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).

Leaving Madison

I'm leaving Madison, Wisconsin, where I have lived for the past two years, to put roots down in Chicago, Illinois. What will I miss about Madison:

• Running path right outside my apartment building
• Lakes all over - it's hard not to find a lake in the downtown!
• Friendly people - especially the MH3!
• Constant cultural or other events going on (I've been to more jazz, 5ks, & Ironmans in Madison than anywhere else)
• Good food - Madison has a great farmer's market and a lot of restaurants
• Local pride - lots of Madison-owned or locally-owned shops and cafes.
• Memorial Union Terrace - part of the UW, this is a great place to sit with friends and listen to music, have a beer and watch the lake, or have an ice cream.

If you have never been, Madison is a great place. I highly recommend visiting in the spring or summer, particularly if you are not a winter-lover. We got over 100 inches this winter, much more than I remember getting in the two previous winters I lived here.

I was particularly surprised by the overall athleticism of Madison. The city hosts 5k or other running event most weekends during the summer, and you can find many biking events and cycling trails throughout the region. While in Madison, I've met a large number of long distance runners and other endurance athletes. This was very different than my initial expectations of Madison (which was more along the lines of the cheese-eating, beer-drinking images. Not that you can't find that in Madison...).