I bundled up and went for a little walk this morning. It is crisp and cold and absolutely December. It’s the kind of cold that flirts with the edge of snow, the below 30 degree cold that could turn into flakes at any second. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t the least bit excited for snow. The city is so beautiful and bright with a fresh layer of snow. It makes holiday’ing official. Which it totally is, and this upcoming weekend solidifies it even more…with or without snow. My parents are coming into town for the 4th Annual “G Family Christmas Kickoff” and I couldn’t be more excited.
It’s November, right?
Chicago Forecast: 70 degrees today. 68 degrees tomorrow. High of 65 on Friday.
In November?!
I mean, the Corner Bakery had its air conditioning on today.
I am convinced that this heat wave is because I bought a winter jacket on Sunday. Mother Nature knew I was prepared and decided to throw me a curve ball.
First thing on the agenda tomorrow: running along Lake Michigan. The marathon was exactly a month ago today and I must say, without 26.2 miles looming ahead of me, I have been running 1x each week, at best. Gotta get out there before the snow sets in.
Which will probably happen on Saturday. Chicagoans knows that 70 to snowing is totally, absolutely, definitely a possibility.
Finally.
87, 84, 82, 83, 78.
No, those are not the ages of people who live in my grandmother’s neighborhood. That is Chicago’s 5-day forecast.
Hellllooooo, summer!
Too Short
Reason #3498 why I love living in Chicago is that there is Caribou Coffee here.
Yes, I know–there are Caribou Coffees pretty much everywhere but there wasn’t one where I grew up and when I would visit friends in the Detroit area, I would beg them to go get a Light White Berry with me so I totally enjoy being able to get a $4 coffee now whenever I want.
Chicago’s temperature hit 73 degrees today, which is obviously deserving of an iced coffee. I am the clumsiest person on the planet so I was in need of a napkin in case anything was spilled. When I went to get one, I grabbed what I thought was a napkin that had been written on. There was writing on it, albeit engineered by the Caribou thinktank most likely, and it was titled “Life’s Too Short For:” and then had a list.
“Life’s Too Short For: Grudges, fake anything, putting profits before people, crabby people, over-roasted coffe and waiting for change to happen.”
Spot on, right? Every day, there are a million little (or big) things that jar us into remembering what life is too short for. We might not always be fully present to notice them but they’re there. For me, life’s too short to not be real with the people I love and the things in our lives that are important to us. For me, life’s too short for every single person I love not to know it. For me, life is to short not to belly laugh. Or to notice giggly babies or dogs that are so freakin’ happy to be out on a walk. And life is definitely too short for me to wear shoes that hurt my feet.
I’m grateful that it was a silly napkin from an overpriced coffee factory that reminded me of these things today but when events happen that make it all too clear what life is too short for, I thank God that I have a family and friends to weather those storms with.
Life is too short for _______ (fill in the blank).