I am pleased to announce that two very monumental events have occurred today, and it's not even 3:00pm yet.

First, I hauled out all the Christmas decorations and started the massive process of bestowing holiday spirit on every room in this apartment. I am about halfway done, but I had to take a break since I am also in the midst of processing 6 (SIX!) loads of laundry. (We have been busy). So far I've put up our nativity, our stockings (including two new tiny ones for Pam and Hala, comments are closed on this issue except theyaresoflippingcute!!), changed over all the dishcloths and potholders to their Christmas versions, and pulled out all the Christmas candles. I've also made two holiday stations on Pandora, one contemporary and one classic. I just told Pandora to never play NSync's version of Merry Christmas again, so I haven't completely lost my senses in the holiday hoopla.

I do know that it's pretty early to decorate. I wasn't planning on diving into this lovely disaster until this weekend, but I have today and tomorrow off and then I work 6 out of the next 7 days after that. I leave straight from work Wednesday morning at 7:30am to drive 14 hours across the country to see my wonderful family. That clearly left me with no choice but to decorate today, since I absolutely cannot return home from Thanksgiving to an undecorated home! That would be tragic.

Secondly, in terms of the monumental events, I have secured a written contract from my younger brother telling me he will move to Chicago next summer. Ok, it was a text message, and maybe he was slightly more vague than that, but I am taking him seriously. My youngest brother was just here visiting my alma mater, and he also tells me he wants to move here. I have a VERY good track record of convincing (coercing?) people to move to Chicago, which is why you could be out at a bar sometime and overhear an entire table of people talking about their childhood in Massachusetts. Those are my people. Anyways, convincing both my brothers to move here within a year would really be the ultimate triumph for me. Because with all three children in the Midwest, my parents would also be forced to seriously consider relocating.

They call this a coup, I believe.

Oh! And one more thing. After having spent an inordinate amount of time wandering the aisles this morning (and after watching that 30 Rock a few weeks back where Oprah guest-starred), I would also like to promote a few of My Favorite (Holiday) Things (Which can be Purchased at Target).

1) Method Frosted Fir Hand Soap

2) Snowmen Acrylic Dinnerware
Ok, I only bought the glasses. But tell me the whole set is not adorable?!

3) Snowmen Christmas Stocking
Joshua and I both have stockings at our parents' homes, but have never purchased our own. These look like they will wear well over the years. I can picture our (rambunctious) children ripping apart the Christmas boxes and yelling, "I found mom and dad's stockings!" (then they will grumble, "here are Pam and Hala's stupid little stockings") Somehow I find this mental picture hilarious.

I finished Joshua's mom's scarf today, making it officially the first wearable piece of knitting I have completed! I've crocheted several scarfs and hats and made valiant attempts to finish the random knitting I've started, but this is really the first thing that I finished well. (Naturally, I kind of want to keep it! Because I am a horrible, selfish knitter. Don't worry, it's definitely hers). I would post a picture, but my camera won't connect to the computer lately. It's feeling lazy, apparently.

The cats love the yarn. They lick it and bat at it and are generally transfixed by it. This is a serious stereotype, right? Cats and yarn? I am the kind of person who owns CATS. Who KNITS. I really enjoy this new hobby, and I adore my cats, but the reality of being a cat-owning knitter is rough on the ego. I am too young for this.

I Bleed Blue...

"This is our moment. This is our time - to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth - that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism and doubt, and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:

YES WE CAN."

- Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States of America

All I Really Want To Say Is...

We had a very calm, relaxed Sunday. We went to church for the first time in months (the night shift and the weekend trips to everywhere and nowhere have kept us either in bed or out of town for a shockingly long time).

We got coffee at a local coffee shop where I accidentally ordered a tall and was glared at by the barista. Yes, I have sold my soul to Starbucks. For the convenience. (See also, the night shift).

We stopped in local yarn store next to the local coffee shop and I bought two skeins of thick, wintry yarn that will hopefully become scarves for Joshua (gray and white ribbed, very manly) and his mom (a heather blue chessboard pattern). I already started on his mom's scarf and as it's on size 15 needles I'm hoping to finish it before it hits 75 degrees on Wednesday. Seventy-five. Seriously, November? Are you for real?

We watched football. Kyle Orton got injured and Rex Grossman managed to take to Bears to a win over the Lions, even though he looks just as frightened and confused as always. After growing up in Patriots country, Tom Brady country, poor Rex makes me physically cringe.

