public transit & the windy city

walking back from dinner in downtown Chicago

thanks to UW, my free bus pass means i don't actually drive my car every day now. i recognize how wonderful this is - especially when i go to the gas pumps to fill up (typically for a longer, out-of-town-ish trip). so, as i planned a trip to chicago a couple of weeks ago, imagine my delight when i found that i could avoid the pumps all together (along with ridiculous parking fees) and get myself a ride on the megabus for $16 each way. factor in another $7 for a weekend pass on the trains and *bingo,* i've taken a trip from madison to downtown chicago to elmhurst back to downtown and back to madison for less than $50. bonuses: i lose less work time and i feel like an amazingly smart shopper. i find all of this to be incredibly rewarding.

jimmy hendrix floor of the hard rock

why a chicago trip, you ask? well, because matt and i are in different areas of psychology, a lot of the work we do, people we know, and conferences that we attend don't actually cross paths.  moreover, because we were only in graduate school together for that single year, i've never actually seen matt give a talk about his work. not only that, but i'm not sure when i would actually get to do so. it may not surprise you, then, that when matt got invited to give a talk at the MPA conference this year in Chicago, my mental math told me that this might be a good opportunity to take advantage of. better yet, when the conference hotel was all booked up, matt got us a room at the hard rock hotel. this made things really feel 50% work and 50% vacation.

matt gave his talk friday morning. and it won't surprise you that by the time that talk was over (he was wonderful, by the way), matt already had a restaurant selected and reservations made for a date night friday evening. he did quite a good job, too. i keep wanting to describe carnivale as a latin fusion place, but it is actually even more eclectic than that. the atmosphere, the service, and the food were all incredible. i would definitely go back and i would totally recommend it to anyone who plans on being in the area.

millenium park

and because i'm a good kid, i even got up and did my run on saturday morning. it didn't hurt that we were just down the block from millenium park, an inviting running opportunity. then we took the train out to elmhurst to spend derby day/cinco de mayo with dj and laura. sunday i took the train back in, hopped the megabus, and was home by dinner. if i had it in me to sleep on busses, the tip would've round it out as perfectly as it went down.

honestly, though, given all of our opportunities to get lost or miss our relative buss/plane/train rides, i'd say that things went down pretty seamlessly. we must be getting good at this traveling stuff. it had to happen eventually.

this week has been the last week of classes as UW. as a part of that, the undergraduate that i've been supervising this semester presented a poster of the findings of her independent project. she did wonderfully. i wanted to snap a picture, but there were about a million people in a teeny, tiny room, so i'm not even sure if i could have fit her and her poster in the same frame. bummer. you know what i did get, though? these amazing chocolate covered blueberries at trader joe's, which was just down the street. i also got some yummy trail mix (the possibly perfect blend of dried fruit and nuts) - but that didn't make it into a photo.

i'm getting antsy for summer. i'm itching to be outside - either running or by the lake with a good book. i have visions that i'll both be able to do this and also get a whole bunch of work done. and after kassi's graduation, nick and sarah's wedding, the dam to dam 5k, the icis conference, submitting my grant, and stats camp, i'm sure that will totally happen. . . right?

we're starting long and longer runs for during practices for our running program. i find myself getting a little anxious for the runs that seem like they might be daunting, but then eventually finding myself easing into things. it's pretty uplifting, actually, to find yourself going from thinking, "i don't know if i can do this" to "i think i've got this under control." it's kind of a weird time and place to have a moment of gratification, but welcomed nonetheless.

happy day before mother's day, everyone. and have a wonderful week!