the apartmizzy

To indulge the voyeur in you (that's why we’re all here, right?), I wanted to post a few more photos of our new apartment! We aren’t fully set up yet, including no pictures on the wall, but at least we can have guests over - woohoo!

Your tour:

Our front window. I’m so happy we have a tree outside and huge windows. One of the disadvantages to living on the first floor around here is you lose the light and foliage that you get out a second story window. However, we are lucky to get a little of both here!

A lighter view, so you can see what the inside actually looks like. Once we get a new couch, we’ll move our tan chaise by the window. Reading nook, what?!

A lovely, albeit not highly frequented, corner in the front of the living room. Complete with original stained glass.

Wood-burning fireplace. Eventually we’ll mount the TV here. I forget what we’re waiting for…Brian…hint…

View into the dining room with the kitchen behind. The bedrooms and the office all run along the left side.

Bon appétit!

Birdcage, leftover from the wedding (leftover from Amy's sister Ann's wedding), with some children's books inside.

This was another garage sale piece we bought for $40, refinished, and re-knobbed. As a sidenote, I’m SO GLAD to have our records back! Unfortunately we’ve got some sound issues, which may require a trip to the record player doctor. TBD.

Guest bathroom. No, I didn’t have to paint. Yes, I claimed it for myself.

Pseudo shot of the kitchen. For the life of me I couldn’t get a good angle anywhere in here (plus it was a disaster). It has black/white checked floors and green walls – which again, I didn’t have to paint. Thanks to the Crate & Barrel gods, it’s pretty bright and spunky in here (which you can't see too much).

Exposed brick column in the kitchen, complete with an antique sifter and apron – two things I will probably never use but enjoy looking at.

And finally, the back porch. I feel like the word “lovely” is appropriate. I can’t wait to fill it with plants next year! For now, Dictator Brian has put the kabash on me acquiring any and all living things. Something to do with them not staying alive. Or something.

it's a way of life

A haiku entitled "Despair":

Queso, I miss you.

Chi-town does not understand

Your melted goodness.

I know you can really feel it in my poetry, but I feel like I'm living in one of those depression commercials. You know who a-lack-of-queso hurts? Everyone.

I've demanded that we eat mexican a few times since moving here, and nobody has queso on the menu. Queso fundido, sure, queso fresco, sure. But straight up melted ambrosia? NOT FOR YOU SUCKA.

Austin does it right. After having queso as an appetizer, then they go ahead and smother your meal in it.

In my quest for queso, I have only found 2 solaces in this city. One is Qdoba, which I biked my hungover ass to yesterday specifically because I knew the only thing that could cure me was sweet melted white cheese with jalapenos. The second place is Uncle Julio's. As in, the Texas mexican food chain.

There are a few things wrong with this selection. Uncle J's is totally fine, but I can't commit myself to a $50 meal everytime I'm jonesing. The Qdoba variety did the trick on Sunday, but it was runnier and more bland than I remembered, which means that it can only be utilized in the darkest moments of anguish. (I still ate the entire bowl and felt like a new person afterwards. Coincidence? You know the answer).

I have drawn a few conclusions about my situation:

1) The quality of life here is sub-standard.

2) Chicagoans have no self-respect.

3) Someone is trying to kill me slowly.

life here

There are certain aspects of my “lives” in different cities that stand out to me. For example, when I think back on Memphis, I think of jogging in our lush neighborhood, the Food Network, and a Fino’s turkey sandwich with extra provolone and black/green olive spread. Right now I’m aching for outdoor happy hours with the Austin girls and the absurdly gratuitous tailgates at UT. But I’m curious to see what's going to define my daily enjoyment here in Chicago, which of course I won’t appreciate until I’m longing for it from my next home. Always thinking ahead.

Living in Chicago is still obviously new, but it’s never too soon for a few observations:

1) Chicago drivers are the most terrifyingly competent automobile operators I’ve ever encountered. Meaning: they drive like assholes and somehow manage to squeeze riiiiiiiiight between those cars, brake juuuuuust in time to avoid killing a pedestrian, and baaaaarely make it through red lights. I arrived to the city in the middle of 5 o’clock traffic downtown, which means I am the first person to ever continue functioning while experiencing a coronary. The driving methods here are impressive solely because the majority of these jerk-crazies actually pull off their stunts while keeping all pedestrians and bikers safe at the same time.

