Love Letter

Love letter to New Mexico:

Dear New Mexico,

I'm in love with you. It took me less than a week to fall deeply and passionately in love with you. At first I wasn't sure about you. The first few days I missed my home. I was lonely and you keeping me up all night with all your wind didn't help any. But pretty soon you stole my heart. I fell in love with your beautiful land and vibrant colors--the purple mountains painted across your arid landscape. The way your land stretches out as far as the eye can see with the azure sky reaching to meet you made me love you. The smell of your ponderosa pines and the sight of your crystalline lakes took my breath away. I love everything about you. You even made Colorado a little jealous of you--luckily Colorado knows it touched my soul first. But New Mexico, you have my heart. And you always will.

I'll miss you this summer. But I promise you, I think of you each and every day, and I will be back for you.

Love,

Rachel

The Present

Sometimes if I look around and stop thinking about myself for one second (hard, I know) I feel really existential. This happens to be sometimes in the Merchandise Mart watching people come and go and live their lives, and also sometimes in the L stations watching people enter and exit the turnstiles. I just think, what is everyone doing? Where is everyone going? What's the point to all this really? I try not to dwell on it for too long because (a) I'm too self-centered and (b) It's pretty overwhelming.

Another thought I've had: I think that sometimes I spend too much of my time looking back to my many wonderful memories and also looking ahead to what I hope are more amazing things. I wonder, am I ignoring the "now?" It's just, these things in my past shaped me and made me who I am. They meant the world to me so I can't stop thinking about them. I think about Philmont most days at some point and the West and what an amazing time I had there and how I want to live there some day. I make wishes and visionboards and pin things to pinterest all about my "someday" kind of life, which is great because you have to have dreams and clear visions to make the life you want a reality, but how do I make sure that I'm not neglecting the present?

Nature!!!!

Went to my newly discovered most favorite place in Chicago Wednesday: The Lincoln Park Conservatory.

My leg has been bugging me so I decided to see how long it take to

walk there. Answer: 45-50 minutes. The conservatory is absolutely gorgeous. Outside, there are some beautiful pines, and if you squint and look at a very specific spot, you can fool yourself into thinking you're seeing mountain scenery. Well, and if you use your imagination.

The conservatory is really warm inside, because duh! it's a greenhouse (btw, just learned about the greenhouse effect this week in my 4th grade classroom-it all makes so much more sense now!), and it smells wonderful. The main entrance room is full of beautiful palm trees and ferns and some exotic flowers and plants, including bananas!

The second room is the fern room. It's full of really old types of plants that covered the landscape when the dinosaurs were around. They even have some cute little plastic dinosaurs hidden in the ferns.

The third room is wonderful. The orchid room is filled with many different types of beautiful orchids. There's also a koi pond and beautiful statue.

The final room is a burst of color. Beautiful purples and pinks everywhere. It's a little cooler in there and there are benches. I just sat there for a few minutes in silence until some more people came in.

Wonderful.

And the best part? It's free!

Side note: On my walk to the conservatory, I happened upon a beautiful little trail alongside a pond full of ducks and geese. It was a nature preserve area. So beautiful in the midst of the city.

The haps

Just watched While you were sleeping at Heather's recommendation. It was set in Chicago which is super exciting! I seriously love Sandra Bullock.

I've been so super busy every since I got back to Chicago over a month ago. Classes have been pretty insane, especially Observation and Measurement where we have to design and implement a reading intervention and Intellectual Assessment just because I've had to find kids to test and find 2 hour blocks of time to test them. Luckily, spring break is in 3 weeks and I get to go home for a bit. I'm excited to go back and excited to see one of my all-time favorite authors Jodi Picoult. I've been reading her books since I was 15 and they're always amazing.

Had a great time when Heather and Ashley visited last weekend. We got to do some sightseeing int he freezing cold weather and I got to go to the Lincoln Park zoo and the conservatory for the first time. The conservatory is amazing. So beautiful and peaceful. When it gets warmer, I plan on running down to it.

Well that's what's been going on here.

Later.