May

12 Books

This month I read two books, and both of them were memoirs. The first was Wild by Cheryl Strayed. (It was recently made into a movie starring Reese Witherspoon.) Cheryl Strayed lost her mother to cancer, and in the subsequent years she got divorced, got addicted to drugs, and went through a number of other unsavory things. She decides to walk the Pacific Coast Trail to find herself again, and Wild is the story of her time on the trail. It was beautifully written. I loved it.

The second memoir was Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh. He’s a sociologist who spent several years studying life in the Chicago Projects. He was the first to spend time with the people living there and attempt to understand what life was like for them. As a book, it was not my favorite, but I am still glad I read it for the learning experience.

12 Recipes

Early in the month I made this quinoa salad to eat for lunch. It was very good and a nice change of pace. I actually made more of it just today!

12 Blog Posts

Click here to read a memory from each year during my decade in Chicago.

12 Ways to Meet People

In addition to my regular bimonthly husbandry shift, I volunteered for a Shedd event where teams of middle and high schoolers built UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) and brought them to Lincoln Park. They tried out the UAVs on ecological missions. I met some different volunteers, so that was nice. I don’t know that I’ll ever see them again, but at least I spent the day with some new people.

 

12 Small Steps Forward in my Career

This month I traveled to Toronto to lead a session at the Ontario Association of Mathematics Educators (OAME) annual conference. This was my first time presenting on my own, so it was a really nice addition for my CV, even though I only had 6 attendees. 

 

12 Fun Events in Chicagoland

This month was one of my favorite events of all time: DASH! It stands for Different Area, Same Hunt. It’s a puzzle hunt that takes place in a bunch of cities around the world on the same day. This year’s theme was Harry Potter, so naturally I was extra excited. Here I am in my Ravenclaw garb. The weather was awful and the puzzles were hard, but we had a lot of fun anyway.

12 Crafts and Creations

This month I made this baby blanket for my friends Meg and Dave, who are expecting a baby any day now.

I also made another sleeping mat from plastic bags. I like this one.

  

12 Pretty Things for My Apartment

Two small things this month. First, I bought stands for my four most recent scrapbooks. I love seeing them out.

I also hung my painting from last month’s paint and pour. It helps ties the bedspread into the rest of the room.

12 Things that Help Me Feel Good about My Appearance

Over the last five years or so, I’ve been struggling to control issues with dandruff. Over-the-counter shampoo was doing next-to-nothing. I finally got up the courage to ask my dermatologist for prescription shampoo. (Why I was so afraid to do this before, I don’t know, but I was.) It hasn’t 100% eliminated the problem but it is vastly improved and I’m less self-conscious about it.

12 Grown-Up Things

Uber (a taxi-like ride service) sponsored a Goodwill Drive this month. Uber drivers came to pick up any bagged clothing donations for free. I took the opportunity to go carefully through my closet and drawers and get rid of anything that (1) I hadn’t worn for a year or (2) I had worn but didn’t really like. I’m really trying to get to a place where I have a wardrobe that consists exclusively of things I genuinely like and enjoy wearing. This purge had the added benefit of reducing the amount of stuff I have to a size that actually fits in the space I have. I had several drawers that were always bulging, which meant that my clothes were consistently smushed and wrinkled. Now my clothes fit in my drawers, like most grown-ups’ do.