If you're new-ish to my blog or to me, I live in Chicago, which is not a stranger city to a thunder storm. However, the caliber in which the storms hit this week were atrocious. So, for the first time ever, I am combining two of my weeks in this series because both weeks consisted of storm rehab and teetering on the wellness wagon while my priorities were scattered outside of my routine.

I was at the gym after work on Wednesday when my mom called me looking for my location because there was a storm rolling in. The gym is only maybe four blocks from my house and it's a large concrete building, so there was nowhere safer I could have been in the throes of a tornado watch. There were branches down at both houses and both roofs need to be repaired, but everyone is safe. <3

Thursday is one of my work-from-home days, but our power was out. I went over to my old house to use that electricity to charge phones and portable chargers before starting my work trek at Panera. I couldn't get an outlet there because everyone else's power was out, so I went to my local library. I sat there on the floor for about 15 minutes, buckled in, ready to work, when their power also went out.

But, through this whole week, it felt like an episode of Arthur. My neighbors came together to help us saw branches and move them out to the ditch. The community was together for resources at the library. It all felt grounded and everyone felt connected. It was nice.

Our power returned on Friday night and I went to Michigan with some friends over the weekend, but I'll have a separate post of those photos. <3

The next week was a bit of a catch-up period from being without power for two and a half days, which sounds excessive, but I had laundry to do, we had to salvage some of the food, and I had to catch up on the work I couldn't get done when I was running around searching for power. Not too much happened this week that works toward changing my life in a year. 

But, I did see Call Me By Your Name in theaters and that was really fucking cool.

We're looking at about two weeks without going to the gym, journaling, writing, editing photos, anything creative. I'm writing this from a place where I'm back in my routine and I can't stress enough how important going to the gym is for my mental well-being. The days I don't go, I'm exhausted and that was weighing on me these last two weeks. I was also feeling discouraged for falling off of the wagon a bit, but we're approaching the six-month mark and I'm determined to have something to show for it.

This is also the week we lost my sweet boy, Oliver Tree, and I've been feeling some type of way about that. Rest easy, Alien Boy, I'll miss you every day for ever.