Christmas Eve Snapshots

This Christmas Eve I spent the whole day with my immediate family: mom & dad and my three siblings. Christmas Eve included lots of baking, trombone + Monopoly playing, gift giving, and It's a Wonderful Life watching. All images are captured in black and white. 

Healthy Gingerbread Muffins, recipe from Pinch of Yum.

Gingerbread Scones, recipe from Pinch of Yum

How I get around Minneapolis

Why are you blogging about that? Isn't the answer obvious? Even if it's not obvious, how could it be interesting? 

Transportation can be a big part of your day, so I think it's interesting to hear how people get from point A to point B on a day-to-day basis. There's a lot that can go in to someone's commute. Maybe you're the type who blasts music, listens to podcasts, chats with strangers around you, finishes your breakfast, etc. etc. I think it's all fascinating.

Can I just share my New York commute real quick? Commuting in NYC was so funnn.
My summer commute: 6:40 am- walk out the door and head to the 1 train on 86th and Broadway. If I was feeling tired or extra special, I would stop at Joe coffee and order an iced coffee during my 12 minute walk to the train.  Right before I went down to the subway station, I would usually buy some fruit at the greencart and grab the AM New York newspaper. These moments were sometimes hectic, especially when I heard a train entering the station. One time I dropped my phone during this process. It cracked. bummer. Next I hop on the train (duh) and ride it allll the way to the end of the line. It was a 40 minute ride. My activities during that time varied, and I'm sure you can imagine things I did.

Alright, that's good enough. This post is supposed to be about Minneapolis anyways.

Bike: I do bike, just not now. For one, my tire is flat and two, it's winter. During the fall I biked and I loved it. I can ride the greenway to school, which is basically a biking freeway with no traffic ever. I can park my bike for free too. Is that surprising? ;) My bike has a milk crate attached to the back of it so I can haul things around. I use a U-lock, although I'm not too concerned about bike theft.

Drive: I live less than a mile from my family, so almost anytime I need a vehicle for an extended period of time I can borrow from them, which is great. Now that it's cold I joined Car2go. It's been really fun and usually really convenient. It's also perfect for downtown driving because these cars are everywhere in downtown and parking is free when you drive these. The car cost 0.41 cents per minute and that includes gas, insurance, and parking. I feel like this car has the potential to save people lots of money and headache. Owning a car is just so expensive when you factor in insurance, car washes, gas, parking, taxes, towing, and accidents. It would be interesting to compare and break it down.

Bus: I ride the city bus. That's my least favorite form of transportation. The bus is unpredictable, it takes a long time, and it usually doesn't get me where I need to be. The one exception to this is taking the bus to church. That's fast, about 10 minutes. I have a student go-card so I can ride the bus unlimited times for the semester. I'm not sure if I'll get a bus card next semester...we'll see.

Alright, that's how I get around. Walking plays a part in all of these modes. Walking is a favorite.

Oh! Usually I listen to music when I'm driving. When I bike, I bike. I don't do anything else. When I ride the bus, I usually scroll through my phone.

And now the mandatory blogger question: How do you get around your city?

On journaling

Hey, this is me taking a moment to process journaling. I definitely did it in high school, in middle school, and when I was six. That's pretty much my whole writing life. Once I learned how to write sentences, I wrote in a little journal. Side bar: my first journal was a blue faux-velvet covered notebook with Cinderella on the cover. This was purchased in Germany. Cinderella is still the greatest Disney character that has ever lived. Six year old Abby filled her journals with made up song lyrics, copied text from Princess' books, and maybe a story or two about my little sister. Everything else that I wrote in my journals between elementary school and teenage years were pretty typical. I filled one or two journals per year and wrote about life.

In high school I got a little better at journaling with intention. I would write out prayers, I would write goals, I would process things there. I'm sure nothing I wrote back then would really impress me too much now, but I do remember spending consistent time on journaling. and I think that's a good thing. I still journal, but not too much has changed since high school. I actually journal less now then I did. This doesn't mean I have fewer things to process or think about, it just means I either A) ignore them or B) talk with other people about them. Talking is good. Sometimes it's hard for much to come out of me when talking to others, but it's still worth it! 

A while ago I talked about a 5 year journal that I write in. Guess what? I still write in it and it's really fun going through this book because I'm currently on year 3 of using it and each day I can see what I was doing in 2013 and 2012. It's even better than Timehop (which I just downloaded on Friday btw). 

Here's an example:

December 1st, 2012:

SAT today. A babysitting job was cancelled and then a new one came up. Got lost on the way there. I took the SAT at Blake school. I hope, hope I did well. (Boy's name) needs to stop liking me. 

Oh my gosh, I was such a high schooler. 

December 1st, 2013:

I've been tired all day. Nari made breakfast. Jo made dinner. I visited Redeemer East Side. I made a lovely divider. Count down to MN.

ehh, that day was little lame. I write these right before bed, so they're pretty raw and simple. 

Here's another example just for the fun of it:

November 23rd, 2013:

Went to the American Museum of Natural History with Louise. Had a $17 pastrami sandwich in the UES. Had Grace over to cook dinner. fun. I'm so tired when I go to bed. shm.

I guess I found that stuff important to share. Sometimes I do write random details about my day. Sometimes I'll write out my feelings or things I'm working through. It all depends. There are no rules for this book. I share whatever I want, because it's mine and really for my eyes only, except in this case when I put parts of it on the internet. 

I'm glad I find joy in jotting memories down. Do you?

Oh, and I do have an actual journal where I write more than 5 choppy sentences. I write in that when I need to or when something significant came up.