exciting times

Oh man, this past week has been quite exciting and emotionally charged. Well, really the past week and a half if you want to drag the excitement of Halloween into the mix, which i do.

First, and perhaps most note worthy, was the election. Though i did not make it down to the rally itself, i think i did election night in style none the less. After getting off of work early i walked the streets of Chicago, bought a few buttons, saw the already forming lines to get into Grant Park and generally soaked up the energy. I watch the election coverage with a group of friends, flipping from Fox news to CNN to Comedy Central comparing the accounts and watching as each station slowly confirmed what we had been hoping for. After Obama delivered his speech, i headed back down town to once again walk around and once again see the aftermath. Chicago was definitely the place to be for the election; strangers shared their enthusiasm with me and my friends on the train because we were all wearing buttons. It was pretty cool.

Mom visited a few days later and we had a girlie date night with pizza, beers and a movie and lots of talk about nonprofits etc.

This past weekend i made a trip to Grinnell and got to see a lot of my fellow swimmers during alumni weekend. In someways it was better than other trips because i felt like there was more of a reason for me to be on campus, rather than just someone hanging on to a memory. On the other hand i didn't get to see all of my non-swimmer friends like the last time i visited making Grinnell seem only half full in a way. Swimmers rarely fail to entertain though.

Finally exciting thing: I am writing a novel. I kind of mentioned this in an earlier post but basically you write 50,000 words in a month and then you "win". it's just that simple, and it definitely doesn't have to be good writing (mine's not but it's still fun). Last night at a write-in, I won a $25 gift certificate for writing the most words in the night so this weekend promises a trip to a book store to spend it!