Chicago: Thursday and Friday

Hah to everyone in middle Iowa- you don't have a lake breeze. (You can laugh at me during the refreshing winter breeze.)

Thurs:
Got an apartment, for the next couple months anyways.
I will be living and spliting the rent in a big one bedroom with a very nice 27-year old girl.
I was going to just move in some of my stuff- bed, clothes and put the boxes and boxes and boxes of books, mags, cooking supplies, trinkets, papers, papers, papers in a 5 by 5 by 8 storage unit, but Beth told me just to bring it all there was plenty of room. I told her I had a lot. She said that was fine and that I was paying for the apt as well, so it was mine to move into.

She's currently staying in the studio and I want this studio (but not till I get a job) My gosh it's twice the size of all the others I've seen, hard wood floors, top floor, gas stove, walk in closet. I could live with a family of 8 in there. (but they couldn't use the closet) AND it's only $655. It was delicious- I'm glad I didn't grab the studio I could sort of seeing myself living in Wed. It's also right where I want to move, right by Lincoln Park.

I've been reading the paper everyday. I feel special everyday, walking to the L stop and grabbing the free daily Red Eye paper. It's a local paper and grocery store magazine all in one- and it's in color.

Friday:
Checked out of my hostel and took the L downtown and put my bags in storage at the HI hostel. Today will be about doing a little job search on the net and then looking for jobs near the apt.

Then I'm going home to get things together, see some cousins up in South Dakota. August 1st I will be back in Chicago for good. That's exciting.

I've gotten bored with the "I did this, this, and this" daily reports. I'm going to still do them, but in my little day by day book just for myself. I'd like to learn more words, be a better writer.
I'm going to save this for complete, specific stories, personal essays, a thought here and there- not all the time, just sometimes.

Chicago so far...

Saturday: Wander into the apartmentpeople (free apartment finding service) at 11am and face 30 bored, slightly impatient looking white kids all plastered on the tan sofas... As the waiting room confirmed, they could take no one sat or sun, I'd have to come in Monday.
Perhaps I should have planned this whole move a bit more...

Sunday: Had pancakes with a friend.
Confirmed that while I really like the Wicker park neighborhood* I didn't really want to live there... just yet. (Plus the whole fact that there is a silly mainstream movie with the guy who looks like a big overgrown sad little boy... josh... something... with the same name and set in that area kind of turns me off as well- though there is an amazing song by sterophonics on the soundtrack I like to call the "sassy owl song") I've been thinking a lot about neighborhoods. What I want in them. I used to want to live where there were the most artists so there was a greater chance of me in flannel in a unheated loft feverishly painting to pay the rent (but surrounded by other flannel/colorful rag wearing wanderers). But after getting followed 15 times in 3 months in Europe... My gosh I want a little saftey. I don't want to have to walk by 4 guys glaring out at me from doorways to go home everyday. I just don't. And I want shops, but trees and parks as well. The Loop is very central, but if I am tired, lost, and hungry I start to feel a heavy despair after walking around the large concrete sidewalks for more than 10 minutes. Lincoln Park and Lakeview are where I want to live.

* (a little chicago knowledge that might be wrong) Wicker Park is one of the top 5 "artist" neighborhoods in Chicago- though I think, but since I'm a baby I don't know, a lot of that art community has migrated to the Pilsen neighborhood since the natural progression is artist move in where it's cheap, it gets popular, the yuppies and starry eyed kids move in, rent goes up- repeat somewhere else. But that Pilsen info is a bit outdated- so now it's probably somewhere I don't even know...),

Monday: Looked at apartments with the apartment people (free apartment finding service).
#1 Was dark, but had air conditioning and a gas stove
# 2 smaller than #1, had lovely hard wood floors but was on a first floor and an active imagination and a first floor, I have never felt, are a good combination.
more on this day later. while the apts didn't thrill me- def. know I want to live here.

Tuesday:
Life, I concluded today at 4:30pm, was stomach turning cappachinos with no promised internet in return, spoiled slurge chicken, soy milk and eggs in the hot hostel fridge, and crushed and smashed free spirited plans to find the perfect apartment first before I found a job to pay for said magical apartment. (went by myself and saw one, that while small and not near perfect, I could actually see myself in unlike 1 and 2)
And then my mind requested the positives of today and I my mind drew a blank. I do, like most people, snap on the tragic.
So what was good about today... 2 hours of free internet, a free bagle, a swifty accident free el ride, a windy breeze, remembering to put suncreen on the tip of my nose, having the renewed sense to forget vanity (after 2 days of bleeding crooked toes and blisters) and wear tennis shoes when one walks 5 miles, a cute leasing agent named Collin with curly hair and a caffine haze to make me feel like every word I shakily type is brilliant...

Wed:
On the search for a temporary apartment...
Looking for a job is fine... but I want a room. (even if it's sharing with someone and temporary situation). I want neighborhood I'm free to walk around in and explore.

I want an Chicago address. A chicago library card. I really want a chicago library card. That is when I will feel like a true and honest Chicagoan. When I had a laminated card that says my name and Chicago in the same 2 by 3 inch area. I think I found one (I could stay up to 3 months) in the neighborhood I want to live, but I will need to meet her and the apartment first and make sure everything is legit.

Apartment Hunting in Chicago

and job hunting to. :)

I leave tommorrow and am staying at a hostel for a little over a week.

I'll keep this a little updated with big news for now (I'm trying to regulate how much time I spend messing around on the internet until I actually find a job and an apt) or what I find...a job, a home, a magical farmer's market, a cheap skirt, a really good loaf of bread...