teach for america requires me to work one saturday a month, but we still squeezed some holiday activities in yesterday. we went to see the apollo chorus perform handel's messiah in this really beautiful orchestra venue downtown. i love this music and was psyched to see it performed. i had heard it was long, but as our friend put it, "i feel like we've been here for two days" (after the first of three parts). ouch. at least we had a cultural experience, and i did love hearing the hallelujah chorus.

nate's favorite team came to town, so we got some up close and personal tickets to see them play. i love watching basketball in person, but don't love it on tv. as i was waiting for the players to come out of the tunnel, i sat next to a couple completely decked out in lakers gear with their one year-old. they had a sign that said "kobe, meet lil kobe." "yeah, we're naming our next son bryant!" she told me. that's true fanhood i guess.

i promise we're not obsessed with the youtube kid below. nate, who posts once a year, always surprises me with what he chooses to put on "our" blog.

i have heard about all of the shootings in the area of chicago i work in, but haven't seen anything other than drug deals and brawls in the daylight.

a couple of days ago i was eating lunch in my car when a guy walking next to my car screamed at me to get down immediately. less than a second later three gunshots sounded about twenty feet away from me. all i could think was please don't shoot me. the guy hunched next to my car while i balled up in the front seat, then told me it was all clear after he yelled to some of his friends and said to get the h*ll out of there. i haven't seen it on the news so i think everyone was safe, but sadly lots of stuff that goes down on the south side just isn't in the news.

i was shaken up at the time, but now i just don't eat lunch in my car. besides the fact that it's a good 9 degrees with the wind chill right now, i'd rather not get shot.

on saturday, we split up cleaning and costco. i got costco, nate got cleaning. wellllll if you put me in charge of the costco trip, i have a hard time restraining myself sometimes. the closest thing to a christmas tree we've ever had in our married life are topiaries with lights wrapped around them. pretty pathetic, but pretty. the logical one (obviously not me) said it would be kind of pointless to get a tree this year since we're leaving so soon for seattle, but i couldn't resist the potted...i don't even know what it's called...branch bouquet planter? for $19.99, i purchased my christmas happiness at costco and even nate admitted that it made our place look more christmasy.

the last thing that we took pictures of was our night ride on the singapore flyer. it's a huge ferris wheel with enclosed capsules like the london eye. these things always start out great, but once you've been locked up in that bubble for almost half an hour, you are dying to get off. and to plug your ears because three different asian languages being spoken loudly at once in a small space is kind of overkill.

on our last weekend together, we decided to go check out sentosa. singapore has mediocre beaches in comparison to other places in SE asia, but sentosa is their flashy beach resort with universal studios, an aquarium, and many other cool attractions. it's kind of like disneyland - super clean, absolutely beautiful landscaping, gorgeous hotels, and way too many places to spend money.

lucky for me, one of our chicago friends has a sister living in singapore. she was so kind to show me around a different part of the city/country/it all blurs together. she is a singapore encyclopedia and taught me so much about the different cultures and history.

first, she took me to little india. we totally lucked out because it was diwali that weekend! my sole knowledge of diwali comes from where all my greatest knowledge has been gleaned: the office. in kelly's words, "diwali is awesome... and there's food..." turns out it's like thanksgiving and christmas combined, a.k.a a huge deal and a national holiday. everyone buys new outfits and decks their house out in new furnishings.