So, it was a very ordinary day and yet it wasn't. I took a leap of faith which I can't really discuss here, but was terrifying and also absolutely the right thing to do (no I did NOT throw away my birth control pills). I had one of those experiences at church this morning where I was smacked in the face with something that I really needed to deal with. It wasn't even subtle, I mean I opened up the study guide for the week that goes along with the sermon series, and I could have just inserted my name in the questions for the first day. In what ways does your life reflect x...y...z? (um, it doesn't? I'll get back to you at 10pm when I've made some steps in the right direction?) Sometimes God is a whispered breath, and other times, a bulldozer.

I don't think it's a big surprise to anyone that I love the city. I have always been a city girl, since the very first time I went to New York City to visit my relatives. I don't think I can overstate how hard I fell for city life. I loved the crush of people, noise, lights, the smell of Chinese takeout and bakeries. I almost got killed by a cab, and to my parents' horror, I was thrilled. I went back as often as possible. When I was junior in high school, I spent three weeks living with my cousin in Greenwich Village. My hippie performing arts school had a whole month of what we called Paideia. We could spend a month doing anything from intensive hiphop to mock trial. I chose to do an independent study and attend a writer's series at the New School.

I never went. I don't remember why, I think I was intimidated by the thought of college students (college students!) critiquing my writing. Instead, I went to ballet class at Broadway Dance Center (It kicked my ass, I should have been more intimidated by it). I wandered around New York City, taking the train to places that sounded interesting all by myself while my cousin went to school. I saw Rent and a few other plays. I got carded in a bar and saw Kirsten Dunst in Dean and Deluca. I basically did nothing except explore and pretend I lived in New York. Oh, and I started artfully slinging scarves around my neck (scarves make you urban, did you know?) I made plans to move there immediately after I graduated. With a lot of scarves and not a lot of money.

Obviously my life didn't play out how I envisioned it when I was seventeen, but I still ended up in a city that I love. And I love Chicago more than New York, for reasons I didn't care about when I was in high school. It's cheaper. Friendlier. You don't have to be glamorous or edgy (or both) here. New York is exceedingly cool, Chicago is just...itself.

I think one of the best things about living in a city, besides the easy access to sushi and museums and art we never take enough advantage of, is actually getting out of the city. It makes me appreciate trees. Even the flat, empty cornfields that I hated when I first moved to the midwest look somewhat stark and lovely to me now. We're at Joshua's parents this weekend, just hanging out and drinking coffee and doing free laundry and watching hdtv (him) and leisurely blogging (me). It's quiet and not at all how I want my life to be every day,but I do appreciate it. Have I totally grown up?

Sometimes I really wish we could take pictures of our precious kiddos in the NICU. Yes, it would totally violate their privacy and HIPAA and all those boring legal technicalities, but I think the world at large would benefit from seeing them all dressed up in their Halloween costumes! Because nothing jazzes up IV lines and oxygen tubing and cardiac leads like a velour pumpkin outfit! Who will notice your trach when you are wearing a fluffy white lamb costume with actual hooves?? (Hopefully your nurse will notice, but it might be difficult for a minute. We are falling over from All.The.Cuteness!)

I've actually never been a huge fan of Halloween - probably because in the adult world it is a quite a bit more skank than sweet - but I think I changed my mind last night at work. These families have never had the joy of bringing their babies at home. If they've been outside, it was only for the briefest moment between an ambulance and an emergency room door. They live in a hospital . Watching their parents wrestle them into pumpkin suits and I Love My Mummy onesies made me realize just how important it is to us as humans that life goes on normally, despite overwhelming obstacles. We keep our traditions, no matter how strange. We cope with costumes.

And I will say, I think it works. I had a new patient last night whose parents were understandably overwhelmed and scared that their brand new baby boy, who had been just a perfectly healthy 3 day old, suddenly ended up in the NICU with a heart issue. They didn't know they would be able to hold their baby, now that he was attached to his leads and lines. They didn't think they could bring him clothes from home to wear. They didn't know they could change his diaper, take his temperature...basically parent him, while he was in the hospital. But I watched them stare at the family across the room as those NICU veterans figured out how to get their almost 6-month old, who comes decked out with hiflow oxygen tubing, a G-tube, and a central line, into a jack-o-lantern costume. Mr. Jack-O-Lantern posed for pictures with his parents for the next oh, hour, or so while half the unit came to coo over him, and I could see the new family visibly relax. The mom actually whispered to her husband, "Everyone is so nice here!" And then they tried to figure out what she could bring back the next day for their son to wear on Halloween. Does anyone want to be in a NICU with their baby, ever? Of course not. It's terrifying. But there is so much joy in making it a better place for our families than they expected.

I am beginning to really love what I do.