Run 10, and Our Little House

Miles: 7

Other Runners: nope

Two tricks for a good run:

1) Get out before the sun is up. It’s quieter. Also, you can’t see how run down everything is or be unnerved by the jagged fences and pigeons under the Metra tracks.

I should note, however, that I did pass through a really lovely neighborhood on my way home. Weirdly (or awesomely) it boasts at least ten homes with turrets. Like this one:

I did a little research, and it turns out I was in Chicago’s Villa District, where turrets are kind of the norm (and if any of you loved Lois Lowry’s Anastasia Krupnik as much as I did as a girl, you’ll recognize this as fabulous). The Villa District also boasts many Victorian Italianate style houses- and  in case you aren’t hip to Victorian Italianate architecture (for shame! …I’ve only known about it for 20 minutes),  it was popular between 1850-1880. The homes are meant to look like Tuscan villas- boxy and symmetrical, with big eave brackets. And if you also aren’t hip to eave brackets (fair enough), here’s an example. This is the house across from our neighborhood Y:

See those big eave brackets?

2) If it’s cold out, wear one-too-few articles of clothing. The weather tracker on my fancy little phone doesn’t update very regularly, so it read 38 degrees this morning when it was, in fact, only 20 outside. 20 degrees generally isn’t so bad, but it is a little alarming if you’ve only just woken up and are wearing one shirt and a pair of running tights. I ran much faster than normal.

Speaking of architecture, here are some photos from our own decidedly not-Victorian Italianate home:

Our living room.

Through the little space on the right (behind the couch) is my office.

Our bedroom. We have a second bedroom (come visit!), but it is currently being used by my husband as an office/man cave.

Kitchen! This is where I am going to continue to avoid preparing for my oral exams and now make cookies.