Carving a pumpkin is definitely in the weekend plans.

(via emphasis added)

I travel frequently for work and have logged a lot of airport time this year. My cab got me to the airport before sunrise this morning without incident (no pulling over on the side of the highway, no anger over my paying with a credit card) and when I stepped into the airport, I remember thinking “Well, this is going to be a good day”.

I had no idea.

I was sitting at my gate, thumbing through a magazine when an announcement was made: a wounded soldier was coming back from Afghanistan and everyone was invited to Gate B17 to welcome him home. Tears came to my eyes, I grabbed my bag and started heading to B17. This was something not to miss, this was something all of us at Midway had time for as the dawn was breaking.

Apparently, everyone agreed with me.

The gate was packed and the second that soldier stepped off the plan, cheers erupted. His family was there, the USO was there, Chicago police officers, proud in their uniforms, were there to show respect and welcome a hero home.

But then there was everyone else. Perfect strangers eschewing getting to their flights in order to be a part of this welcome. I stood there, watching people extend their gratitude, their hands, go in for hugs, photos. It was the most stunning display of humanity and a brilliant example of what is right with our country. We’re all on the same team and we all stand for the same thing: the freedom to live our lives in the country we have built.

I salute this soldier and his family and give gratitude for the sacrifices they have made to maintain freedoms that certainly are not free.

Welcome home.

I went to Instagram this image and stopped in my tracks. It seems like this Chicago fall doesn’t need any filter- colors abound!

Registration for the Soldier Field 10 Miler is open and $25 off until midnight tonight! This is a pricey race for being 10 miles so the discount is something to be taken advantage of.

Memorial Day weekend 2013 feels so far away but it looks like Ryan and I have plans- taking down 10 miles with 2 good friends and celebrating by sprinting to the 50 yard line of Soldier Field!

1. I had more fun than I probably should have cooking/baking (and blaring the show-tunes) on Friday. Cookies, French onion soup, turkey meat loaf, all in the oven when Ryan got home so we could have a cocktail, sit and talk. Such a change from our usual Friday “sushi takeout or Whole Foods” dilemma. Thank goodness Holly and I have “our new thing” and more cooking will be on the agenda!

2. The Chicago Marathon was yesterday! Ryan and I made a quick coffee run, brought the comforter out on the porch (38 degrees, brrr!) and watched the runners on the first leg of the race. We met neighbors in the process and it was one big cheering, clapping, coffee toasting city-hood party! Congrats to the runners, you should be so proud!

3. Was today the perfect fall day or was today the perfect fall day? I enjoyed a walk (errr, run?) on a hill by the lake with the short pockets in orange in this photo and his Mama. Between the time with a friend, squeals of joy from a toddler tripping over his own two feet and warm sunshine, it was the very best use of a very best fall afternoon.

4. It’s Chicago Idea Week which means tons of TED-style talks at a fraction of the price (most tickets are $15 as opposed to, say, a $8k registration fee). I am considering Disruptive Innovation and maybe the fashion one on Saturday. Get your tickets here.

5. Raise your hand if you need this Hot Tug. Yeah, me too.

Happy Monday, all!

Michigan State vs. Indiana. Woof.

But my apartment is clean. So there’s that.

My best friend Holly lives in Atlanta. We don’t see each other everyday, obvs, but between email, text, and phone calls, we are constantly in contact. The thing with not seeing each other in person is that the content of our conversations revolved around what’s going on with her, what’s going on with me, the occasional world event issue…but the distance factor means no shared experiences. So we decided to create one. It’s called “Our New Thing” because we can’t come up with anything else.

Every week, we alternate choosing a recipe and both make it. It doesn’t matter what night but we commit to cooking the recipe, sharing how it went, any pitfalls, pictures, skyping, whatever comes up. It achieves our goal of cooking more at home and doing something together.

Holly’s first pick was Smitten Kitchen’s French Onion Soup, chosen because she and her boyfriend recently had to-die-for French Onion Soup at a little bistro on their vacation to Paris. I volunteered to test a recipe for Shauna Niequist‘s new book “Bread and Wine” so Gaia cookies it was for week 2.

Holly made the soup first and cautioned me to not use glass bowls because boiling soup cracks glass bowls (and she has the 1st degree burns to prove it). I made the cookies first and called her, coincidentally on her way to the grocery, and told her to skip the dates…they’re expensive and weren’t 100% necessary (although get excited for this recipe to be in Shauna’s book- these cookies are incredible!). It’s kind of cool, really- our new thing is really just a big friendship analogy. You try things out, share the experience with a friend and hope they benefit from your navigating it first. Or if they don’t, you’ll at least have matching 1st degree burns.

Moral of the story: there are always ways to bridge the miles between friends, homemade French onion soup is so worth the time and real butter in cookies simply cannot be debated- it’s just better delicious.

(Top photo via)

Flashback to June when we were poolside at the W in Barcelona…and it was warm. Definitely a smile Friday worthy memory on this uber chilly Chicago day.

I have seen the most incredible fall colors this year. In Chicago, turning leaves feels like a “blink and you’ll miss it” moment when it finally happens. Or maybe there just aren’t that many trees. In any case, between Park City and Madison this week, I have seen a ton of trees and they were gorge, at the peak of their color.

Maybe I’ve just be nature deprived but I was taking a phone call in between meetings in Madison, sitting against a tree (a tree! On the ground! Nature!), watching these leaves fall and was so taken with the vibrancy of the color, so nostalgic about being young in my hometown that has no shortage of trees that I was near tears. Stuff is just so beautiful sometimes, you know? Eloquent statement, I know…maybe saying I have a deep gratitude for beauty these days, inside and out is a better way to put it.

Thank goodness for iPhones otherwise I would have had to just tell y’all about this tree.

Turning leaves, pumpkin spice everything, hearty home cooked meals, college football, cozy sweaters, my favorite boots, fall veggies at the Green City Market and absolutely wide open weekends (thank GOD).

I am already quite fond of this month.