Tennis and tapas and great friends

Mira here. While Eric slaves away, whipping up those Blueberry Banana Boogie smoothies and serving vegan cornbread, I'm just home relaxing, eating some spicy tofu enchiladas and looking at old photo albums. Before Eric went to work, we rode our bikes to a bike sale at The Recyclery--a non-profit collective that takes old bikes and fixes them up, then sells them inexpensively or gives them to youth through their "earn-a-bike" program. I was really excited to find out that they are working to establish a chapter of Trips for Kids, a program that leads youth in underserved communitites on bike trips--the same program I participated in as part of Project Transformation in Dallas, TX! So, we may soon be trading our mountain bikes in for something more urbanesque, and possibly helping to get Trips for Kids Chicago/Evanston off the ground. Eric found a great 3-speed...reminiscent of the "Free Spirit" he had while at Garrett.

We've really enjoyed having lots of friends nearby. I've especially appreciated it, since I'm still in the midst of a slow-moving job search process. It's going pretty well, I think--I've got four interviews next week--but there is so...much....waiting.... In this past week, we've seen Albion friends Lewis and Andy a lot. Lewis moved onto our street just a few weeks before we arrived, and Andy, who just came home after 3 years of teaching English in Japan, came this week to stay with Lewis while he looks for a job and a place to live. They kindly shared their love of the original "The Office" with us (we are huge fans of the U.S. version--but had never seen the British one!)--and Lewis has every imaginable Spanish-language channel on his ginormous TV. Because our camera has recently died (I think for good this time), we have not been able to document our latest exploits, so I will include here an old-school picture of me and our new neighbors. Here is Andy, Rusty, Mira, and Lewis in Honduras...waiting for the bus:


Last night, Andy, Lewis, Eric and I played doubles at some nearby tennis courts (we are all somewhere between mediocre and terrible--with flashes of brilliance--so we laughed and laughed and laughed) and then had some amazing tapas and sangria at Tapas Barcelona. I am so glad that we decided to give ourselves a "free day" in our otherwise vegan diet--cause goat cheese is so darn good. We picked up our friend, Joseph, on the way home and the three of us had deep conversations (like, why does the word "judgment" NOT have an "e" in it???) until the wee hours.

We also had a great time at the Slugger's Bar (right by Wrigley Field) batting cages with friends Josh and Deborah on an afternoon last week. We had to laugh when we ended up at a book store cafe, four people with graduate degrees, all reading books about how to write a good resume or interview well or break into some kind of artistic industry. Josh and Deborah are both finishing up doctoral programs in immunology, but Josh is looking to work in a brewery (he wants to someday own his own) while Deborah wants to get a job at a gallery (she would like to eventually do her art full-time--she is really amazing). So...all of us over-educated and underemployed, but having a great time.

AND we got to have lunch last week with Jen (Willard) Furchak and Dave while they were in town--how great! I'm not sure if I had seen Jen since SHE graduated from Albion. AND I've gotten to talk in the past couple of days with 3 of my favorite Oregon people: Sarah, Adan, and Eliser--los extrano mucho mucho.

Well, I've been dinking around for a while now and should get to "work"--unpacking those last pesky boxes! I've been using the excuse that I'm too tired from picking up groceries on my bike (that was like three hours ago). It really wasn't that difficult--though next time I go on my bike, I will buy fewer cartons of soymilk!