So Fresh and So Clean

Eight days into The Great Chicago Adventure! It is exciting and scary to move to an entirely new city without a job waiting, but I have to say that the feeling (so far) is wonderfully liberating as well.

I have already begun to formulate a daily routine.Wake up, have coffee, read email, check some job lists, make more coffee, make hot tea, put on scarf, then sweater, then coat, contemplate gloves, WAIT A MINUTE! It is September damn it! We are so woefully unprepared to survive an icy Chicago winter (people eye us with pity the minute we confess to being transplants from Virginia) but sure, we are from Northern Virginia, right? We even had a blizzard two years ago!

So, mom, as I assume you are the only person reading this, I will just go ahead and address this to you and give you lots of details that probably only a mother would be interested in anyway:-). We live in Logan Square, which is a quiet and residential neighborhood just northwest of downtown Chicago. It takes about 15 minutes to walk to our closest train stop.  That doesn't seem so bad now but it probably will this winter! There is a community center on our block with an indoor lap pool and a game room with ping pong and the like. We haven't met too many neighbors, but our landlord is very friendly and keeps coming by to offer his services.

There are a couple of coffee shops in Logan Square proper. In particular I have been frequenting one called New Wave Coffee, which feels like home because it is generally packed full of Richmond-style hipsters staring all crazy-eyed into their Macs with little white ear buds sprouting from their heads. Mostly they seem  friendly, although I sense some disapproval whenever I pay for my coffee with a card instead of cash. Cards are bad for the local economy you know.

To backtrack just a little, I have also seen a tiny bit of Chicago's cultural side. On Friday we saw a play showcasing some local talent that was part of the Fringe Festival.  Took the El downtown on Saturday and had my first glimpse of Lake Michigan, the Bean, a slightly frightening Marylin Monroe statue, Buckingham Fountain, and Millennium Park.  On Sunday I had a chance to compare a Chicago-style farmer's market with those back home. My favorite difference is scheduling: the market here runs from 10-3, which let us non-early morning people get a shot at the best produce and eggs, unlike at home! Don't think I ever made it to a market before 11, at which point all the eggs are gone and produce is definitely looking a little sad.

Our apartment is big, clean, and basically empty. Some friends gave us a gorgeous round wooden table with some pretty matching chairs, so we do have the beginnings of a dining room.  It feels so fresh, you know? New city, new apartment, new job (hopefully soon), new faces, streets, smells, weather! There is not much of the familiar to hang on to, but as Calvin's dad would say: it builds character!