One Week Later

Today marks one week in Chicago. It's been a pretty good week, though it mostly feels like I am visiting rather than living here. I have been doing some more unpacking and settling in today and I am sure that feeling will eventually be replaced with “Whoa, you really live here now.” I am officially a resident, though; I got my driver's license, license plates, and even my library card this week.

The Move

Last weekend I felt pretty scatterbrained because there were so many things to get done and I had that constant feeling I was forgetting something. Saturday morning was Jeremiah's graduation in Marion, so we had the truck packed and ready to go Friday afternoon. Awesome, Josh G., and myself caravaned up there far too early for a Saturday morning, meeting up with Isha and Josh S. We had to sit in an overflow theater where they broadcast the ceremony, but we still stood and applauded when he walked. We might have also had some fun riffing on the ceremony ala MST3K. After the ceremony, saying goodbye to Jeremiah, and being entertained by his siblings, we began the trek to Chicago. Marion is not really on the way to Chicago, so we had to take some country roads west to get to the highway, which brought us right by the wind farm. Isha took a picture of me next to the Indianapolis / Chicago highway sign as I looked off towards Chicago, but she hasn't uploaded it yet.

We got to the apartment about 4:30, meeting up with Jon and Jenn. With so many people, unpacking the truck went very quickly. I did a good job supervising at this point. :] Then we went to my friend Erica's to get the couch I was buying from her. It's a comfortable red couch named Caliente, or Callie. I have never been one to name my furniture, but the name seems appropriate. As I said later, “when ladies sit on the couch, it's Muy Caliente.” Many thanks to Awesome, Jon, and Josh for moving the couch!

Rachelskirts joined us and we all went to Giordano's for dinner (3 blocks from my apartment, aw yeah!) and then retired to the apartment for lots of fun conversation and laughs. It really was a great “Welcome to Chicago” party. Thanks to everyone for helping me move and celebrating!

The Apartment

The apartment, hereby dubbed “Lady Lounge,” is located in a nice neighborhood with tree-lined streets. There are a couple apartment buildings, but mostly houses. The buildings are pretty far back from the street, so it doesn't seem claustrophobic. It's kind of gloomy weather today, otherwise I would post pictures. I do have pictures of the inside, though.

The kitchen is basically the only area that's totally unpacked and clean right now. I like the island peninsula; I will probably get four stools and use it instead of a dining room table.

The adjacent dining room is just my office for now. Those windows face west so I get lots of sunlight in the afternoon. I would say it's been ten times better working here than in my old home office.

The hallway towards the dining room and kitchen.

The living room with Caliente. Those windows face east, so lots of sunlight in the morning.

The sunporch just off the living room. I can work out here on my laptop in nice weather!

The bedroom, also with an east-facing window.