September Rewind.

I'm posting this two days later than normal since we were on vacation and traveling home yesterday, but before I crash and burn due to jet lag, I wanted to get my monthly recap up on the blog—September was one heck of a month!

September in Photos

(The majority of my Europe photos will be saved for another post, since I just got home last night! But if you're interested, you can see a bunch on Instagram @cait_lindsey_)

 5 Things that Happened in September

1. Mark and I went sunset kayaking down the Chicago River right into downtown! We technically did this on the last day of August, but since it was after my August Rewind, I'm going to include it as part of September. It was harder than expected, mainly because our tour group had about 50 kayaks in it and it basically became a bumper car situation in the water, peppered with lots of sorry's and inadvertent splashes from other people's paddles. It was fun, and I'd go kayaking again in the future, but I'd much rather be surrounded by trees and birds instead of being hooted at from the people standing on the LaSalle Street bridge above our heads. And the Chicago River water was about as stinky as you'd expect. (Note: the photos above were shamelessly stolen from other people on Instagram. Sorry, fellow kayakers. I'm just so clumsy that I didn't trust myself to bring my own iPhone out on the water.)

2. My friend Jill came in from Minneapolis/St. Paul for a 10-hour adventure—into Chicago and back home in the same day! We met up to go to the Renegade Craft Fair, bought some amazing smelling Fig and Forest handmade soap from Long Winter Soap Co., and then noshed on tacos and guac at Antique Taco. It was a really fun day, and Jill's adventure made me daydream about where we could fly for a one-day adventure of our own.

3. I got called in for jury duty for the first time. Three days before I was leaving for Europe... Not ideal. But I figured I'd be able to get out of being selected for a trial given that I was about to leave the country. I ended up spending all day in the waiting room reading (not a problem for me) and then getting dismissed three hours early. And the court I was assigned to was only 2.5 miles from home—much easier to get to than the southside court Mark was sent to the last time he got called. All in all, my first time was a fairly painless experience. (That's what she said.)

4. MY FAMILY AND I WENT TO EUROPE! Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, to be specific. In a nutshell, it was pretty great. More blog posts to come on this :)

5. Mark and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary a few days ago, on September 28th. We spent most of the day traveling between Zermatt and Lucerne in Switzerland, but we had our entire tour bus sing us "Happy Anniversary"—hilariously dubbing themselves the "von Crapp family"— and then we had a lovely dinner on the river in Lucerne at a cute wine bar. Our anniversary celebrations tend to be pretty modest affairs, so this was an amazing way to celebrate! I had to say goodbye to him yesterday as he headed back to Israel, but his project should be wrapping up soon.

Read in September

- Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Really loved this, and I hope to do a video review coming up soon. It was a combination of a love story, an immigration story, and a look at race in America.
- #Girlboss by Sophia Amoruso: On one hand, I loved reading about Sophia's personal life and what lead to the creation of the Nasty Gal website and brand. As someone who often feels like a professional misfit, I found a lot of inspiration and motivation in her story and her openness about her false starts and mistakes. However, the business advice was obvious at best. I also thought it would have more of a feminist bent, like Lean In for an younger, more entrepreneurial generation. But the only feminist-speak was some general Girl Power kind of pep-talking.
- Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver: Still working through this one from last month.
- Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close: I started this on the plane ride home from Europe. So far, it is reading more like a collection of short stories about a group of post-college, twenty-something girlfriends. The writing is oddly detached at this point, but I'm still intrigued and want to keep reading.

The Book Wanderer in September

- A review of the graphic novel Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
- Summertime Madness Tag
- My Friday Reads for September 12, 2014
- Top 5 Author Blurbs for Top 5 Wednesday
- Top 5 Non-YA Books for Top 5 Wednesday
- My collection of travel memoirs
- On My Nightstand for Autumn / Autumn "TBR"

Favorite Song from September

Loving this remixed version of Ellie Goulding's cover of Alt-J's Tessellate:

What I'm Looking Forward to in October

First and foremost, I am excited to have my husband officially back home from Israel on October 10th. And as far as we can tell, he is done with his duties in Israel. No more back-and-forth trips, no more time apart. HALLELUJAH. And now we can focus our energies on the next stage of life. Some good things are already in motion, and we're hoping that these possibilities turn into opportunities.

Other than that, I'm going to enjoy the heck out of fall and all its glory. I don't have a single plan, just the intention to enjoy myself and my favorite season.