Random thoughts on a foggy morning

I've been back for a week now, and I seems I brought the rainy chilly weather back with me. This morning there's a lovely fog settled in all around the complex. I like fog; it reminds me of summers on my parent's boat. Most mornings on vacation would start off in a fog, and as the sun broke through we peeled off layers of sweatshirts and my dad's oversized chamois shirts until we were eventually at the beach in bathing suits. But that first morning fog cast a whole dreamy quality over the day; I was usually up hours before everyone else, so it was just me wandering around in the fog, listening to the ropes creak against the wooden docks and watching the rest of the world wake up.

I think as soon as I finish this post, I'm going to go for a walk in the fog. Because I can.

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I'm sitting in my living room now watching little birds stop by the feeder outside; I would take a picture for you but the glass is stained with tiny nose prints from the cats. George and Emily love the birdfeeder more than anything in the world.

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I had one of the best vacations of my life in Connecticut last week. It was relaxing, fun, nostalgic, entertaining, and insightful. Seeing all those people from all the different stages of my life inspired me to look at where I am now and where I want to go next. I love my life right now: I have a job that makes me think, friends that make me laugh, a husband who makes me laugh and think, and I have finally figured out how to stay in touch with my family pretty regularly and in ways that work for all of us.

I love where we live; the house itself needs some cosmetic changes like paint and some minor repairs, but I bought this place because the location was ideal, and that has only gotten better over time. Plus it is one of the few towns that remind me of how Connecticut looks; there are lots of parks and trees, and in the old money section of town, everyone has a rolling lawn like they are supposed to. In Connecticut even the middle class have lawns; in Illinois suburbs, that seems to be the domain of either the wealthy or those who live so far out it's not even really the suburbs anymore. That makes no sense to me. The Chicago suburban area has so much more land than central Connecticut, but they use it so differently.

The other big similarity between my current and former hometowns are the similarities in the "downtown" section. In both, the building style is old-fashioned Main Street USA looking and full of stores that you can't figure out who shops there (why are there two antique stores next to each other? Who buys tchotchkes at the Cat's Meow?).



This is a florist shop in Wallingford. The photo was taken straight on; the main street downtown is on a huge hill, and so to compensate all the building foundations are crooked. Even the trees grow crooked.





I don't think I ever noticed that before. It's just the way that it is. And there is nothing like it where I live now.

I've lived in Illinois almost exactly as long as I lived in Connecticut, but my eyes will never get used to the way the landscape looks here versus the way it looks back there.

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The other thing that my trip inspired me to do is get healthy again. It's time.

I'll get into those thinky thoughts more later. Right now it's time to log off and go for that walk in the fog before it burns off and becomes the glorious summer day like it is supposed to.

ETA: Back from my walk. Some of the sights I passed along the way.


On the way to the train station downtown.


North branch of the Chicago river, which runs through the center of town. Usually it is no bigger than a brook.


Spiderweb on the bridge.


Garden with Mary statue at the nursing home around the corner. By about here I realized I am terribly out of shape. I hadn't gone more than a mile and a half and I didn't think I would make it the last half-mile home.


Flooded park. Note the swimming duck in the bottom right corner. He was literally swimming through all the puddles.