Love List: Places I Love

After my last post on motivation (thanks for all the sage advice by the way, some of which I've already put into practice!) I was delighted to see the most recent post from Melissa of Operation Nice. Her challenge today? Make a list of places you love. I'm eager to do this since I find writing these lists really inspiring and motivational. Try it yourself, I think you'll find you love it! Here's mine:

I love Chicago. I loved sitting by Lake Michigan right near where I lived on Pine Grove and Diversey. I also loved riding through the city in a taxi with the windows open on a summer night. Most of all, I loved to lay on my bed in my Chicago apartment and look out of my window...just sky and thousands of little lights from all the other apartment buildings. I Love Alfred where I went to college. One stop light, two colleges, and not much else. Unless you count hundreds of college kids. A strange place with lots of quirks (and snow) and that you just might not "get" unless you lived there. I love the art building especially. It was like being in an amazing museum everyday, except everything was changing and growing. I loved to watch other artists' pieces evolve and felt inspired at every turn. I LOVE New Paltz, NY. It is the most beautiful place on earth to me. The craggy, ridge of the Shawangunk Mountains stirs me every time I see it, which is crazy since I lived there for years. It is a symbol of home to me. I love Awosting Falls in Minnewaska State Park. It's where my husband proposed to me. And what's not awesome about a cool waterfall? I love Providence, RI for all the amazing restaurants and fun memories. I'm planning a trip there solely to eat at all my favorite places sometime soon. I love the apartment where I grew up. The crazy closet doors that never worked, the parquet floors, the stereo with huge headphones where I would lay for hours listening to records and 8-tracks, the flowered couch, my blue bedroom and all my "stuff" which mostly consisted of "stuffed animals." I love Ireland. And promise myself I will go back and drink tea and eat brown bread in Galway while looking out at the ocean. I love Peter Island, in the BVI, where I went on my Honeymoon. Tropical. Beautiful. Amazing. Enough said. I love Strathmore, my neighborhood where I live now. I love that this is a place my children will remember and hopefully love. Our park, the close-knit community of people who truly care for each other, the events, our first home, and the warm homes of all our friends. I love my parents' house. It is where my family comes together to celebrate or mourn. It's always VERY full with children and grandchildren, but I like it sort of crowded...it means there's more love.

"Where" do you love? I hope you make your list. And if you do, share the link here. I love to read these. And in fact I find reading others just as inspirational (if not more!) than I do writing my own. Thanks Melissa, for another challenge. IT's back to work for me now!