One nice thing about Chicago

Yesterday on my way home, I left work accidentally in time to catch CTA's Holiday Train. It's a tradition here for almost 20 years I think. I didn't even know that it was going to be on my train line. I wasn't even thinking about it, but it pulled up with all its festivity and joy. It was one of the coolest things that's happened to me here. You couldn't help but smile and be in a good mood when you rode it. Unfortunately I didn't get to ride for very long, I could have rode it all the way to the end, it was great. I looked up pictures today and this site probably has the best pictures for it http://iconeon.net/blog/2006/11/27/cta-holiday-train/ and this is a good picture of the exterior http://rides.webshots.com/photo/1524252119048480006MlMzGx  so check it out and make yourself smile. I even got to see the big man
 in red himself!

Niece pictures

Here are some pictures of my new niece!

 Proud papa and new baby, already wore each other out.



Wide awake and ready to greet the world. Hello, world!

Retreat experience

     Almost a month ago, I went on a retreat with a group called Charis. The topic was "Decisions... and the transitions that follow." I went into the retreat thinking about getting advice on how to make decisions, particularly with my career or where we want to live. That's not all all what came out of it. This retreat was a life-changing event for me. The second talk that was given was about letting go of the things that hold us back from making transitions in our lives (internal change of how we view our identity, as opposed to a tangible change). The woman who spoke gave a testimonial about herself, something she never talked about in public before. She was bipolar and had to learn how to live with her major ups and downs. She wondered if she would ever have a "normal" life with someone who loves her for who she is. What she had to let go of was the feeling like something was missing in her life and the attitude that this was a debilitating disability. It hit home with me and my depression. After she talked, we were all given index cards to write a few words about the things that are obstructing us from moving on in transitioning. Since her talk really struck me, I felt it was my turn to let go. I wrote about how I don't always like who I am or where I'm at in my life and all those bad things that are not helping me be happy. Then we went outside and when we were truly ready, we ripped up the index cards and threw them in the fire.
     After that, we went into the church and gathered around the baptismal font. We talked about how we were all God's Beloved. They transformed the church into a labyrinth afterwards. We all took different journeys through it. We ran into obstructions along the way, but we also had people encouraging us, just like our journey through life.
     The whole experience for me was life-changing. I felt so free afterwards. I've had a positive outlook ever since. I'm seeing things more positive, acting more positive and I've found myself saying things I normally wouldn't say in that way. It's been a month now and I'm coming down off the excitement high of the retreat, but the experience is so close to my heart that I know that this is the real thing and it will stick with me. I'm hoping that this experience and the transition I'm going through now will eventually carry over into my depression and help me with that.
    During the retreat, after the labyrinth, we wrote letters to God about the things we wanted to let go of. In response, we had to write a letter from God to ourselves. Both of my letters flowed out so easily when I wrote them, that I truly believe God had a hand in those letters. I keep those letters with me and and pray about them often. I am contemplating ways to make the letters pocket sized to have readily available throughout the day when I need a pick-me-up. I hope someday, I can share those letters with you guys because the power I feel in those letters is unlike anything I've ever felt.

Expanded family

My family has expanded! My brother's wife gave birth today to a baby girl. Addison Jayne is 8 lbs 2 oz and 20 inches. This all happened less than 2 hours ago, so I haven't even seen pictures. I'll post one when I get one, but seeing that she comes from my family, I'm sure she's gorgeous.

Aveda facials

Last week I went for a facial at the Aveda Institute, that someone gave me as a gift. I've never had a facial before, but it was a great experience. Here's what I expected. Basically, I'm sitting in a chair and somebody puts a mud-like substance on my face and it sits there for about 10 minutes till they walk me over to a sink and I wash it off. Now this wouldn't be bad, but it was what I was expecting... Nope, that's not at all what this was like.

First, they take me to this room and tell me to undress from the waist up and they give me a towel to cover myself with. In the meantime, my girl left the room. She came back and soaked my feet before the facial. Then she used an exfoliating cream on them. It was nice. So I crawl on to the bed/table and lay down. She covers me up and tells me that during the facial, I'll be getting a foot and leg massage as well as a neck and shoulder massage. Aaaaahhhh, perfect. She shined a light on my face to study it, found all my pimples and blackheads as well as explored my skin type. (According to her, my skin elasticity is great and my texture is amazing.) So from that she chose the clay mask. Somewhere in here, she did some manual extractions, which means she squeezed my pimples. :) She applied the clay mask, then put something that blew hot steam on my face so it would sort of dry. In the meantime, I got my foot and leg massage. The only problem was she tickled my feet! I still managed to relax though. After she wiped that one off, she put another mask on, some rejuvinating thing, I don't remember exactly. That's when I got my neck and shoulder massage. It wasn't anything great, since I like my massages hard, but it still felt nice. After the actual facial, she used a tinted moisturizer for my face and used a lightly colored lip balm to brighten my face.

Overall, I loved the facial. It was so relaxing to have someone do that stuff for you and take care of your beauty for you. I would totally do it again and would recommend it for anyone who wants to pamper themselves a bit. My face didn't feel too much different, since my skin is pretty smooth to begin with, but I was really relaxed afterwards. I was glad I didn't have to go to work afterwards. :)

P.S. You know who you are, but thanks for the gift!

Next year is our year...

I am totallly convinced that I jinxed them. The Cleveland Indians lost the last 3 games of the ALCS and a chance to go to the World Series. My last post, I said I wanted them to win the World Series for my birthday and that did it. I jinxed them. But I'm not giving up, I'm pretty sure next year is the year. We'll do it then, I have confidence in my boys... and I won't jinx it again.

Good year boys! Everybody in Cleveland is proud of what you've accomplished, especially for such a young team.

Wahoo!

Wahoo! Way to go, Indians! Those are my boys. Okay, I know I say this every year, but I'll say it again since this year is a big year. For my birthday, my  30th birthday this year, I want the Indians to win the World Series. And hopefully I didn't jinx them. :)