Perpetually Unfinished
Monday, July 11, 2005
Well, hello there. Sorry it's been a while. Things have been pretty busy for the last month. I had a whole entry almost ready two weeks ago, but I didn't get it up before we lost internet access at the apartment in Evanston, and we only got connected here in Chicago on Friday. And that entry is full of references in the future tense to things that are now in the past tense (like moving, and driving to Detroit) so I suppose it's better to just start from scratch.
There's so much to talk about, I don't even know where to begin. The new apartment is awesome, awesome, awesome. We lucked into a bigger apartment at the last moment (a 1BR instead of a convertible; the guy in the one we were supposed to get wasn't able to move out in time, and this was what's available). That means a slightly larger bedroom and living room, and a much larger kitchen, which is wonderful-- we've ended up with an almost perfect amount of space for us. It also means we're on the 22nd floor instead of the 4th; so, not stairs-accessible, but with a very nice view. It's pretty much straight west, so there's no real skyline view or anything (although if you put your face up against the window and look south, you can see the Sears Tower), but there are beautiful sunsets. And on the Fourth of July, we got to see an incredible sort-of-panoramic fireworks display; fireworks shows in fifteen or twenty different suburbs at once, ringing the horizon with miniature multicolored bursts. It was out of this world, like nothing I've ever seen before.
But the really great thing about the apartment is location, location, location. You can walk to everything! In the ten days we've been here, I've walked to Millennium Park or Grant Park four times (20-25 minutes walk). There's a million restaurants around, and all sorts of stores within walking distance (luckily not all ritzy). And, of course, the best part-- a ten-minute walk to work (eight when I speedwalk and the lights go my way). I've only done it three days so far, but the saved time is priceless. I can get up 45-50 minutes later in the morning, which is damn amazing. And theoretically I'll be getting home 45 minutes earlier in the evenings, although it hasn't happened quite that way so far.
Another piece of the location that's pretty good is that we're two blocks from the Chicago El stop, and ten minutes or so from the intercampus shuttle between NU's Chicago and Evanston campuses. Hopefully this will be good for spending time with folks still in Evanston. Already on Saturday, Peter came down for the evening; we got dinner, went to one of the Grant Park Orchestra's free concerts, and then came back to my apartment and watched a movie. It was excellent, and I hope it's at least a semi-regular occurrence. And I'll probably head up to Evanston some night this week and/or next.
Geez, all this gushing about the new apartment, and I haven't gotten a chance to talk about my trip to Detroit for work last week, the 300-mile drive, and the wild adventure it involved (short version: driving there was easy and much better than I expected. Driving back was nothing like I expected). But maybe I'll save that for next time.
(1) comments
There's so much to talk about, I don't even know where to begin. The new apartment is awesome, awesome, awesome. We lucked into a bigger apartment at the last moment (a 1BR instead of a convertible; the guy in the one we were supposed to get wasn't able to move out in time, and this was what's available). That means a slightly larger bedroom and living room, and a much larger kitchen, which is wonderful-- we've ended up with an almost perfect amount of space for us. It also means we're on the 22nd floor instead of the 4th; so, not stairs-accessible, but with a very nice view. It's pretty much straight west, so there's no real skyline view or anything (although if you put your face up against the window and look south, you can see the Sears Tower), but there are beautiful sunsets. And on the Fourth of July, we got to see an incredible sort-of-panoramic fireworks display; fireworks shows in fifteen or twenty different suburbs at once, ringing the horizon with miniature multicolored bursts. It was out of this world, like nothing I've ever seen before.
But the really great thing about the apartment is location, location, location. You can walk to everything! In the ten days we've been here, I've walked to Millennium Park or Grant Park four times (20-25 minutes walk). There's a million restaurants around, and all sorts of stores within walking distance (luckily not all ritzy). And, of course, the best part-- a ten-minute walk to work (eight when I speedwalk and the lights go my way). I've only done it three days so far, but the saved time is priceless. I can get up 45-50 minutes later in the morning, which is damn amazing. And theoretically I'll be getting home 45 minutes earlier in the evenings, although it hasn't happened quite that way so far.
Another piece of the location that's pretty good is that we're two blocks from the Chicago El stop, and ten minutes or so from the intercampus shuttle between NU's Chicago and Evanston campuses. Hopefully this will be good for spending time with folks still in Evanston. Already on Saturday, Peter came down for the evening; we got dinner, went to one of the Grant Park Orchestra's free concerts, and then came back to my apartment and watched a movie. It was excellent, and I hope it's at least a semi-regular occurrence. And I'll probably head up to Evanston some night this week and/or next.
Geez, all this gushing about the new apartment, and I haven't gotten a chance to talk about my trip to Detroit for work last week, the 300-mile drive, and the wild adventure it involved (short version: driving there was easy and much better than I expected. Driving back was nothing like I expected). But maybe I'll save that for next time.
