I will tell you all that this week, the well is running low. Not the well of stories, necessarily, but my well of time and mental acuity. I’ve been taking an AP Lit workshop at Northwestern this week, and it’s basically AP teacher boot-camp that lasts from 8 – 4 each day. AP summer institutes are, bar none, the best professional development I have ever had – but they can be overwhelming. I am learning so much, and have so…
Those of you who are loyal blog readers will remember my story about the new friend Randall* I met in a Lyft. In early June, we shared a ride and some great conversation, and as I got out at my destination, he slipped me his business card and told me to email him so he could keep me posted on events and fundraisers he was hosting to benefit his non-profit. Subsequently, I went to the flip-cup tournament he hosted, and…
On Tuesday evening I met some girlfriends for happy hour at a bar I had never been to, but they have two-dollar tacos and five-dollar margaritas. You can’t beat those prices for a taco Tuesday. As we caught up over chips, guac, delicious el pastor tacos, and mediocre margaritas, our conversation ultimately drifted toward our dating lives, as it inevitably will when three single women gather around food and drinks. Being single and dating in a big city can feel…
My loyal blog readers: I owe you, and perhaps myself, an apology. Sometimes, we make goals and reach them…and other times we fall short. As an elderly man once told my sister, as he helped her up from an unfortunate stumble on the streets of Galway “It’s alright, my dear. We all fall sometimes, running toward life.” I’ve been running toward life the last ten days, and seven of those were spent at the North American Irish Dance Championships in…
I’m currently sitting in a business class seat on a flight from Houston to New Orleans. I have no idea how I got so lucky, but my slipshod approach to airline travel often results in my earning undeserved upgrades. You know, I book my ticket last minute, check in late, refuse to choose a seat, etc. and because I generally travel alone, I often end up with an early boarding number or a random seat with extra legroom. This is…
As I begin this post, I am sitting in Midway airport sipping Dunkin Donuts cold brew coffee as I groggily try to pull my thoughts together for a blog post. I will say that my latest adventures have left me far more tired than a teacher should be in late June. I was up late last night packing for a trip that will take me to Lexington Kentucky to visit my good friend Darya, to New Orleans for the North…
Confession time. I’m blogging from a coffee shop, but it is not new to me. It’s my staple coffee shop. In my defense, it has a perfect outdoor patio space, it’s a block from my apartment, the coffee is strong and cheap, and they make the most delicious chicken salad sandwich I have every eaten. Seriously. So now that I’ve polished off my lunch, I’m sipping my reasonably priced coffee and getting down to the business of blogging. It’s been…
Last week, the Dennehy School of Irish Dance held its annual recital at Gaelic Park in Midlothian. While our dancers perform year round at shows of every sort (weddings, fish fries, retirement parties, etc.) our recital is a true celebration of every dancer in the school – beginner to champion. I was helping to get dancers organized just before the show began when the owner of our school announced that it was time for the beginners to practice their number….
Today’s post will be a series of thoughts, musings, and snippets of stories all loosely connected by a place very near and dear to my heart – my gym. When I say “my gym,” I am actually referring to the Chicago Athletic Clubs, of which there are eight, two of which I frequent regularly enough to refer to them as “mine.” Those two are the Bucktown Athletic Club (BAC) and the Westloop Athletic Club (lovingly referred to by its patrons…
Yesterday, as I was pulling up outside the dance studio where I teach, I caught the tail end of a broadcast of This American Life. Ira Glass introduced a pair of young people in their early twenties who conducted a sort of social experiment. Seven days a week, for many hours a day, they stood on the streets of New York City holding a sign that said simply, “Talk to Me.” They were not selling anything or representing any charity….