Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotton

I don't know what to write about today. I can't believe how restless and even, occasionally, bored, I have become over this Christmas break. And it still doesn't keep me from dreading the coming semester, which will begin all too soon this coming Tuesday. Or from being stressed out about the 1.254 million things I should be doing, even while I am experiencing the feeling of boredom.

I'm ready for a big change. Something dramatic. I want something unexpected to happen. It doesn't necessarily need to be wonderful or marvelous, but I definitely don't want it to be bad. Just a change of pace.

Today Emilio, Sophia, and I went to the Oak Park Conservatory, which is a free plant conservatory that we can literally see out of our bedroom windows--it is directly across the Eisenhower Expressway from our condo. I don't know if I have mentioned it before, but it's awesome, because you feel like you are in the jungle, even while you are listening to traffic and trains go by on the nearby highway. It's definately a place I would never have appreciated or even visited before having a child--it's hardly much bigger than our little apartment. It would have seemed to boring and slow-paced. But going there with children makes you understand how magical plants can be. I love that Sophia gets to run her hands along rows of wet ferns in January in Chicago. That's really great. And it's free. There also happen to be fish, turtles, and bright-colored, squawking birds, which are also rare treasures to be found here. And animals are much-appreciated by little humans. I don't know if I ever mentioned here that Sophia's very first word after "Mama" was "Squirrel."

My brother was telling me some crazy story that I don't believe recently, but for some reason, I feel like sharing it. Even though I don't believe it. Apparently, some couple with a three-year-old kid, gave birth (the wife did, that is) to a new baby. Once the baby was home from the hospital, the older child started asking if she could spend a few minutes alone with her new sibling. The parents were a little surprised and wondered why she would want to do that, but after quelling their concerns by setting up a baby monitor they could listen to while the children were alone together, they granted their daughter's request. Once the door was closed and she was alone with the baby, she asked her if she remembered what God was like because she had almost forgotten. Isn't that a weird story? But my brother acted like it was totally true--I guess he really trusted his source.

Well, Sophia woke from her nap prematurely, as usual. Ciao, bellas.