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What Up?

So, as this strange and busy week draws down, how are you going to take advantage of this wondrous city we occupy?

Are you going to see Funkadesi tonight for 12 bucks at Martyrs? And if not, why the heck not? If you don’t dig them, there’s seriously something wrong with you.

Maybe you’re resting up and grooming that special someone in your life for the Dog Show this weekend?

Or maybe something completely different, as they say?

Think, Know, Prove–Winter Break Bucket List

Think, Know, Prove is a regular Saturday feature, where a topic with both mystery and importance is posted for community discussion. The title is a shortened version of the Investigative Mantra: What do we think, what do we know, what can we prove? and everything from wild speculation to resource referencing fact is welcome here.

For 18 weeks, I gradually build up a list of things that I put off “until the break”–books, movies, home improvement projects, laundry, points of personal hygiene, culinary experimentation, sundry debaucheries, and particularly persistent plans for vengeance (to be served cold!). And then there are the things that I look forward to doing every Winter break–sledding with the kids, seeing some music, going for a winter hike.

In short, sometime soon after I turn in my final grades, I make a big ol’ list that both excites and utterly overwhelms me and that I NEVER come close to completing. Still, I’m always interested in adding new great things to the list.

I have a suggestion for yours–get up to the North Park Nature Center (on Pulaski, just north of Bryn Mawr). Drive back to the Nature Center and take a winter stroll through the woods, preferably while it is snowing or just after, where you’re likely to see deer, the occasional fox or racoon, birds, and nature’s winter beauty. Bring a thermos of coffee or hot chocolate, put on some long johns and plan to sit for a while on some bench or tree stump along the way. I find it to be soothing in ways that I can’t describe.

A nice alternative, maybe even superior choice, is to do the same thing out on Northerly Island. Free parking, beautiful views, and the amazing experience of being isolated in nature IN the city.

And so, what about you? What is on your list? What should be on mine?

What do you think? What do you know? What can you prove?