Chi-town

I've been in Chicago as an official/unofficial resident, and here are some of the highlights so far:

• Metra (commuter rail) trip up to Evanston for an evening out.
• Exploring the nearby shopping district (BR & JCrew are just across the bridge!)
• Going to some interesting restaurants in Chicago: an old-hotel restaurant with a piano player, and an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant!
• Signing up for a week of yoga for $20 and having the first session be a 1-on-1 yoga session :)
• Walking around a lot because I'm not familiar with the area yet...
• Going to Trader Joe's for grocery shopping and then walking home.

Before I leave for the D.R. I still need to figure out my car/parking situation. Currently it's sitting outside the apartment on the street, but not quite the best place for it to be lonely for 3 months. Hmmm... craig's list calls my name.

Moved!

Well, it went through without anyone getting maimed or killed. After days of packing up (ok, procrastinating, and then packing) the movers came and packed up most of my stuff and then put it into storage. A couple of the highlights:

• It being a completely different moving company that showed up than the World Moving Services that I had gotten my estimate from and had corresponded with up until then. And they showed up in an Enterprise Rental Truck.
• The movers telling me that day that they wouldn't be able to deliver my stuff to Chicago (a 2.5 hour drive) until the next day. And that next day being 4 pm the next day - not 9 am...
• Movers packing in what had filled a 1 bedroom apartment in Madison into a 7.5 x 10 foot storage space in Chicago. Since I am moving into an already-furnished apartment (thanks Mike!) there was no need for any of my furniture right now.
• Me not having to do any of the heavy lifting. Actually, I did lift a lot of boxes and did almost all of the moving of things from the old apartment into the new.
• Paring down the stuff you don't want - moving was a great opportunity to go through stuff and see what is not worth transporting. Many donations to Goodwill were made, and possibly a few to the Salvation Army here in Chi-town as well. (and the pleasant discoveries of things you didn't use recently, but find while packing for the move).