August 6, 2008
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The Grand Tour
Well, its official. Summer is in full swing. Scifiknitter is making cat hats, Timshead is road trippin’ it, Boo is kickin’ it with psychics, and Panda is sufficiently Panda-like. With all this living, who has time to blog? As for me, I’ve been trying to get my shit together and adjust to this new and improved Chicago life.
Yesterday, Shaun flew into town for a job interview he went on today. It was so so so good to see him. I’ve been going a bit batty without the one person on the world who so totally *gets* the crazy that is the inside of my brain. He came to the museum and met my staff and wondered the galleries and listened to the free jazz on the terrace that happens every Tuesday night. Best of all, once I was finished with work, I got to take him to dinner at the amazing Uncommon Ground before showing him to our new home!
Last Friday, I moved in to the little home I picked out for my little family: Shaun, me, and kitten-face (aka: Mr. Giles Alejandro Scimitar). In the process, I made friends with a cool new neighbor who, in true New Millennium style, I met through Craigslist. His name is John and he replied to my ad requesting help in moving the Craiglist couch I bought from a nice lesbian couple in Andersonville.
Pictures of the new pad, in Chicago’s East Rogers Park neighborhood, are below:
Where we will lounge, dine, and entertain!
The back wall of the dining room has a fun little window that looks out onto a kick-butt private storage space.
See what I mean? Funny! I want to get little Chinese paper lanterns and outdoor cafe string-lights to put in the storage space, so that when we’re dining in and looking out the window we can pretend we’re in a cafe.
This is the private storage space. For tiny apartment dwellers like Shaun and I, this is LIFE CHANGING! Especially with all the art projects I have going on at any given moment, all of Shaun’s comics and ebay shite, not to mention bikes and rollerblades and tents and hiking boots and sports supplies and the fact that we don’t use a dryer to dry our clothes (trying to be a green-household, dispite all the horrible air travel we’ve had to do these past few months). Also: I can’t think in cluttered spaces. I like order. With a storage room, things have a home. It will make life oh so good. This little space was a major selling point.
As was this! ITS A YARD!!!!!! Holly crap! You don’t know how much I’ve missed being able to have breakfast and lunch outside, all quiet and happy with a book like I did on my parent’s deck growing up. I’m looking for a suitable, used BBQ too. No more fish-stink in the house!!!! (I like grilled fish a good deal and the grill pan makes the house smell a little aqua-licious sometimes.)
Anyway, back inside the house. We’ve got loads of REALLY BIG CLOSETS! Like this one! This is also a life changing event. Especially coming from NYC where closets are a myth. Like unicorns.
We also have a kitchen. See? Its a good one! Shelves! Roach-free! AMAZING!Hey–a quick aside: this week’s This American Life is about Fear of Sleep and features a story about a house so roach infested that the roaches cuddled up inside the [human] tenants EARS when they went to bed at night! AHHH! AHHHH! AHHHHHHHHH! Obviously, I can’t WAIT to listen this week. Damn, I love that show.
Anyhow…
…this is where the magic happens.Ha! Not really. I just always thought it would be funny if people said that about the toilet.
This incredibly tiny room is Shaun’s office. (I claim the entire storage space, since I also have crafts and sports gear in addition to my writing stuff.) We need to re-paint the walls, because this color is grotesque and oppressive. Tan! GAG ME!
This is our new used couch! The bear on it is Theodore T. Bearington. We go way back.
This is zee bedroom. It is little, but since we only need a bed in there, it should be fine. (Shaun and I both get sucked in to movies and books and music so easily, we make it a point to have ONLY a bed in our bedroom, to make sure we actually unplug properly.) Also, I got a 1/2 price dresser at Target. Its in bits on the floor!
Well kiddies, that’s the grand tour. I can’t wait until Shaun and my beloved rat ass puss get here with the rest of our family’s worldly possessions (mere days!!!). But in the meantime, I’m content to snuggle up on our cuddly new used couch and be happy with the direction life is going and all the crazy places its been.Today, I used one of my “personal days” to stay home from work and hang out with Shaun-san. We chilled out around the neighborhood before heading to Lakeview for him to get a pre-interview haircut. Then we went downtown together for a pre-interview lunch, where we copy-edited the text on the paper place mats together. DORKDOM=GOODTIMES. I read in the park for an hour while he talked to his could-be future employers for an hour.
Shaun seemed totally confident coming out of the interview. I hope he gets this job–he’d be such an asset to this place and it seems like he would really enjoy the position. Its a publication production/editorial hybrid position at a literary not-for-profit.
He was off to the airport, headed back to NYC, just as I started this blog. Its not long now. I like my life. I really do.
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Are you at home with your home?
PS: Oh yeah! I few weeks ago I was whining about wanting a funny yet brainy good summer read. Well, this book–You Must Be This Happy To Enter–TOTALLY hits the spot. Funny. Fresh. Elizabeth Crane is spot on and my literary hero this summer.
Comments (4)
I love these pictures. This looks like a place put together for happiness. VERY nice.And yes, I am very at home with my home. I have lived in this space since 1980, as it has grown from a two room house without running water or an inside toilet to a 9 room space that shows signs of being finished in the foreseeable future. I don’t know if I will be able to live here until the end of my days, but I intend to give it a good shot.
I need to look into that book. You’ve picked out a sweet home! Nice work. Great storage!I like the paint in some of the rooms. But I’ll agree with the tan. Did that once by mistake and was very glad to turn it green later.I heart Craigslist too. It’s how I sold the Mini. The newspaper listing got one hit to Craigslist’s eight. I had no idea you could request help like that there too. I may have to explore that more.Ahh. Someone that gets you. That is the best stuff going. I am glad you like your life now! And look forward to your family reuniting. Hope Giles has recovered well.I am at home in my home but I like change too.Oh summer’s almost over here. Have to quickly finish up the projects and get busy prepping for school. I have over 900 #2s already.Very happy for you Truly!
Hello, my name is Ally and I am a subscriber! Your apartment looks funky-fresh. It was weird though- I did a double take with the first photograph cause it looked similar to the apartment I shared with Beth in Grand Rapids. The color of your living room looks like the same color we had in the kitchen, and the pale greenish color looks like the exact same color as my bedroom was. (was that an awful sentence? please don’t judge me!) Your storage space is weird and oddly awesome. I think Giles should live in it. yee-haw!
Hardwoods and closet space are big pluses. Yards are great too, unless you have to mow them. Great place!I try to avoid copyediting placemats, as it’s a gateway drug to never-ending editing of all the mediocre copy and grammar around us.