It is amazingly beautiful outside today! It's starting to smell like spring. I'm sitting here at work, staring at the computer with my window open and the smells and sounds of the day are torturing me! I want to be outside, more specifically, I want to be hiking! Out in the woods, by myself with the sun shining, and the birds singing, and the smell of the wet ground intoxicating me! I want to go to an open field in the middle of nowhere and lie down and breath deep.

I love Chicago, but there is NO WHERE here I can go to get that. I live in a concrete jungle, and I can't escape it without a major undertaking. I dream of the day when I can live in a home, in the middle of the woods, surrounded by nothing but trees and grass as far as the eye can see. I miss that. I miss trees - and grass! It's worse in the springtime, and I imagine it also has a bit to do with cabin fever from the snow and cold we've had recently. Just knowing that the cold is coming back later this week is depressing. This really is the worst time of year, when the weather is fighting with itself, like a herd of Titans battling over the land: cold, wet, snow, rain, warm, sun, clouds, fog, ice.

I need GREEN! I need SUN! I need WARM! I want to sit in the grass and read and have no one or no sound interupt me. No distant sound of the 'el train. No sirens in the background. No cars speeding down the one way streets with stereo's blaring, threatening to make my brain seep out of my ears. Just quiet, only nature sounds, and green.

I'm sure listening to my Irish music isn't helping. It's St. Patty's Day this Saturday, my favorite day of the year (with Friday the 13th coming in 2nd!). I listen to the sounds of a far away green land and daydream of being there, on the coast, walking along the stone fences. I'll get there someday, but today is just making me wish for it more.