Good day in Chicago

So, yes, I am still doing my cleanse and actually am still surprisingly pretty active and feeling pretty good. It is nearing the end of day 3 and I'm still going strong. Observation as I cleanse....It is interesting to see how much time we spend everyday eating, preparing to eat, cooking, planning meals, grocery shopping, planning to meet up with others for something to eat etc...so when all you have to do is make a jug of lemonade everyday, you end up with alot of extra time on your hands to get things done or just chill out.

I had a really good day today. I suppose it helped that it was 73 degrees, sunny and beautiful here. I woke up and got a few odds and ends organized before heading off to meet up with a possible private German language tutor at 11. I gave myself plenty of time to go outside and walk for about an hour before meeting up with her. She was great. Very sweet and kind. She is actually from Armenia but lived for quite a while in Germany and just finished her PhD in Teaching German as a 2nd Language. I'm really excited to work with her and plan to start taking some lessons once a week. Hopefully I will be able to keep it up. I was really nervous and a little resistant to meet up with her cause I haven't been speaking or hearing the language since I left Heidelberg a month and a 1/2 ago. I felt so slow in our first trial lesson. It's really amazing how fast you can start to lose something like that. BUT afterward I was very motivated and am looking forward to learning more. After the lesson I walked to the downtown Library and looked around and picked up a libary card just incases I might want a book or something one day. I left there and walked all around downtown just enjoying the weather before heading home to rest at relax as my energy level was slowly diminishing. At 5 I attended my church's Saturday evening service. I love going in there. It is so peaceful, comforting and calming. Something I definitley need as I tend to get worked up about things easily and don't really have many people here to talk to and help ground me again. We all can get soooo caught up in our daily lives and everything else that we tend to forget about why we are here and why we do the things we do. This brings me to the message tonight which was about really living your life for Christ in EVERY part of the culture you are in; Touching the lives of all those you come in contact with. On the other end it goes to show how everyone in your life truely helps to shape the person that you are. I know I can definitely name a few of those people for me but know that there are soooo many that I may not even know or remember. If you know someone that has positively impacted you, don't be afraid to tell them, let them know that what they do is really incredible and does make a difference. Provide them with this encouragement. And remember, the things you say and every action you do is observed and you never know how it may impact someone else for good or bad. I know that I have to constantly remind myself of this. Sorry I will get out of lecture mode but this is something I feel pretty passionate about and will admit I am definitely not perfect at. I will say though that I strive to be a positive part of as many lives as much as possible without praise but with grace from above.

During the service they also announced that they were putting a group of runners (and nonrunners) to join with Team World Vision and run the Chicago Marathon in October to raise money for the people in Haiti....WELL.....I couldn't turn it down and before I left tonight I found myself registered to run 26.1 miles in Chicago on October 10th. WHOA! I think this cleanse is making me more spontaneous than I already am :) At least I will have lots of people to train with and I'm looking forward to doing it for a great cause and making a few new friends along the way. In closing...Good day in Chicago :)

P.S. I'm not sure who Gabriel Iglesias is but apparently the show is sold out. I just loved the "CHICAGO" Theatre sign.