Paging Through Life

Books are more than just weight to my work bag. They’re an adventure. An escape. A lesson. A few more lessons. An inspiration. And my life line. At a young age, books took hold of me. Whether it was our elementary school’s 600 Minute challenges or SSR (Silent Sustained Reading), I could not walk away, and I don’t think my Mom would have let me. Books have always found their way into my hands. Into my brain. And into my soul.

Today on The Book Bench (from The New Yorker), I came across an article from a man, Jonathan Gourlay and his quest to put down the book and walk away. He brings to light the one thing everyone says to me when they see me reading: I don’t have time to read. Gourlay says maybe we make excuses to not read simply because it’s supposed to be good for us, and we tend to make excuses to not do good things (like exercise, eat right, quit smoking, etc.).

He paints the picture of what life in the non-reader swamp looks like–which seems all too real. Without books, we lose our wonder, our beliefs, our decisions, our composure and ourselves. This fear is the reason I make the time to read a book on the train, before bed and anytime I’m waiting for something (including while at the bar waiting for the basketball game to start). My body goes into freakout mode if I’ve gone days without heading to the library. And I’m no doctor, but I had a massive migraine before lunch today, so I sat there reading instead of chatting with co-workers. And lo and behold, it’s gone.

“The habit of reading is the only enjoyment in which there is no alloy; it lasts when all other pleasures fade.” –Anthony Trollope

We Have Survived

After getting out of work yesterday at 3, I began the adventure to get home. Waited on Columbus for a bit…no 134s…waited on Michigan for a bit…no 151s or 143s. So Lindsay and I made our way to the train, where we smashed in and fought not only for space on the pole to hang on to, but also just space to allow our lungs to breathe. When we finally arrived at Diversey (nearly 30 minutes later), we fell out of the train, on to the platform and looked that blizzard right in the eye as we walked down Diversey to home.

 

Had I hopped on a bus after work, would have had to abandon it on Lake Shore Drive

 

 

Seeing as it was a snow day, we decided to grab Maggie and head to the neighborhood watering hole as we anticipated being locked up for a while. Mags had grilled cheese awaiting us as we pulled our coats, boots, gloves, hats, scarves and socks off. Had we been 10 years younger, we would have been coming home from a sledding day instead of a work day.

 

We just walked through that tundra.

 

 

The storm wasn’t that bad when we walked into Duffy’s. But upon leaving, we walked into something none of us had ever imagined. You couldn’t see anything in front of you and the wind was just throwing us around as we climbed through snow banks to get home.

I should mention the distance from Duffy’s to our apartment building is literally 30 feet. Yet it took 20 minutes and some strategizing as we climbed/crawled across Sheridan.

We got a snow day today from work (woo!), yet this storm hadn’t appeared to lose any of its luster until about 10 minutes ago. I mean, the winds opened our windows twice last night. And our windows have those old school handles that you have to turn to “unlock”, then pull the window down.

Chicago, I love you, but man did you test that love.

 

An abandon bus this morning on Lake Shore

Navy Pier this morning. See that ferris wheel? Exactly.