you may be wondering how things are going in chicago. you also may not care. if you fit into the latter group, stop reading now.

the good:

we got our stuff last friday and were essentially done unpacking by saturday afternoon. we’re good like that. our place seemed bigger than we remembered when we were here with no furniture, but it still seems big even with all our stuff here. that means, come visit.

visited noon-o-kabab, a mere 1 mile from our place, or 2 train stops. its the hot kabobs of chicago, methinks. very excited about this. their dill rice beats HK, but nothing beats HK’s chicken kebabs. noon-o-kabab delivers and they even include a tiny packet of sumac. a tiny packet!

had some mediocre mexican food. what do you expect me to say? i’ve been to houston recently.

started work. my desk is near a window and in a tall building, so that’s nice. i saw them setting up for lollapalooza earlier this week. getting to work has become a sort of game for me, i’ve shaved minutes off my commute by strategically switching trains, and am confident i can get it into the 45-48 minute range if conditions are right. the commute has given me some more time for reading, too, which is nice.

and the highlight so far: harvestime foods. yeah, that’s right, a grocery store is the highlight so far. the produce quality is great. and the prices: 10 limes for $1. 2 packs of strawberries for $2.98. pineapples $2.99. spinach - $1.50/bunch. seriously? the milk here is a dollar cheaper than anywhere else. they have fresh feta cheese - in various varieties (bulgarian, anyone?) i got a half pound of domestic for $1.62. lots of imported stuff for those who like to cook international cuisine. a ton of stuff is printed in russian, i need to brush up! i heart harvestime!

everyone here is nice. in fact, the average stranger/neighbor here seems to be friendlier than in the south. is that possible?

the bad:

adjusting to no central air. if you ever visited us in nashville, you know we like to keep it at a balmy 68 degrees in the house. no can do on the third floor with window units. our apartment came with two, we bought one more. and we had one fan (the vornado - thanks kbs), and bought three more. now we end up making the power go out at least once daily. oh well, we’ll be happy about the third floor warmth come winter

we miss our friends. its weird to not know anybody when you come from somewhere that it seems you knew everyone. but, our neighbors are super nice, and we’ve chatted with them a lot, and my sole coworker and i get along great, so there is hope!

the weekend:

shannon’s birthday! probably some sort of festivity.

i’ll likely spend a lot of time (and hopefully not a lot of money) here.

situation: we ventured to the ace hardware a few blocks from our house to pick up a filter for our air conditioner. mid 40s woman approaches the store clerk.

clerk: need help with anything ma’am?
lady: yes. i’m looking for one of those saints. the ones that you bury upside down in your yard.
clerk: oh, st joseph?
lady: yeah, whoever it is. i don’t know his name, but i heard it works.
clerk: sure, they’re right over here.

i’m familiar with the burying saints upside down in your yard thing. but it never occurred to me where you’d go to get said saint. apparently, ace hardware is it. FYI.

after several hours of moving-related panic this weekend, we made it to chicago tuesday. the movers had given us a window of picking up our stuff on sat, sun or mon. they were to call 24-48 hours ahead of time to set an actual time. so, of course, we began awaiting their call on thursday. no call thursday. or friday. or saturday. we wake up sunday and are feeling a little strange about the whole situation so decide to give them a call. its sunday, so of course no answer at the office. we look at our contract and notice that it says we’re moving JUNE 19-21, not JULY. after a short expulsion of expletives, we decide to enjoy our anniversary (woo) and not worry about it until the end of the day. we did our best to avoid thinking about it, but also had to be smart and come up with a plan B since all our stuff needed to be out of the house by end of day monday. finally, FINALLY, at 5pm they called and said they’d be there at 4pm on monday. apparently the june date was just a typo, and not a scheduling error. whew.

come monday, we were ready to pack up, go enjoy dinner at the saucer and head out the next morning. of course, the movers were “running late”. by “running late” i really think they meant “the heat index is 105, we’re holding out until later to move your junk”. they came at 7 and finished at 10, so we were pretty tired by the time we got done, but still managed to make it to the saucer and hang out for a bit.

