I'm Caught in Suspension.

Eli just left an hour ago and I am waiting for a carful of falcons to arrive in 2.5 hours-- I'm literally suspended in a fairly useless amount of time waiting for the best summer of my life to continue (shoutout to Loyolacappella for the title of this post, yeah?). Lucky for me (and all of you-- our THIRTEEN followers!!), blogging is a great filler for that "fairly useless" amount of time. ;)

I babysat Tuesday, and the 2 siblings (in 7th and 5th grade) filmed an entire commercial for a cleaning company called the DustBusters, inspired by them having to vacuum the cookie crumbs they decorated my backseat of my car with on our way home from the library. After watching it, I wondered why kids don't actually control the world-- they are still in touch with their imaginations so they are SO creative, they aren't afraid of looking silly and they are all interested in learning. I say we nominate an adolescent as president in the next election.

Eli's visit was absolutely awesome. Not only was it great spending time with him, but it was motivation for me to pay $2.25 to take the CTA places, which is something I don't usually feel like splurging on when I'm flying solo. I showed him RoPo, Andersonville, Wrigleyville, Lakeview, Lincoln Park and literally the entirety of downtown, from Pearson Ave all the way to the S. Loop. We talked politics (can you imagine-- people are able to do this in a civil manner!), our childhoods, our futures, and things that set us on fire (in a good way). All of this conversation happened over great food and drink: my homemade black bean burgers, the wine from Italy (which was deLISH!), buffalo tofu, yummy beers from Hopleaf and Uncommon...the list goes on forever, since this is the best food city in the country.

I think my favorite meal of the visit, though, was last night's dinner. A fellow OASCer, Chris, who is one of my close friends despite the fact that we don't ever see each other, is actually in Chi city for the summer, so he met us for a late dinner. I found an outdoor terrace in the heart of the city with great food, a spectacular view and lots of open air. We sat for 2+ hours and enjoyed the reunion (and some bomb-awesome falafel)...I loved the catch-up time! Special guest appearance of the week goes to Steve Zeisler from NC. He put up with our obnoxious late-night phone call.

Anyway, I was able to be confirmed in a lot of the things I've been thinking and feeling about myself/my life path lately, which is one of the reasons I enjoy getting back to my roots and reconnecting with people who have watched me grow and understand what is important to me. Thanks for the clarity, E! :)

So now, Katelyn, Becky and Shawn are en route for another excellent couple of days. Of course we're headed downtown to check out Taste of Chicago, but I am not a fan of dawdling crowds who stand where you're supposed to walk and don't realize that there are 100,000 other people around them, so I am much more anticipatory of our camping expedition. Apparently, our back-up plan if we don't get a campsite is a camping trip in Becky's backyard in the 'burbs. I won't complain-- how many times have we camped in backyards?! As long as I get to put my awesome tent to use, you can count me in!

Until they arrive, I'll be calling all of the lovely first-years I get to hang out with in the Social Justice Learning Community next year and polishing Rhianna's "Take a Bow," which I just taught myself to play on the guitar. I know you're jealous.

Question of the day: Is chivalry dead, is chivalry sexist or has chivalry evolved into a way of treating people that ANY gender can act out toward ANY OTHER gender? I'm interested in everyone's thoughts. Play nice, though, friends! :)