chicago, for realz.

alright, alright, i haven't been taking any pictures so i've been hesitant to do any updates. yet, here i am, a week in, looking outside into rain and feeling it's as good a time as any.

this is the first day of rain, the whole first week has been awesome "halloween type" weather, where its still all dry and warm out. even now, it's raining, but not too chilly. it seems that the first thing anyone brings up when talking about chicago is the weather, so it seemed only right that i do the same.

our flight left at 8am, october 1st. we took as much as possible, per the size requirement. nevertheless, the xray lady was shocked to see me carrying the main console to my stereo in my frieght backpack. mneh, i knew i would want music most of all when moving in.



after our flight, we were faced with transporting all our known belongings-each with two "carry-on-size" bags, a large suitcase AND our bike boxes-to our new apt. moving all of this through the airport, onto the actual el train proved strenuous, to say the least. once in downtown, we caved and flagged down a taxi van, which was only $10 &totally worth it. phew. yet, moving in up three flights of stairs has proved somewhat difficult, especially due to the nature of them (extremely wind-y) but particularly since the last two days they've been painting them. yesterday, every TWO were taped off and you were supposed to step over those. yet, with bikes (and ahem, a couch) its hard to abide by this. so after we mucked up the new paint and then had to call mark (the property owner) to come and fix our leaky faucet, i don't know if we're on his favorites list. but our apt still rules (despite the noisy overhead neighbor)-and there is even a nice big basement to store our bike(s!)



yes, multiple bikes. we went to pick up our road bikes from union station yesterday and proceeded to piece them back together on the sidewalk so we could ride home rather than take the L again with large boxes. yet, i am slowly coming to the realization that everything i have been doing and will continue to do until i am actually settled here, has been warranting copious stares and multiple unencouraged comments about the nature of our actions. yes, i know rolling a table with a tv, baking pan, bowls and vcr for a mile isn't the smartest idea, but i don't have a car, so bear with me. (&stop staring?) anyhow, our bikes are almost complete, and i realize i didn't include my road bike pedals in this box. so allison nicely loans me one of her pedals and we proceed to ride the mile and a half back home, each sans one pedal. yep, more stares, amid much laughter (is this really happening?).

our apt is finally beginning to look a little more whole. we found a matress and couch in nearby alleys and found a lot of kitchen stuff, etc at saturday garage sales and thrift stores. not having a car makes taking advantage of free craigslist a little more difficult, but its been helpful as well.





we met some cool kids off the chifg board by going to their version of goldsprints on saturday night and hanging out. despite it being a small party, and me being quite afraid it was going to be incredibly awkward walking into some random's house, everyone was super friendly. we did an alleycat with the same kids the following morning at 9am, not many kids showed up (about 15) but it was a lot of fun and nice to meet more bike kids. allison and i went to a free show at the empty bottle last night (chinese stars +local bands) and ran into some of the same kids there again, randomly. some really sweet people though, we ended up grabbing a drink after with one guy at this weird bar called club foot with lots of dolls in cases and memorabilia on the walls. there are quite a few mellow, small bars within some blocks from our house, we lucked out on location i think. its funny that even though chicago is so much bigger than sf, most people still hang out in a smaller conglomeration of neighborhoods and it still manages to have the a small-ish community feel. i was sitting outside trader joes today waiting for allison to finish applying and augie randomly rode by and stopped to chat. man, that guy rules. but exactly, its definitely feeling smaller (in the good and managable way though), i really like it so far.

speaking of applying-we've both been on the job search and for some reason, i imagined it would be so easy here. i know the state of the economy is no boon, but its been more of a search than i imagined. i'm only 4 applications in, but i was really hoping to score something before the real bad weather hit. we'll see.

anyhow, this is feeling long enough. as always, i'll work on taking more (and better) pictures soon. and hopefully this rain lets up a bit tomorrow so the job search can continue with vigilance.