Its Earth Day!!!! (and other stuff)

Today is Earth Day! Its also a beautiful day here in Chicago. The temperature is in the mid-50's, the sun is out, the tulips in my front yard are just about to open, all in all good times here. The only crappy part of today is that I'm at work. There's not much going on here--not much for me to do--and so I'd much rather be outside reading in the park, walking the dog, or gardening. But, no dice. I'd like to say that I can save all this outdoor good stuff for the weekend, but unfortunately it looks like this weekend is going to be a killer. On Saturday, I'll be running a yard sale table at the Forest Park Community Yard Sale on behalf of the Community Garden. I keep having flashbacks to the rummage sale I organized for my college environmental student group, however I hope that this weekend's yard sale is much more successful than the rummage sale was (we didn't sell much, ended up with a bunch of junk that no one wanted apparently...

Anyway, while I have some time, I thought I'd update you on some things that have happened since the last time I posted.

1) I had my hair chopped off! I LOVE it!

2) I've decided that I'm going to apply to the PhD program in Urban Planning. The application is due in January and if I get in, I'd start in the fall of 2010. I'm applying to the same school I went to for grad school, so I have many contacts there as well as (hopefully) a decent reputation, so I"m feeling optimistic, however I can't forget that they only admit 8 people each year which is not a lot and implies that the admissions process is most likely quite rigorous.

3) Both my grandparents on my Dad's side passed away; first my grandmother back in March and then my grandfather just last week. I wasn't extremely close to them growing up, and recently they had both been declining in health so it wasn't much of a surprise. But of course its always sad and upsetting to see people go. I think its contributed to my somewhat sullen mood recently and has definitely left me feeling much more aware of my own mortality.

4) The Community Garden project is going very well. We have several fundraising events coming up, starting with the yard sale I talked about earlier. We are also growng seedlings that we will (attempt) to sell in May. There are also two lovely ladies who have a landscape design business who are working on a site plan for the garden. If all goes well, we should have a plan and a small amount of seed money (haha... unintended pun) that we can use to plant some stuff and get some raised beds built. The garden definitely wont be in full swing this year, but if all goes as planned we will certainly make some visible progress.

So, I think that's about it. Thanks for reading and sorry it has been so long since an update. :)