Mood:
energeticNow Playing: Magic Numbers
As I am planning to move next month, I have been digging through the apartment, purging the pointless and organzing the important. And I'm getting a bit nostalgic for the Chicagoland area. Here are some of the things I'll miss:
1. Hot dogs with a whole bunch of shit* on 'em. Especially from Portillo's and Spankys.
*mustard, hot peppers, onions, relish, celery salt and a big dill pickle on a poppy seed bun. While we're on food, Chipotle, Jimmy John's and Lou Malnati's pizza as well)
2. Four distinct seasons, none of which are all too hot, even if one is really cold with lots and lots of snow. But it was fun to have sports writers with snow shovels digging out my car once a week after work.
3. The cute little girl with bells on her ankles who hides behind her mother's skirt when I see them in the laundry room. And also the effiminate Courtney, this tall fellow who works in the office and is also in the laundry room a lot. He has 100 bright yellow towels and folds them meticulously straight from the dryer.
4. Baseball, baseball, baseball. Most days you can watch two games a day, even if one of those is the Cubs. Plus whatever's on national tv. Living in a World Series champion town really was exciting.
5. Paper wad fights at work.
6. Packing the cat in the car and taking a road trip to St. Louis.
7. Riding trains. The parks downtown. Skyscrapers and museums, not that I saw them all that often.
8. Everyone here thinks I have a Southern accent and have taught me new ways to say "sausage" and "garage key."
9. Definitely the Steelers bar. And The Official Bar in Elgin, where my picture is on the wall, and I have the jukebox memorized.
10. I can choose to embrace or to ignore the giant mall in my backyard.
11. Everyone here had just learned to spell my name.
12. With O'Hare and Midway, you can always fly somewhere for pretty cheap.
13. The libraries are freaking awesome. Seriously.
14. Free guitar lessons from Jamie and hanging out at the shop of the most bad-ass airbrush artist in the country.
15. A best friend who likes Family Guy, good movies, thrift stores and yard sales, roller coasters, beer, road trips, crossword puzzles, books, John Prine and Grateful Dead, Mo, and everything else that is great about this world.
16. Coupons! Not only can I pilfer coupons from four different Sunday papers, but they mail me coupons for stuff in the area literally every week.
17. Ikea. I may have to spring for furniture made with real wood now.
18. My apartment faces West, and in the evenings that I get to be home, everything glows pink.
19. I kind of like the central time zone, now that I've gotten used to it.
20. Chicago pops up in a lot of rap songs, and I could always relate.
Posted by lpaz
at 1:03 AM CDT
