Sunday, February 20, 2011

Winter Blur

After a 2-month hiatus from updating the blog, I'm finally back to catch up!

This winter has, by far, felt like the shortest winter in history to me. I don't know if it is that it was technically more mild than in recent times (minus the "icepocalypse"...more on that later) or if it's that I'm just happier than I've ever been, or a mixture of both. In any case, this winter really has been kind of a quick blur to me. Typically, it seems like it drags on forever and by the time March rolls around, I'm convinced I'll never feel the warmth of the sun or see leaves on the trees again. But here we are, March right around the corner, and I don't feel like I've been in a winter-induced coma for the last 4 months. I should probably knock on wood now, because in Indiana, stranger things have happened than blizzards in late February or into March.

Alright, so off I go to play catch-up!

New Years: We celebrated our 1st NYE together as a married couple (another one of those "firsts"!) with Kyle, Lori, and Lori's sister and brother-in-law (OH, and a big HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to Jessica and Steve for their 1-year!). We all got jazzed up and went to the..wait for it...the CASINO! This was a first for all of us. OK, I have lost $1 playing a terrible, ancient gambling machine (of which I don't even remember the name) while on spring break to the Badlands, South Dakota...but that place had a total of 4 machines and was connected to a laundromat connected to a gas station...so I doubt that counts ;) Anyway, we had a great dinner and had fun seeing the sights and playing the penny slots. But, after a while it wasn't really our scene so we all headed back to our place to drink champagne, watch the ball drop, and just hang out. I do just love this picture of Jason, Lori, Kristin, and Kyle all trying to figure out how to work the penny slot machine. You laugh, but seriously - it's complicated! Somehow, I managed to win $3 and I pushed the button all of 2 times. Anyone want me to blow on their dice? I'm clearly a pretty lucky gal ;)

How many college-educated adults does it take to figure out a penny slot?

Reunion in Chicago: Shortly after the new year, Gina was able to get together the spring break crew of 2008 (Badlands love!) for a fun weekend reunion in Chicago. With Adam in France, Nic in Chicago, and the three of us Indy-dwellers off doing our own things, it's been since 2009 that we've been able to reunite as a whole group. So a huge thanks goes to Gina for getting the ball rolling! One of my favorite things that we did was play indoor Bocce Ball. Bocce Ball is an Italian game typically played outdoors in which two teams try to get their colored balls thrown as close to the little silver ball as possible. For the life of me I cannot remember what that little guy is called...we kept calling it the "snitch" (from Harry Potter) or "snatch" (from..oh nevermind), and now I have no clue what it's real name is. We had an incredible time and it made me realize how lucky I am to have these wonderful friends with whom I share so many wonderful memories. 

Badlands Love!
Bocce Ball Love!
The great fire of St. Joseph's Neighborhood: On January 25, 2011, the historic Chadwick building caught fire and became an blazing inferno a mere two buildings down from us. Thankfully, Delaware street separated us so there really was very little danger of the fire spreading to our building. It still was incredible, scary, and sad notheless. I guess I should add here that the Chadwick was a historic yet vacant building that has been an eyesore for 10 years. You can read more about the official story at http://www.wthr.com/story/13906892/demolished-building-seen-as-eyesore. Our story goes something like this: after watching TV on the couch, I announced that I needed to go take a shower and get into bed. However, Jason was able to sweet-talk me into staying on the couch with him just a little while longer. The windows in that room are on the street, and we gradually started to smell smoke. Now, this isn't unusual. Our windows are old and with our location, we smell all kinds of cigarette smoke and other city smells on any given day. Soon enough though, the smell became stronger and I turned to Jason and asked "That's not our building burning down, is it?". Of course it wasn't he replied. But that did get us into a conversation about what we would do in the event of a fire in our building, given our floorplan. All the while during this detailed conversation (in which several of Jason's ideas to escape a fire included superhero-like maneuvers on his part), we kept hearing sirens pass the window. This really should have tipped us off, but again, we hear sirens pass on a daily basis, and so we didn't bat an eye. Finally, Jason decides the smell is really strong, so maybe we should look out the window to see if there's anything going on. What we saw was no less than 5 firetrucks, too many police vehicles to count, smoke obscuring the air, and our fire hydrant being used for a gigantic hose. WTF?? How did we sit there and NOT realize what was happening?! We raced outside and watched the firemen fight the blaze while we listened to seasoned neighbors talk about the history of the building and the other 2 fires it has endured. Eventually they shut of the power in our grid for safety reasons, so there really wasn't much of a reason to go back inside. We continued to watch and take pictures/video well past midnight. It was a very interesting and surreal experience. I'd never seen a building on fire, and definitely no real, substantial fire that close. We're thankful that no one was injured and that the surrounding businesses were spared. Now we're just watching and waiting to see what goes up in the Chadwick's place...hopefully something cool!

Fire in the city

From fire, to ice: In stark contrast to the event at the end of January, the beginning of February brought with it epic amounts of ice. Roads were slick, some people lost power, parking lots and neighborhoods were impassible, and schools were closed for 3-4 days (oh, how I wish I were in elementary school again!). Although in my opinion, the storm was a wee bit overblown ("icepocalypse", really?), it truly was a nuisance and posed a real danger to drivers.

A solid block of ice extracted from my windshield. You wouldn't believe how long it took just to break this free! 

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