Christmastime, but mostly the dog

Well another Christmas has come and gone. Minnesota was just as lovely as it is every year. We spent five days hanging out with our wonderful families, eating delicious food, cooking, shopping, and the like. I'd love to spend more time reflecting on Christmas and what a blessing it was to be in Minnesota for another year, but it's 9:50pm and I'm gearing up for four days in a row at the hospital over New Years, starting tomorrow. Vacation is over. But you must see this wonderful shot of our pup, Will, who spent Christmas morning with us at the Moore's:

My parents got him this fleece for his first cold Chicago winter. Turns out he makes a pretty decent Buckeye fan. Quite the looker.

city of angels

I miss this place. What a place.

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 cardiac transplant, 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.

well that wasn't so hard

It's official! I'm retiring my wordpress to move here. For good. So there you have it. Welcome to the new and improved version of my blog. I posted the above photog for celebratory reasons. Also, a neat tidbit: it's from the year 1900 at the World's Fair in Paris-Vicennes. Neat. I feel especially fond of it as a result of my participation in (and partial role in founding) the World's Fair Book and Supper Club. A brilliant bunch of folks, and one of the things I miss most about living in the City of Angels. 

On an entirely unrelated note, I have something wonderful for you. Great music brought to us by--you couldn't have guessed it!--the PCA! Well, not directly. Bifrost arts is technically an ecumenical religious organization "closely linked" to the PCA. Still a surprise, in my mind. 

It just seems like lots of good-hearted, well-meaning evangelicals produce all kinds of sub-par music each year. What a breath of fresh air this music is. It's folk, it's old-time favorites, and by the kind of people you want making your music. I recommend this anthology of hymns and spiritual songs. Or, if you're feeling festive, they have a great Christmas record. Add these to your Christmas list, or someone else's. You'll discover all kinds of quality musicians just by listening to one lovely album. 

media

I've had some requests for a new post. Instead of just rambling on about recent goings on, I'm going to give you more. A bit about what's been happening lately via video and (mostly) photogs. FIRST OF NOTE IN RECENT NEWS:



Yes sirs, we finally have snow here in Chicago! Hoorah, it's Christmastime. Unfortunately it's also icy cold outside. I've got my eye on one of these babies to battle the windchill (fingers crossed):


Despite the frigid weather, I'm really enjoying winter in Chicago. This past weekend Jeremy and I made it out to the Renegade Craft Fair at the Pulaski Park Fieldhouse.


This was by far my favorite thing we've been to yet in Chicago. It was incredible (and inspiring) to see such creativity expressed in so many neat handmade things! One of Jeremy's favorite discoveries was an artist Meng Yang, whose art is a reflection of Chicago's history and flag. We came home with a "Stacker of Wheat" poster, one of a series of pictures inspired by Carl Sandburg's famous poem, Chicago.


My favorite discovery was a small collective in Mulwuakee known as the Sparrow Collective. It's a collection of independent designers who hand make all kinds of interesting jewelry and accessories. My generous husband let me buy a scarf I was drooling all over. If my camera cord wasn't MIA, you'd see a picture here of the most amazing scarf ever made. Jeremy said it could be my one "Christmas splurge."

Not only was the craft fair fun and interesting; it was the final push of inspiration I needed to take up a new hobby. I took a trip to Joann's yesterday to pick up some yarn and knitting needles. I snagged some of this organic cotton yarn. Mine's french vanilla, second from the left:


I've already knitted three rows of what's going to be my new scarf (you need a lot of scarves in this cold cold place!), thanks to this great video tutorial with a girl who sort of looks like my sister-in-law. I'm pretty excited about it.

If winter keeps going as it has thus far, I may just make it to spring without going nuts.