the drive here was pretty uneventful, except for coming to the realization that every song in my entire catalog of mp3s reminds me of nashville in one way or another.

so now we’re here in a big (much bigger than we remembered) empty apartment. we determined we can comfortably sleep 10 in here, so invite yourselves to come for a visit anytime. over the past few days, we’ve also mastered the art of using an air mattress as a bed, desk, dining room table and sofa. so versatile, i tell you.

the movers called today and said they’re coming at 6am tomorrow, so the weekend will likely be spent unpacking. yuck.

i’m in seattle this week for work. all i wanted to do on the plane was watch my flight of the conchords dvds. in fact, i emailed my bff before my flight to inform her of my plan. about 1.5 hours into the flight, i decide its time. put in the dvd, it starts playing. no sound. other applications on my computer are making sounds, just not the dvd player application. i think i’m officially a “mac person”.

now i’m sitting in my hotel, trying to stay up another hour, so i don’t get up at 5am local time again tomorrow, unable to fall back asleep. kelly informs me there is a what not to wear marathon on TLC. perfect! i turn on the tv. sound, yet no image.

so i guess what i really need is a traveling a/v person to assist me. anyone?

i think today might qualify as my 2 year running anniversary. i actually started in the spring of 2006, but didn’t decide to do a race and train for something until a july 4th picnic that year which made it fitting that i ran my last race before the move today. the course sucked for running (super hilly and the 10k looped the same course twice - yuck) but it was really great to run around downtown one last time before the move. lots of great views. i know i’ll be back for some races, but its different when its not your hometown.

i’ve discovered over the past few years that i must have music to run. if i run along and can hear myself breathing and my feet hitting the pavement, my brain takes over and i end up feeling exhausted. but find a good song, i can zone out and i’m set. found a new one today, luckily just about a quarter mile into the 6.2 mile jaunt. if you run, its a great tempo, and the lyrics were - well, all too appropriate. i actually put this song on repeat and listened to it for the entire hour and seven minutes of the race. try it on your running playlist:

hello stranger - “her in these lights”

Back then when we were young
Who thought this day would ever come?
After all this time

Some dreams are coming true
Some of us just can’t get through
After all this time

And all my friends are trying to reach some end
Trying to pretend that we’re alright now
I see her in these lights as the setting night

There you and I are standing still
The years dissolving into stronger will
After all this time

Everything we’ve torn apart
We’ve built back with stronger hearts
I’m so afraid of how long I’ve made you stay,
The choices we made but In the end, dear
Who cares who did it right if only we had survived

The things I’ve seen so far away
Are getting closer everyday
After all this time

And all I want when this is done
To say I tried, say we had fun
After all this time

Nothing will be the same
We keep playing the game

Here comes a girl her eyes like stars now
She’s given me a fearless heart
After all this time

last week, i was running happily about my neighborhood (or at least as happily as i could run given the oppressive heat). i turned a corner after my favorite hill and felt something on my head. i thought that perhaps my ponytail holder had snapped so i reached up to check its status. it seemed to be intact, so i assumed something fell out of the tree and hit me. two steps later, same thing. now i’m sure my pony tail has snapped and is holding on by a mere thread.

two miles later, i loop around to the same corner and run up my favorite hill. now i feel something akin to someone hitting my ponytail and it flipping around. i decide this is more than a little odd.

upon arrival at home a mile later, i decided i was attacked by a bird. we have a lot of blue jays in our neighborhood and they are notoriously angry and violent; the vlad the implaers of the bird family, if you will. (been watching too much history channel)

i ran a few different routes in the following week, before returning to this route yesterday. when i approached my favorite hill, i was in a state of heightened awareness, but not actually scared. i mean, i never actually saw the bird. and what are the chances it would be there again, and be agitated again?

as i ran up the hill, i could see my shadow ahead of me. and the outline of a bird near my head. curse words. because the shadow lacks the depth perception i need to determine how long before i’m attacked, i turn around and to my horror see a bluejay about 10 feet behind my head. i’m a slow runner, but have now found that the secret to an easy sub 9:30 minute mile is to be chased by a blue jay.