Inception!

Hello and welcome to my blog!  I'm so excited you're here.

First off, I should explain how this idea came to be.  Anyone who knows me well knows I always have a ton of energy and am continually looking for a new project or adventure.  Lately I've been itching to find something new to take on.  But what?  There are so many things I love to do, it's hard to decide!

One of my favorite things to do is bake.  Trouble is, if I ate everything I baked, I believe I'd literally turn into a giant cupcake. So sometimes I bake and then end up tossing it (not going to lie, there has been a time or two where I've contemplated pulling a Miranda from Sex and the City and covering it with dish soap).  Now just because I love to bake, doesn't necessarily mean I'm exceptional at it.  So sometimes it's honestly probably worth tossing.  But there are times when it seems like a waste. 

Now for part two.  I also really love people.  Helping people, chatting with people, getting to know people, etc.  And because I live in the wonderful and vast city of Chicago, there are a lot of people to get to know.  Chicago is "home" to nearly three million people, but as any one of us who ventures out of our homes on a daily basis can attest, there are many men, women, and children in this city who don't actually have a place to call home.  In fact, according to http://www.chicagohomeless.org/, nearly 90,000 Chicagoans are homeless.  Each time I walk by a homeless person downtown, I always wonder about his or her story.  Despite my curiosity, I am guilty of never actually sitting down and hearing anyone's story.  I was born exceptionally blessed.  I have a wonderful family, was able to get a college education, and have a great job that allows me to lead a comparatively privileged life.  Unfortunately not everyone has been so lucky, and sometimes it really isn't fair.  While I alone cannot make a big impact or change in that, maybe I can at least make a very small one.

So, I'm going to marry parts one and two.  Once a week, I'm going to bake something and bring it to a local homeless person.  I'm going to sit down and get to know this person, hear his or her story, and learn how this person found himself or herself in such an unfortunate situation.  Through this journey, maybe I can gain a better overall understanding of the homelessness in our city, and maybe eventually identify a bigger way to help.  But for now, I'll be grateful if I can make some new friends and if I can help some people have a better day with cookies or cupcakes. :)

And the last part- blogging!  I have a long and very random list of things I want to do in my life.  Some are very obscure, like hugging a panda bear (they just look so soft and snuggly!).  Some are slightly more normal, like writing a blog.  And although I may not be any good at it, I love to write.  In fact, so much that I once wanted to become a reporter, until I moved to New York and got laughed out of a job interview for my complete lack of political knowledge- whoops!  My delay was that I never had anything to start a blog about.  But I have noticed that whenever I write about baking on facebook, people always want to hear the recipes, so maybe some will tune in for that.  And I'm sure I'm not the only one who's walked past someone on the sidewalk and wondered what path led them there, so maybe some others will be interested in reading about that.  Or not.  Either way, I'm excited to begin this journey.  Any way I am able to expand my horizons, whether it's something as insignificant as mastering the chocolate chip cookie or something as significant as gaining a better understanding of humanity, I'm going to consider a success!

Project Give and Bake officially begins tomorrow.  I'm going to start with my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies.  It's a recipe I've already "mastered," as much as you can really "master" a recipe that only has three ingredients!  As for my future friend, I think I'm going to start with the fella who always sits outside of Bockwinkel's on Stetson and South Water.  He's there almost every time I walk by, and while I have bought him bread and peanut butter on occasion, I've never actually made the effort to talk to him.  So I think I'm due! 

I'm super interested to see how this project works out and I hope you are too.  Thanks for reading and stay tuned!