to complain. Really I do.  Each morning I list the 25 things I’m grateful for.  I know that my life is easy compared to the lives of most people in the world (even most people in the U.S.)  But I have never experienced life in Darfur…so the relevant comparison is [...]