September 25, 2010
It’s been nearly four weeks, and I have to say that city life is almost exactly as I’d imagined it. Even if we haven’t actually lived it ourselves, we’ve seen it in movies and TV shows, and those are – practically speaking – very good representations of what it’s like.
The buildings, the people, the streets, the cabs, cars, buses, trains, bars, shops, and parks. And all within a block of wherever you are at any given minute. Everything is so condensed. Communities and districts that elsewhere would be spread across a mile or more are all squeezed into a block or even a street corner. Everything is just close. Even if something on the other side of town, it feels like it’s just around the corner.
As expected, the biggest difference between Chicago and Dallas is in the way that I get around. Since I don’t have a car, I walk, take the bus, take the L, or in most cases, some combination of those. Trips happen in legs rather than one mundane stretch.
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Posted in Personal | Chicago | Coffee | Dallas | Novelty | Simplification | The City | The L | Transportation | Travelling
September 9, 2010
Well, here I am. Right now, I’m sitting in Argo Tea (basically a trendy Starbucks-esque teashop) at the corner of Pearson & Rush in the River North district of Chicago.
In the ten minute walk to get here from my apartment, I went through three distinct neighborhoods, passed countless restaurants, bars, clubs, a Prada, Barney’s New York, four Starbucks, and about half a mile of sidewalk.
I’ve been here in Chicago for a week and a day, and I’m finally starting to get my bearings, though I can already tell that even six months won’t be enough time to fully grasp the city. But I’m going to give it my best shot.
As planned, I drove through the night last Monday, the 30th, and after a horribly long, dull and lonely 16-hour drive, I finally saw the Chicago skyline about 3:30 Tuesday afternoon.
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Posted in Personal | Argo Tea | Chicago | Home | Homesickness | Loneliness | Roadtrip | Sufjan
August 27, 2010
Well, it’s finally happening. It’s nearly a month behind schedule, but it’s happening. Next Tuesday, the 31st, I will be falling asleep in the city of Chicago, IL. I’ve got an apartment leased, rent in the mail, and rental car reserved. Here we go.
Monday morning, I’ll pick up an SUV from Avis, drive it home, load it up with all of the stuff that I’ll be taking with me up north, and probably try to take a nap. Then around 9:00 or 10:00 Monday night, I’ll set off for the wild north. It’s about a 15 hour drive, so I’ll probably see the Chicago skyline crest the horizon around noon on Tuesday.
Lord willing, I’ll pick up the apartment keys, spend half an hour hauling all the stuff from the car to the apartment, then drive a mile downtown to Avis, drop the car off, and spend 15 minutes walking back to my new home.
The apartment I’m leasing is a total of 325 square feet. For perspective, that’s about 18.5′ x 18.5′, or a mid-sized living room. It’s a bed, office desk, bathroom, closet, small dining table and corner kitchen. I don’t even know where I’m going to set my piano up. I’m on the third floor, and I’ve got a small window that looks north over a parking lot and Division St.
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Posted in Personal | Apple | Chicago | Chipotle | Family | Friends | Goodbyes | Homesickness | Loneliness | Moving | The L | Transition
August 25, 2010
You know, fortune cookies would be a lot more believable if you got a bad one every now and then. Nothing horrifically doom and gloom, mind you. Just the occasional “You’re going to incur some unexpected expenses.” or “Good friends are indispensable; too bad one of yours is about to split.” Otherwise, all you need to do to improve your circumstance is to order out for Chinese.
Similarly, you need to have some rough patches to appreciate the good. If there were no bad times, there wouldn’t be any good times, either. They’d just be… times. Its a difficult thing to acknowledge and embrace when you’re in the middle of a rough patch, though.
On the other side of things, though, when things are going well, the last thing I want to do is think about bad times. But it’s just as important to remember where you’ve been as it is to look forward to what’s ahead. You need to look back on the less than stellar times and appreciate them and how far you’ve come since.
I’m in a pretty good place right now, and the most palpable way for me to appreciate it in the midst is to remember when it wasn’t quite like this. If I only think about the here and now, I might not even realize how good I have it until I’ve moved on. And sometimes, that little mental acknowledgment is enough to promote a “time” to a “good time”.
Let them roll.
Posted in Personal | Appreciation | Dualism | Fortune Cookies | Life | Perspective | Remembering | The Past
August 3, 2010
I remember saying about a month ago that once I had wrapped up my job at Pursuant and moved out of my apartment, it would be pretty smooth sailing from that point on.
Oh young, naive Cabeeb.
For two months or longer, I had been working towards a defined, dated goal. That was to have left my job and moved out of my apartment by the time my lease was up on July 18th. That was my first destination on the larger journey up to Chicago, and I’d been working towards it since since mid-May. It was extremely stressful, but it gave some definition to my purpose. Even if everything else was a giant whirlwind, that end goal was unwavering.
Now that stage has finally wrapped up. I exited Pursuant stage-left, crammed 90% of my possessions into a 5′ x 15′ padlocked room, and moved into a temporarily vacant bedroom in my parents’ house. That all took place in one of the most hectic 4 day periods I can remember, but it was done.
Yet the week following that milestone saw me depressed and overwhelmed. Somehow, having no deadlines hanging over my head was just as stressful as the previous weeks of several simultaneously culminating. The stress was of a different nature, of course, but it was just as potent and crippling.
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Posted in Personal | Ambiguity | Chicago | Confusion | Freelance | Mixed Metaphors | Pursuant | The Unknown | Transition
July 12, 2010
As long-winded as it was, the rundown of my plan to move to Chicago did leave a few questions unanswered. An oversight that I would like to take this opportunity to rectify.
Why Chicago?
Why not Chicago?
I didn’t have any specific city in mind; I just wanted one with a solid urban infrastructure. New York came to mind first, but it’s is just too big. I wanted a city that I could actually digest. Seattle, Boston, and Chicago came to mind next. For some reason Chicago just stuck out. It seems like a charming town, and I’d heard good things about it. Ok, sure! Let’s do Chicago!
Since then, I’ve heard phenomenal things about it, only solidifying my decision. But initially, it was a pretty arbitrary choice. I’ve never been to Chicago, but I’ve never been to any of the other candidates either.
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Posted in Personal | Chicago | Follow-up | Lincoln Park | New York | Planning | Questions
