Now it’s time to ring in a new year. I might write a more detailed year-in-review post later, I might not. Bottom line: 2011 was a leap of faith, and then the freefall. In 2012 I hope to fly.

I shrugged. “It is in Houston.”

Sometimes it feels like Andy and I have been to a million weddings and should, as a different cousin once said, be “married by proxy.” Sometimes it feels like we are.

Of course there’s no way to know exactly what the future holds. We can only hope and dream and talk and plan. And when things change, we adapt. Together. That’s how we’ve gotten through 6+ years. It isn’t magic.

Or maybe it is.

(Answer: The kind who also mixed up baking soda and baking powder once, with the result of rock hard cookies, and who also didn’t know there was a difference between whole wheat and whole grain.)

We had a great weekend, full of laughter and calories. Unfortunately I don’t have pictures of Baby Wants Candy, the musical comedy improv show we saw on Friday, nor of Second City or Blue Man Group. Here are some highlights from the rest of the trip, though:

Tall Building #1 (John Hancock Tower)

I’m a bug! (Field Museum)

It’s not a trip to Chicago without a visit to the Lego store.

Andy and I tried to make a Lego version of his uncle Keith.

Buckingham Fountain

Tall Building #2 (Sears Tower) – The wait is ridiculous, but so is the view.

I have to admit, it got a bit tedious to stop and pose and smile every five minutes. But I’m so glad my friend made me, because now I have a wonderful record of all the things we did and saw. And for someone with a lazy lousy memory, that really comes in handy!

I’m also glad I wasn’t the only one carrying a camera (as I often am). My friend managed to capture several great shots of me and Andy, something I always wish we had more of. In fact, I’ve told him before, even though we don’t want a “real wedding” (in the hundreds-of-guests, big-poofy-white-dress sense) I most definitely do want engagement and wedding photos. Fancy ones.

These will do for now though.

What helps, though, is how inspired I was by the trip. Big softie that I am, I actually cried a bit at the Grand Ole Opry. They showed clips of Blake Shelton and Carrie Underwood being invited to join the Opry family. They led us through the artist’s entrance, over to the dressing rooms, and then onto the stage. Standing on the infamous center circle, looking out into the auditorium, I imagined what it might be like as a young country singer. To see a full house. To hear the thundering applause. To feel all that history paired up with all those years performing for free in smoky bars, sending out demos to record labels, eating nothing but ramen, writing song after song at three in the morning. And then, if you’re lucky, to be singing at the Opry. A dream come true.

Later that night we went to the Bluebird Cafe. It was like going back in time, to those smoky bars I was talking about. (Except there was no smoke, and I think these guys get paid.) Four songwriters, plus an amazing accompanist, played “in the round” — an unmarked circle in the center of the cafe. We sat close around them, practically elbow to elbow, while they took turns sharing their songs and their stories. Again I was struck by the passion, the heart, in their music and their words. It reminded me of my own journey, my own heart.

From L to R: Shannon Cain, Bill Maier, Robert K. Wolf, and the accompanist, who I think is named Jack Otts. Unpictured is the fourth singer/songwriter, Michelle Hemmer.

They sang of love and laughter, of heartbreak and regret. They sang from a place of honesty. The clarity of their vocals, the purity of their guitars… Genuine emotion poured out of both the musicians and the audience, like so much magic.

That’s what I want to do with my writing. I want to stand on the Opry stage, and I want to sing at the Bluebird Cafe. I want to achieve my dream without forgetting where the passion started. I want to bring readers in the round with me.