• Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Favorite Things,  Fun in Chicago,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    Superstitions Be Gone: Cubs Win the 2016 World Series!

    Chicago is a very happy city today. I am a very happy person today. I am nearly too exhausted to write about this but I’m going to give it a shot: bear with me. I was up until 2am and slept in a most terrible manner for the duration before my eyes sprung open again at 6:45am. I suspect it was because internally I sensed that “Good Morning America” was coming on and I didn’t want to miss the World Series recap, which I enjoyed immensely. Let me back up. Chicago Cubs. Cleveland Indians. What a World Series: a real nail biter. Game 7, though? I literally thought I was…

  • Blessings,  Queen of Denial,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    The Comforts of Home

    This morning, exactly two weeks to the hour after I was at O’Hare airport and getting on the plane that would take me to Jim after his cycling accident, I was at McGhee Tyson airport and getting on the plane that would take me home. In the past two weeks I covered every single emotion under the sun as I watched Jim’s condition go from only being able to speak one word at a time, having practically zero memory, and needing assistance walking to a state I would call “100% back to normal other than the residual bruises and healing wounds”. The fact that this happened at all was tragic…

  • Amazing People,  How To,  Something That Could Change Your Life,  UGH.

    Safety Saves.

    The last 24 hours have been upsetting, terrifying, shocking, anger-inducing, and all kinds of other descriptors I’m too tired to list. Late yesterday afternoon, my husband Jim was riding his bike down a country road in west Knoxville, Tennessee when he was hit by some kind of vehicle. We’re not sure if it was a car or a truck because whomever hit him just kept on driving. They kept on driving. He or she drove off, leaving my husband on the side of the road. He was unresponsive when someone else happened to drive by and notice him lying there. That someone happened to be the pilot of one of…

  • How To,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    Level the College Admissions Playing Field with inli.ne!

    This post is sponsored by inli.ne. It’s getting pretty exciting all up in here! Our younger son J will be completing his college studies this December, one semester early. Three and a half years to a Bachelor’s degree? Boo-yah! We hear so often that college can take four and a half years, five years, or more…but it’s also possible to graduate early. Everyone has his own plan but in J’s case, he stuck with his originally declared major, had some AP test credits, took two summer classes, and got credit for his first year of German after testing out of it. It’s amazing to me that we’re at the end…

  • Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Blessings,  Fun in Chicago,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  Proud Moments,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    Five.

    Sunday was a great day. On Sunday Tracey and I, along with our incredible cast of ten other women and one Pete, brought the fifth annual LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER CHICAGO show to the stage. I don’t write as much about LTYM here on Suburban Scrawl as I used to. I’m not sure why that is, because it really has become a part of my practically-daily life all year round. Being involved with LTYM on a few different levels is still a life highlight, and it just keeps on getting better. Like Sunday. Our fifth show? Wow. Time flies when you’re having fun. Five years in and it’s still a…