Life lately

Helloooo! I lied when I told you I wasn’t going to wait like, half a year to post a little life update.

I mentioned it a little earlier this week, but blogging hasn’t really been a priority of mine lately. And to be even more honest? That’s OK by me. I’ve kind of been feeling this way for a while, so I’ve come around to accepting it’s not a mood or a phase. When I started blogging years and years ago, my blog was a creative outlet; kind of like a public-facing diary but waaayyy less embarrassing than my actual diary. (Yes, I still keep one of those!)

Now the blogosphere is a smorgasbord of ads, paid product placements, affiliate links, etc. — and it’s kind of like… where do I fit into all that? Do I fit into all of that? Do I want to?

I’ve decided… I don’t care. I’m not keeping a list of page view targets or post goals or whatever. I’m going to post what I want when I want. I’ll still include affiliate links cause let’s be honest, I’m broke AF. (I’ll just be transparent about them ’cause I always will be.)

So, anyway! Here we are. “Organic” posting. Which brings me to… today’s little life update that should have been posted six months ago, whoops.

∙ ∙ ∙ LIFE ∙ ∙ ∙

I feel like pretty much everything going on in my life could use its own post at this point. There’s so much going on!

First up, CorePower Yoga! Not only is my Black Tag membership still going strong (s/o to following through on those New Year’s resolutions for once), I actually started… YOGA TEACHER TRAINING! I graduated just before the new year! I’ve been practicing yoga on and off for the better part of the last decade, and I’ve wanted to complete an RYT200 training program for years. CPY’s YTT program fit perfectly with my weird work schedule (even if it was super intense!) and — as time-consuming as it is — it has been such an amazing experience. I can’t wait to tell you more about it.

Second, Spanish classes! I’m still going strong with my weekly clases de Español over at SpanishLC. I tested out of the intro classes and into the mid-beginner classes, and I’ve made my way into the intermediate classes by now.

Third, volunteering. I took a little break from after-school tutoring at 826CHI this past semester due to YTT, but I actually started volunteering at a new local non-profit — Heartland Alliance — as an ESL instructor several months ago! I started volunteering as a one-on-one tutor for native Spanish and Ukrainian speakers in July, and now I’m teaching a class every Friday morning. It’s much more challenging than I thought it would be, but also so rewarding and really good for building my patience.

Taught my first ESL class today! ??❤️ pic.twitter.com/hLsXYYxIlK
— Randi Shaffer (@RandiMShaffer) November 2, 2018

∙ ∙ ∙ FRIENDS + FAMILY ∙ ∙ ∙

I mentioned it before, but I traveled back to Michigan a little bit ago to attend Elise and Paddy’s wedding! These two are #goals and their entire relationship has been a fairytale from day one. I’m so happy for them both.

∙ ∙ ∙ LIVE MUSIC ∙ ∙ ∙

Oh man, there’s a live music segment in here for the first time ever! One of my favorite things about living in Uptown is the live music venues that are practically in my backyard. Walking 10 minutes to the Aragon or Riv is one of my favorite things to do here, and it’s only going to get better once the Uptown is restored and Double Door finishes its move from Wicker. (Uptown is the new Wicker, amirite guys? We’ve only been saying it for 10 years.)

Anyway, I saw both LANY and Anna of the North a few weeks ago by myself over at the Riv, and caught Death Cab for Cutie at Aragon last month with my friend Mickey. I also somehow ended up at a Chromeo set at the Mid a few week ago, too.

Ooo @thisisLANY ILYSB. ? pic.twitter.com/VwoepikCBF
— Randi Shaffer (@RandiMShaffer) November 2, 2018

∙ ∙ ∙ FOOD + DINING ∙ ∙ ∙

I’ve been the worst about eating my way through this city lately. YTT kept me so busy that I’ve basically been inhaling Chipotle, preparing “adult Lunchables” in advance to bring to work, or scavenging the newsroom for leftover food.

I’ve also been living in Chicago for years now (where did the time go?) so I feel like I’ve got a standard list of my go-tos (I see you Cheesie’s, Headquarters, Hopleaf, DryHop, Billy Goat, Bongo Room) and I’ve fallen into the bad habit of frequenting my favorite places without every really branching out. With that being said — some new-to-me places I’ve tried recently:

Breakfast at Inspiration Kitchens in East Garfield Park
Lunch at Mariscos La Costa in Belmont-Cragin
A Christmas pop-up bar hopping excursion through Wrigleyville (Elf’d Up, Santa Baby and Frosty’s Christmas Bar)
Lincoln Park’s Las Fuentes for taco bowls
Craft beer and cheese boards at Bridgeport’s Marz Brewing
Pide and Turkish tea at Pera in Lakeview
Brunch at Lakeview’s Hutch (I’ve been here for drinks before, but never brunch, as weird as that is!)
Breakfast at Eleven City Diner

∙ ∙ ∙ WORK ∙ ∙ ∙

So, two big big things happened career-wise within the past six months! First, as trivial as it sounds, I was honored as my alma mater’s Young Journalist of the Year last month. I got a little trophy (that I promptly broke) and had to give a speech that I blacked out for. Not due to drinking or anything, just because I was so nervous! I got to celebrate the award afterward with some of my best friends from the student paper at my favorite bar in the entire world, which was the absolute highlight of the entire thing.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpxF-jLnSnI/

Second, I released my first podcast miniseries for the Tribune! My amazing former coworker Colleen did all the heavy lifting — the interviews, research, writing, etc. — and she graciously trusted me enough to do the production on her brainchild.

After six months of work, the Chicago Tribune’s “From the Midway” podcast miniseries about the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair went live in honor of the fair’s 125th anniversary this past fall, and I’m pretty proud of it! We pulled it off mid-move, which was a pretty big feat given that we were evicted from our studio space and had to deal with a lot of technical issues during the relocation.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BoAN6DQgS-_/

And, finally, I had a chance to sneak another byline of mine in print with this fun piece I wrote about the Chicago-area Couchsurfing community.

∙ ∙ ∙ SHOPPING ∙ ∙ ∙

My wardrobe lately has been two extremes: Either leggings for the studio, or sweaters and cords for work. (I guess there is an in-between: I wore leggings AND a sweater to the bar the other day. Hah!)

Also? It’s winter… so, all the outerwear. I’ve pretty much been living in the best parka I’ve ever owned, these cashmere-lined gloves, beanies and — depending on the temperature/ snow levels/ amount of salt on the streets… these boots, these boots, these boots or these boots. Midwest probs.

I’ve also got a few things on my wish list. The new newsroom is freezing and we can’t have space heaters, so this cozy-looking cape is really tempting. I’ve also been dying for this scarf and this leather jacket, but #helpmeimpoor.

∙ ∙ ∙ TRAVEL ∙ ∙ ∙

So, thanks to YTT, I haven’t been able to get out of Chicago as much as I’d usually like. I took a quick day trip to Mattheisen State Park earlier this fall to go hiking, and my last big trip was to Germany for my birthday in October. I’m heading to San Francisco for a quick weekend trip in two weeks… but my second round of YTT starts this coming week, and will keep me grounded in Chicago for most of this winter, too.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bozsf9UgfGZ/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpMlkQDAwSt/

OK. Phew. I think that’s it, for now? I’m going to try to be better about now unloading like, a year’s worth of word vomit onto my blog in the future, maybe, probably not.

I’ll go light on the photos now, because six months’ worth of photos is A LOT of photos, and also because WordPress’s new content editor is a piece of garbage.