Exploring my surroundings

Because I haven't been working since we moved to Evanston and Logan began school, I've had plenty of time to drive around and explore Evanston. I can't exactly say I'm an expert resident now because it's only been four weeks, and I'm sure living here a year won't even allow me to reach expert status. But here are a few things that I have come to enjoy so far.

First of all, I love walking down the paths next to Lake Michigan. This has been my time to think and ponder what life will be like when our baby arrives. I think about pushing her in a stroller down the paths and playing with her on the playground when she gets to be old enough. I can also imagine all the memories and fun times together like her smiling and laughing as a happy little girl and probably just as many sleepness nights and countless poopy diapers. Just the same, I am excited to show her all the wonderful things this world has to offer and spend many precious moments together.

It is also a time that I can get some exercise. I call it "exercise for the pregnant," because it's not exactly the kind of exercise that I've been involved with in the past so it can be a little frustrating. And then when I start feeling proud that I'm out walking, I see these slim men and women running past me and I think, "Ya know, one day I will be able to start running again and I hope when that day gets here, I'll have the motivation and energy to do it." Right now it just feels nice to be outside. (in case you're wondering, this is not a picture of me).

The last thing I'll mention, which was the first thing we noticed, is the art of driving and parking. I thought I had learned to be a cautious and conscientious driver since I've been married to Logan and lived in Utah, but that seems to fly out the window sometimes. That's because Illinois driving philosophy is "be aggressive and people will move out of your way." And you can use your horn freely whenever you feel like it. You also learn quickly to master parallel parking because there's no other way to park. And finally, the early bird gets the worm when it comes to finding a spot within a mile of your apartment building.

Well, these are my random thoughts of the moment but we will try and add more exciting posts when we experience the Taste of Chicago and the Fourth of July celebrations. So check back for more adventures from the Windy City.
-Hillary

Not in Kansas anymore

Dateline, Evanston. Scoop Molyneux reporting in. I've collected solid proof that Illinois is NOT Utah.

This morning I left home to walk to the bus stop at the usual time, 8:30. As usual, I turned the corner past a coffee shop with free wireless Internet access. But I noticed that today there was an unusually small number of patrons enjoying their morning fix at tables outside the shop, even more unusual because this was a nice, sunny morning (an infrequent occurrence the last week).

But what surprised me wasn't the lack of people itself but the presumed reason for their absence. Among the tables on the sidewalk stood an Oriental woman with short salt-and-pepper hair. Her feet were apart, slightly more than her shoulders, and her arms were spread wide, thought not stretched. Her hands were dangling limply from her wrists as though a puppeteer held her there in suspended animation. As I looked, I saw her sway from side to side as if in the slight breeze, without blinking or showing any expression whatsoever on her face. I said to myself, "Self, I am not in Kansas anymore."

Yesterday I saw a man, who I would guess was in his 50s, riding down the street with a small one-speaker radio taped to the crossbar of his bicycle. So much for headphones. He was playing something like Kenny G loud enough for me to hear on the other side of the street. I saw some pretty goofy things in Brazil, even goofier than this, but the bike/radio system was new. I said to myself, "Self, now I have seen it all."

Chief among the evidence in my investigation is the fact that one of my professors said the F-word four times in class yesterday. It was in the context of a couple of offensive speech cases ("... and the guy's jacket said 'F*** the Draft.'"), but he still had no problem saying it in front of us. I did hear a BYU professor say that word once (*gasp*), when I was the only other person in the room and he was reading a song title, but here, class is like a PG-13 movie.

Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying the classes and learning quite a bit, but (surprise) Northwestern is not BYU.

Scoop Molyneux, Hillogan News.

Raining Cats and Dogs

One thing I've learned so far in Illinois is that the weather can be unpredictable. I know there are other places across the globe with this phenomenon. But I've woken up the past few mornings to continuous rain and by the afternoon, it's sunny again like nothing happened. Or one weekend it's 90+ degrees with high humidity and the next weekend, it's rainy and overcast.