2) It is already fall here. WHAT THE HELL. Maybe I’ll appreciate this at some point, but right now I’m not sure how I feel about wearing a fleece during the day. I would probably love the weather if it weren’t for the dreaded understanding that after this really nice part comes death hypothermia winter.

3) These people love their festivals. I went to an arts festival two weeks ago, to a German festival on Saturday, and had to turn down a crafts festival on Sunday. Considering how not-plugged-in I am, those probably account for 5% of the actual festivals occurring in the city.

4) Our neighborhood is awesome. Some photos from our ride today to the shopping/bar/restaurant area 5 minutes away:

Lincoln Square!

The Davis, a movie theater with uncomfortable seats but tons of charm.

Part of the actual square. Sort of hard to see, but there's a fountain in the middle, and a thin cobblestone street with retail on both sides. So many places to go!

5a) Biking is cheaper and faster than driving, taking the train, and walking. Thus, it is awesome. We’ve been biking as our main form of transportation and I love love love it. I thought it’d be too scary to ride amongst the jerk-crazies referenced above, but it’s actually not bad because there are so many other bikers out there. And again, their aforementioned ability to not kill people.

5b) On a related note, driving here generally sucks. The traffic, the parking, UGH. It's so discouraging. In some neighborhoods, you’ll look for parking for 30 minutes without success. And if you find a spot but you don’t have a permit for that area, you will get a $50 ticket, no questions asked. We live about half a block from the train, and once it gets cold, I’m guessing that will become my main mode of transport.

6) People our age don’t seem to go out in the same way they do in Austin. In ATX, many of our nights out circled around West 6th street downtown, and from there we bar-hopped. It was easy to meet up with people, there were plenty of places to go, parking was easy, and anything was just a cab ride away. Here, not so much. It’s more like a one-bar destination. Brian says there are little sections where people will go to bar-hop, but certainly none of his friends do that, and it’s nothing like West 6th. Plus, it seems more reserved for 22-year-olds and bachelorette parties. Is this just an Austin phenomenon, because I don’t think people in Memphis really do this either? I miss it!

7) Pizza and hot dogs. Giant / thick / delicious. More please!

A slice to be contended with.

True Chicago dog from Wrigley field.

For those of you who may have seen this on the Food Network...best dog I've had yet!

have a seat

Do not read this if you don't like 1) crafts, 2) chairs, or 3) listening to me ramble.

Last weekend, I decided to embark on a new level of danger...recovering chairs. I know, I know, try not to be jealous of the intense amount of EXCITEMENT happening over here.

But seriously, if you've never done this and you like a good challenge, I highly recommend trying it! We picked up some dining room chairs at a garage sale this weekend (again with the excitement), knowing they'd need some serious love. I took on their rehab as my pet project and today finally produced the final product. Why do these things always take so much longer than we anticipate?

Step 1: Pick up some ugly ass chairs.

Step 2: Stab yourself with various tools.

Step 3: Go to the fabric store twice. Wander around on the phone. Discover batting.

Step 4: Hammer in 100 upholstery tacks. Curse.

Step 5: Clean and re-stain chair. Screw in seats.

Step 6: VICTORY!

The funny thing is how much I love these chairs now. I can't stop looking at them, and I've made Brian look at them to verify, again, how great I think they look. It's nice to breathe life back into something that just was sitting in someone's backyard, covered in spiderwebs and years of dust. Does anyone have any other recovering successes to share? Or suggestions for future recovering projects?

EXCITEMENT.

Mean green cooking machine

The new hizzy!

We're on the first floor, and there are 2 units above.

