What I did this summer......

Well, one thing is for sure, I did no running. OK, so we had the usual spate of visitors, but I was too exhausted to enjoy them, because our big news is that we are moving - again. So summer was spent trying to decide whether to move to Pittsburgh or Chicago. I enjoyed visiting both, but in the end we plumped for.....yes, we are moving to the Windy City!
The idea of another move after not even 3 months of moving to this place, left me reeling. I did have a little bit of a burn out, so much so, that I did not even get to Italy this summer. Ahime' it was a sorry business, but there were so many logistics to sort out. Anyway, a very long story short, we managed to find a very nice 2-bedroom flat right in the city.

                                           View of our building from the park.

                                           View of Lake Michigan from our living room.

                                             Early evening view.
I am slowly getting ready to move.  Since we will be having space issues again, I am trying to get rid of stuff I have not used/worn in a long time.  These items though are mostly books.  Unfortunately almost all of them are non-fiction.  I have decided to put all my anthropology books into storage, and just keep the art, science and exercise books out.  Oh and I also bought a Kindle as I felt I was being smothered by books.  No more buying of books, unless they are art or architectural books.

The Feast of St Francis has the traditional blessing of the animals.  Mine were blessed, and the Franciscan monks kindly gave them a certificate and a medal each.

I have rather been enjoying myself - especially when I finally found out that I actually do have a saint.  When I was teaching at the  University of Siena, my students always wished me for my saint's day, but this was before the days of the internet, and I could find no trace of my saint.  My mum had always said that the priest refused to baptise me because "Natalia is not a saint's name".  My mum held fast to her guns as she is a a Dostoevesky fan.  Now, in high speed internet land, I finally found out who she is.  And since tomorrow is All Saints Day, and it is traditional to celebrate all of them, but especially your patron saint, I intend having a very good day indeed!

                                                                     St Natalia

Finally, we get to the topic in hand - running.  I have missed it dreadfully.  But I have just not had the time or will to run, especially as I have been busy running up and down to Chicago on job interviews!  Still, our new flat is below a beautiful running path, which stretches northwards for more than 25 miles.  There is a bike path too......Oh, and the Chicago Marathon runs past our building.  My goal is to start running again at the start of December......the move should hopefully be done then.  I feel like a complete novice - any advice fellow runners?  I also feel I should do my usual World Run Day run which comes up quite soon.  But what can I do after not running for more than 6 months now?