HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Day 12 (Dec 31) - Chicago
Becky and the kids were heading back to Madison, so we went to have brunch at Pauline's, a small diner with a real nice feel to it. The kids and I already had breakfast, but Becky and her sister hadn't yet so they were calling it breakfast. Everyone ordered breakfast food except for me. I got a burger, and the oldest kid asked me "Danni, why are you eating a hamburger for breakfast?" and I responded because it's 2pm and we've already eaten breakfast.

After that, I went to Jessie's place, and sat around waiting for her to get ready for her art showing at First Friday the next day. While I waited, I worked on a collage bookmark. We rounded up her stuff, and went back to the Flat Iron to see what she had to work with and how she would display her stuff.

Jessie was not feeling well, and decided not to do anything for New Years. This suddenly meant that I had nothing to do and nowhere to sleep for NYE. I sent out an SOS on Couchsurfing to this woman Lorie who was organizing a get together for Couchsurfers at a bar walking distance from the Flat Iron and she mentioned her surfer was snowed-in in Fargo. 15 MINUTES LATER.... Lorie texted me and said it would be fine, to just come down to the bar and we'd figure out sleeping arangements.

So Jessie dropped me off at Danny's Bar, promising that if she was feeling better she'd come down for a bit close to midnight. I had lots of fun there, dancing to great music with the Chicago CSers, and a bunch of out-of-towners who also wanted to spend NYE there. Lorie was on the dance floor all night long, constantly pulling us back if we stopped. I was really happy when Jessie finally called back around 11:30 saying she was coming. She showed up a few minutes before midnight, and we rang in the New Year together dancing. Overall, NYE set a good tone for how I'd like the rest of the year to be.

Around 2am, we finally got back to Lorie's place. Another Couchsurfer, Susan, was staying there as well. I spent the entire ride home trying to convince them to do the plunge with me the next morning.


Day 13 (Jan 1) - Chicago - Madison
Woke up bright and early and put my bathing suit on. Why, you ask? Because I was on my way to Lake Michigan in 13 degree weather to do the POLAR BEAR PLUNGE!! Lorie, Susan, and I got to the beach at 11am so that we could get a good parking spot. Luckily the parking was free for the day. When we got to the beach, Susan decided she was going to plunge as well! In total, there was about 15 Couchsurfers who showed up, and about 9 jumpers I think...

When I first plunged, all the air rushed out of me, and I thought I would pass out. I kept running to a place I felt comfortable to dunk my head in. There was no such thing as acclimating, because my body was already frozen at that point. When I got out, we all noticed that our legs were bleeding because of the chunks of ice all over the place. Luckily, we didn't feel it yet at that point. Jessie showed up a few minutes after I'd plunged, and because one of the other CSer's friends showed up to do it, Jessie agreed to plunge with this girl Julie.

Afterwards, Julie, her CS friend Joellen, and I went to lunch at R.J. Grunt's. A bunch of others were supposed to come, but couldn't find parking and just went home. I had a hot bowl of chili and they had the buffet. I then realized that my phone was dying, and I didn't have my charger, so Joellen offered to give me a ride all the way back to Lorie's house to get it. Joellen was really inspiring to talk to, and gave me some inspiration for how I should go about 2010. When I got to Lorie's, I put my phone on the charger, and Lorie let me take a hot shower.

I met Jessie at the Flat Iron for First Friday, and watched her set up a bit until Lorie showed up. We walked around a bit, and then my other friend Rae Jang, from the study abroad I did at Korea University in 2007, came up with her boyfriend. We all walked around for about an hour and saw the various galleries from the artists at the Flat Iron.

I said my goodbyes, and took the 8:30pm bus back to Madison from Union Station in Chicago. Becky met me at the bus, and took me back to her place.

Today we are probably going to see downtown Madison.