There is something so therapeutic at looking onto water,... more so than mountains, rivers or other picturesque landscapes. I wonder why that is. Each day I go onto my little balcony, overlooking Lake Michigan, and simply thank God for the opportunity to experi
ence this place. Its probably the loveliest apt I have ever rented (2nd only to my Northville place)This apt seems to evoke a kind of 'resort' feel to it as its right across the road to a lovely, lakeside park/beach area. Chicago has one of the longest parks in the US - 26 miles of waterfront park which becomes the star attraction on busy summer weekends. Finally, I think to myself..."I
have a place that people actually want to visit" - which unfortunately wasn't the case in Michigan. This is probably the reason I've been doing a lot of hosting - which I genuinely enjoy. I even have a sightseeing 'route' I take my visitors on, while posing as a local. My visitors all seem to leave refreshed, albeit reluctantly, especially after I show them the Pièce de résistance - the 48th roof top view from my apt building, overlooking the lake and Chicago city. It's a delight to see them take in that first view...In addition to friends visiting, I've had a few couch surfers crash here as well. Fortunately they are all fairly independent so I only need to provide a key, a map and they take care of themselves. I'm actually grateful to them, for riding the bicycle I dragged all the way from MI so as to make me feel
much less guiltier for not riding it myself.Last weekend I set a record , cramming 7 people into this
1 bedroom place. The Rosekrans, Aragones + friend visited for the weekend of the Chicago Air Show (my absolute fav. time to be here) and it was a crazy fun time had by all. The Aragones clan are a Caribbean family of 3 kids + their mum. They truly have such wonderful chemistry between them that its a joy to witness. In many ways they are in direct contrast to our Caucasian and somewhat reserved ways. The combination of them together is sheer entertainment that is 2nd to none. I haven't laughed that hard since...well...my memory just doesn't go back that far....In between blog posts I took a quick trip to Chapel Hill for my bi-annual transplant appt. This time around, I got to spend it with a UNC transplantee, Mandy, which I met living in N.C those many moons ago. It's been well ove
r 5 yrs since we've seen each other and to say that I was happy to see Mandy was an understatement (she's the one in print on the left). She's one of the few people who has the same CF bug I do which limited our initial chances at a transplant (truth be told my own UNC transplant cen
ter wouldn't transplant me now if I needed one because of this bug) It's wonderful to see that she is also doing so well, 10 yrs after her own transplant.In the blog photos you'll also find a pic of us and a one of Metro SDA Church's favorite people - Pastor Frank Haynes, who is currently pastoring the N. Aurora church in Illinois. Happy 'end of the summer' everyone!!
