oooh, the places i'll go!

So I'm in Chicago for about a week, before I leave for Chile. Staying with my family in Wilmette for now, then I'm headed to the city for the Socialism 2004 Conference. (I get to see Amy Goodman tomorrow night, who has to be one of my greatest heroes.) It's super hot and humid and seems like we're about to get one of those bad-ass midwest thunderstorms I miss so much in California. I feel a bit like I'm in a spa here, as I sometimes do. I get to stay in the Mary room (as in, the Mother of Christ), and I read Anne Lamott's *Operating Instructions* on the back porch in my mother's gorgeous garden--both experiences leave me feeling slightly spiritual--good job, Mom.
Other ghosts of Wilmette, besides the weather, haunt me also, and I'm looking forward to moving on.
A week from now, I'll be in Sangiago, meeting the family with whom I'll be staying for about a month. I'm insanely curious about them and hope they enjoy the strawberry jam I custom-made for them! I hope it's not too cold and rainy when I get there and that I'm not all awkward and uncomfortable in the new country and that I don't suddenly forget how to speak Spanish. See, it would be very tempting to keep this blog in Spanish, but I suppose that defeats the purpose of letting all my friends and family read about my adventures, as, alas, most do not speak that language.
I'm a bit melancholy about saying goodbye to Tom, as I tearfully did at the San Francisco Airport yesterday, and it's always hard to say goodbye to my Mother, and I have to say it's been an emotionally draining couple of weeks, as it is, with the packing and just looking forward to the massive transition in my life. The other night I dreampt I was pregnant (not that this is a rarity), and Tom said, so sweetly, that Well, I am about to give birth to a new life after all, and that I shouldn't be afraid. Isn't he wonderful?