Moving day was last Tuesday and went as smoothly as we could've hoped! Even though we have a ton of stuff, we neglected to bring all the furniture needed to put said stuff on. It was a gametime decision back in Texas - do we risk bringing a few extra pieces like the buffet, the bar, those end tables? Knowing that if our apartment was too small, we'd have no choice to sell them (and some were heirlooms) or even worse, just make it all fit? Then, of course, we landed this awesome apartment and now need extra buffets and bar and end tables.

That being said, the kitchen was the most complete room we had, so I set to unpacking it first. This kitchen is ADORABLE - black and white tiled floors with green walls and one small exposed brick column. I've made a habit of having a green room in my last two homes, so I was fully prepared to paint one here too, but this one came ready to go!

Being so bright and colorful, it makes me want to spend more time there (which would be great for developing my cooking skills). It's no secret that Brian is the chef around here, but I'd really love to be able to hold my own when it comes to throwing together a meal. When I was complaining about being #2 in the kitchen, he challenged me to come up with my own signature dish (his is tacos).

I can count the number of meals I've cooked more than once on one hand. And when you take away the ones that were actually really good, then you have exactly 0 left. However, my mom has explained King Ranch Chicken Casserole to me approximately 73 times, so I dug up a recipe and gave it a go.

Mind you, the last time I made this, I made a poor substitution choice—wheat tortillas instead of corn tortillas, which completely changed the intended flavoring and consistency of the dish—and I also forgot two ingredients...which were sitting on my countertop...and happened to be 2 cans of soup. The final product was a goopy, cheesy, bland mess that McAdams and Rachel helped eat. (A cheesy mess is still good and cheesy.)

This story doesn't have as interesting of an ending, but I did love my first "go" in the new kitchen. Pandora and red wine helped. The final product was decent - we spent most of the meal figuring out how to make it better next time, which leads me to believe this will not be my signature dish. But I'll be interested to see if/how my cooking changes here, especially if I can actually come home every day after work without any sort of lingering obligations besides maybe exercising. And having the key ingredients of time and a green room should be major catalysts for my cooking success, right?

Houston, we have an apartment.

I'm happy to report that our couch surfing expedition is coming to a close this Tuesday when we move into our new apartment!

After an excruciating week waiting to hear something back from the owner, we finally entered rent negotiations yesterday and came to an agreement by 10 p.m. Let me tell you, we were playing an intense game of hardball with this guy, which is hard to do when you really want to start the relationship on a good foot. After it was all said and done, we both met exactly halfway from where we had started. Even though we would've preferred to settle at a lower number, it was fun crunching numbers (I'm a nerd) and trying to figure out what cards we had to play. I used to hate negotiating, but ever since I realized you can talk people down/up from just about anything, it's really added some entertainment to my life (even when I fail).

SO, about the new place. I'll post pictures once we get settled, but in the meantime....it's the first floor of an old house (circa 1900) in Lincoln Square, so it's full of character: it has an original piece of stained glass in the front window, a wood-burning fireplace, a transom window, hardwood floors, and original molding. Woo hoo! It has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a big living room, dining room, green kitchen (yesssss), front porch, enclosed back porch, and big deck off the back. It's super close to the train line (which is also a downfall, soundwise) and is within walking/biking distance to coffee shops, bars, restaurants, etc. This is a different area from the one Brian's been living in for the past 8 years, so it will be an adjustment for him, but we hope a good one!

We have a few more days of sleeping in other people's beds before undergoing Hell Day on Tuesday, which includes (but is not limited to): hiring movers to go out to a distribution center where our pods are being stored, unloading them into the moving truck, going to Brian's storage unit, unloading that into the moving truck, then going to our apartment and unloading everything there. Weeeeeee!

However, Hell Day will be followed by Heaven Day, when we'll finally start unpacking and getting settled! I can't wait!

Shelter skelter

There may be an itty bitty witty chance that we found an apartment!

After stalking "the house that will not be" day in and day out, we found ourselves driving past another house a few blocks down that had a For Rent sign. So finally we went, we saw, and we loved!

I'll save the descriptive details for when we have 100% total confirmation, which will hopefully be tomorrow! We got along with the landlord really well, so really it's just a matter of him confirming that we are not drug dealers and thieves. About that...