So I’m taking a trip to Guatemala in February. (That’s the plan anyways. A nagging little voice keeps pestering: too good to be true? Are you really leaving Chicago in winter?) The cool parts: Taking a workshop with writer Joyce Maynard (made possible by a lovely scholarship);  non-bonechilling temperatures, a lake and a volcano, and time to muse about things outside my little North Side Chicago bubble.

So I’m learning to speak Spanish, finally, thanks to the language tapes at the Chicago public library. I am learning things like how to ask where the bathroom is, let’s go to the movies, I want, I need, I understand,  I don’t understand, excuse me sir, excuse me miss, I speak, you speak, do you speak? I speak Spanish a little. You speak English? Oh thank god. Let’s hold hands right now and… ooo, a unicorn! Let’s ride this unicorn into the sunset, but first, want to split this chocolate cupcake with me? Because I am SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU.

I’m learning.