Jumping on the "Thankful" Bandwagon

Lots of bloggie peeps are posting things that they are grateful for since it's Thanksgiving month and all. I'm not ambitious enough to try daily "thankful" posts but I do have a couple of things that I am grateful for on just about a daily basis.

1. My apartment. I LOVE where we live. We are right in downtown Chicago, on the lake, with a view of Grant and Millennium Park. Here's a view out our living room windows:





In addition to the view and the convenience of living only 15 minutes from work (walking OR driving), we are close to so many activities: the lakefront path, tons of restaurants, the ballet, the symphony, the opera, museums and all the free events and festivals in Grant and Millennium Park. We really try to take advantage of as many events as we can. Oh, and they are often filming movies around here which is a lot of fun!






In addition to our location, I love our apartment itself. When we moved downtown a couple years ago we looked to buy a condo but we didn't find anything we LOVED. I don't ascribe to the whole "it's always better to buy" philosophy. I think if you are going to spend huge amounts of money, it better be for something you LOVE. And with our lifestyle, moving every few years, buying is likely not even a good investment. So we found a place we LOVED that was a rental and we took it! But, we wanted it to be homey so we hired some friends to paint the place (they are professionals). And homey it is. Especially, Jack our gigantic bison photograph (taken by Thomas Mangelsen, my favorite nature photographer):) Here he is before he made his new home on the wall:





2. I am thankful that I don't have a commute. For those who live in a big city, commuting can become a huge time sucker and an important factor in life. When I hear the traffic report on NPR every morning, I am SO GRATEFUL that I can leave my apartment and walk into work in 15 minutes flat. Life is too short to waste it on commuting.

Clearly, there are a million things I'm grateful for but these two will suffice for now!