Power naps

This past weekend was so nice! Paul and I spent Friday night through Sunday downtown Chicago, enjoying the sites, having fun with friends, relaxing...it was perfect! We took the train down in the late afternoon and checked in at the hotel (where we had 2 full-sized bathrooms in our room--we don't have that many in our house!!), then went that night to see Phantom of the Opera, which both of us have seen before but not in a long time. It was so good! I had the brilliant idea to walk back to the Hilton from the Cadillac Palace Theater, which would have been a better idea had we been wearing walking shoes. I ended up with HUGE blisteres on the bottom of my feet (just below my toes, and on my heels).

The next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel (which was deee-lish!) and went for a short walk around town. We ended up at a store on Randolph called Pastoral Artisan (or something like that), which was a wine shop and deli. We bought a bottle of wine, a baguette, some cheese, prochuitto, stuffed red peppers, and olives, and hauled it back to the hotel (via the bus) to enjoy. It was so nice! The afternoon was spent NAPPING! At least for me it was--Paul watched movies on TV and rubbed my head. That night, we went out with some friends of mine who live downtown and we don't get to see much anymore. It was my first time in Dave & Busters. I lived up to all the talk about my latent Skee-ball addiction, which I've managed to keep at bay for many years. That was all shot to hell Saturday night. I long for my own Skee-ball machine!

Sunday, we had breakfast, then packed up and headed to the train station. Given the bad storm that hit Saturday afternoon and evening, taking the train was a great decision (even if it originally was to avoid the $40/night parking at the hotel). Overall, a very relaxing weekend!

I have 4 weeks and a day left of my Christmas "vacation" before starting back to school. Sadly, I'm dreading going back. It shouldn't be as stressful next term as it was this past one, but I'm still not looking forward to it. I love teaching, but being there (at NCC) is no longer fun. I still have one Monday night class to go (at WCC), but I'm not sure if I'll have enough students to have a class there next semester. I do enjoy teaching there and hope to continue!

I wish everyone a very happy holiday season! Congrats to Lisa & Mike on baby-chan Cassia, and to Kim & Jim on their upcoming wedding!!