First of all, I cannot tell you how much I love, love, LOVED the comments that were posted and emailed to me. So inspiring, so insightful, so lovely to read on a cold, gray day. To all who took the time to comment, thank you so much!
Selected at random by a random number selector website I found, the reader who is the lucky winner of the K.Amato earrings is… Molly!
Molly, if you could email me (justachitowngirl@gmail.com) your address, K.Amato will send you your new Alta Vista Earrings!
Dear Mom and Dad,
You guys had a whole lot to do with me coming into this world 26 years a go and since I totally appreciate being here, I think you deserve some thanks.
Do you remember feeding me eggs, waffles, pancakes, muffins, cereal, juice and soy sausage on the morning of my first soccer game, convinced I had to have a big breakfast so I would be ready to take on those other 6 year olds? Remember when I stood in the goalie box the entire game because I was so full that I couldn’t move? Thanks for always getting me game-ready for new challenges (really!).
Do you remember that Christmas when I read every single tag on every single gift as “To Santa, From Nina”, getting more emphatic when you reminded me that I didn’t give him crap and it actually read “To Nina, From Santa”? And then video taping it, while you muffled laughter in the background? Thanks for always humoring me.
Do you remember dropping me off (Mom) and picking me (Dad and Kari) at the airport when I was studying in Italy? I was so ready for that adventure but I wouldn’t have had the guts to do it if I hadn’t had my parents there, cheering me on. Thanks for always being my biggest and best cheerleaders.
Do you remember some difficult decisions I’ve had to make in the past few years? To be honest, some of them I remember with the gravity of the situation at the time, some of them have dulled as years have passed. But with any of those decisions in that challenging season, with all of them, you were all right there. Thank you for always being right there.
Do you remember when I called and told you that I got Luna Bell/got a promotion/got my apartment? You are always the very first people I call. Thank you for always being excited for me.
Thank you for teaching me to think critically, giving me the gift of education, to take the Golden Rule seriously, to love with all my heart and most of all, thank you for telling me time and time again that we are a family and will get through everything together.
Thank you for making every birthday I’ve ever had a very happy one.
Love,
Nina
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).