The people here don't seem to be phased by the weather. They go out to walk their dogs, rain or shine (it seems like about 40 percent of the residents here have some kind of pet). The nice part about Evanston, though, is the abundance of trees to provide shade and block the rain if you have to go out.

Last night was even worse because I got awoken by a loud and thunderous storm outside the window with flashes of lightning. Then I realized that we had left some windows open the previous day so I got up to check them. I closed the windows and promptly got back into bed and tried to fall asleep. Then it occurred to me that the windows were double pane and the pane of glass on the outside needed to be closed so that water would not seep into the window sill and cause water damage.

I got out of bed the second time to check the windows and closed the windowpane on the outside. During this whole ordeal, Logan had been sleeping soundly but soon awoke to the noise of me jiggling the windows and trying to close them. (However, he didn't wake up to the loud, obnoxious storm outside which seemed odd to me.) He sat up drowsily and asked, "What are you doing?" I tried to explain that I didn't want water coming into our window sills and causing damage. He didn't respond (probably because he still didn't understand why I could be making such loud racket in the middle of the night), but just went right back to sleep.

When we woke up the next morning, he asked me again what I was doing last night. He said, "All I could hear was our house shaking and the windows rattling and you getting up every two minutes." I explained again what the problem had been and that I didn't want water seeping into our apartment. He finally understood that this needed to be done, and we both laughed at the situation.

Not your typical day at the beach

Today I went to one of the beaches at Lake Michigan, and even though the lake seemed like the ocean, it was not at all sunny and warm. The wind was blowing pretty hard so they closed off the water and let no one go swimming. It was overcast, so my intentions of getting a little sun on my pasty-white legs will have to wait for another day.

But it wasn't all unbearable. I went with a friend of mine who is a nanny for two adorable kids, and we quickly made friends. The little boy named Drew (three years old) kept calling me "Celery" and we got a kick out of that. I played with him in the sand and tried to make a sandcastle but all he wanted to do was knock over the sand when we finally dumped out one bucket of sand. And he also wanted to go back and forth to the water's edge to fill up his buckets.

I'd have to say that it was fun to get outside and take a break from the unpacking and cleaning. It was also nice to enjoy the cooler weather, which was a nice change from the 90-degree, high-humidity days we had last weekend. I didn't exactly think that going to the beach meant bringing a sweatshirt, but I'll remember mine next time.

Here's a picture of me at about 30 weeks and as you can see, my belly's poking out pretty far these days. I know some of you were wondering what I looked like as a pregnant woman, so here I am.

Safe and Sound in Evanston

Today marks the seventh day we have been in Evanston (one suburb north of Chicago). We received the keys to our new apartment last Friday and have been unpacking ever since. I think we have taken a least 10 trips to different stores to get things for our apartment. But it's finally starting to come together. We haven't met anyone in our apartment building; in fact, we've only seen other people in our building three times. But we are hoping that will change soon. The church members have been very helpful and friendly. We hope to make some new friends and feel at home in the Chicago area.

Here's a picture of our crib and changing table located in our second bedroom. We have converted the room into a baby room/office for Logan's school work and for his keyboard and sound recording. And our apartment is finally starting to look like a home, thank goodness.

Logan started his graduate program with orientation on Monday and classes on Tuesday. He is excited to learn more about being a journalist and feels like Northwestern is the right place for him. The school sits right next to Lake Michigan, which gives us humidity and some occasional breezes. Evanston is a pretty town with many old buildings, including our apartment complex. There is no air conditioning at all, but we found someone who is letting us borrow his window AC unit for a year.

With two more months left of pregnancy, I've felt pretty strong during the move. Logan reminds me frequently to not overdo it while I am unpacking and moving things around our apartment. But I am feeling anxious about getting our place ready for the upcoming birth of our little girl in August (assuming that she will come as expected). Hopefully, he will have a break off from school between quarters so there will be plenty of time to spend with his girls.

We hope to keep this updated so that you all will get to read about our adventures in Chicagoland.