On the Road Again...Chicago to Colorado

Sunday, Sept 16 - Day II.93 (458)

 Safe travels today from Chicago to Omaha, Nebraska. This country has some serious prairie in the middle, and a lot of space. This whole "amber waves of grain" thing is pretty beautiful.

Monday, Sept 17 - Day II.94 (459)
 Today I cut across Nebraska and then down through Kansas to Colorado.

 I spent the night with my dear friend Kim from high school. Her husband made us strawberry margaritas and let us watch girly tv - what a great guy!

I am grateful for a few moments stolen with an old friend to catch up.
Tuesday I'll drive on to New Mexico. As I came to central Colorado, the land starts turning familiar and I can feel the excitement in my blood. That's one of the reasons that I love driving instead of flying - you can see the land change. You understand the terrain, how things melt together and evolve gracefully. I can feel New Mexico coming - every time I come to this place, I am draw, it's magnetic. This place is holy holy ground for me, this place is home, this place is a piece of my soul. 
 

Moving to Chicago, the final coda

Friday, Sept 14 - Day II.91 (456)
Chicago Files

Today, while still waiting for the movers to remotely arrive in a timely fashion and deliver my belongings (now that we are officially on the far side of my delivery window), I rode my bike farther down the lake shore. This time I went all the way to Navy Pier, past North Avenue Beach.

Saturday, Sept 15 - Day II.92 (457)
Chicago Files
I had to stay around my neighborhood today because of the movers delivering my mess. 
So I went for a run up to Evanston, where Northwestern is - it's about 2.9 miles, and I can run up the lake the whole way. 

 I also walked over to my fave coffee shop and got a coffee. Rogers Park has a mystery crafter, who just leaves these little guys all over. I love it!

Now that my stuff is here, I'll take off Sunday on my road trip down to New Mexico to visit my grandmother and attend Shane & Jesse's wedding (with a hot date on my arm! I'm such a lucky girl!).  So I'll post my gratitude from the road, and when I return to Chicago on the 25th, I am officially and for the foreseeable future a Chicagoan!

Poutin Stil

Day II.90 (455): Thursday, September 13
Chicago Files

I have located my local bar. Now I can really settle in.

I am starting to get my bearings here: where the Walgreens is, the Dominick's (big grocery chain), the fruit market, the train stop, the local coffee shop and the local bar...these things are key. Last night I met up with Shardul, a friend from NYU, and I picked a bar that was close to my apartment so I could walk there and home.

The bar is very laid back and has a Jack Russell terrier mascot who hangs out there, and even sits on the bar stools. This is definitely the kind of relaxed atmosphere that will help me survive grad school.

Day II.89 (454): Surmounting Bureaucracy

Chicago Files
Today was about bureaucracy. Everyone's. But particularly the Illinois DMV.

I am excited to get into why I'm here, and relieved to have the long lines and "take a number from the dispenser" do-you-have-15-irrelevant-form -collated-properly thing behind me...

Day 449 - 453: Baby steps in a new town

Day II.84 (449) - Friday, September 7
Chicago Files
I am definitely starting my Chicago Bucket list. I have at least seven restaurants on here already.
On the list:
Frontera Grill
The Girl & The Goat
Belly Shack
Koval Distillery
Goose Island Brewery
North Shore Distillery
How grateful I am to live in a place with so much to explore!

Day II.85 (450) - Saturday, September 8
Chicago Files

 When in Andersonville, check out the Brown Elephant thrift shop. It's quite the experience, housed in an old theater.

You come across some serious finds. Clearly.
Side note for gratitude: how grateful I am for this man, who makes me laugh. I'm so glad to spend time with him every chance I get, and we have a great time no matter what we do!

Day II.86 (451) - Sunday, September 9
Chicago Files
Today I learned two things about my new city:
1). Bears fans are for real. Everything you heard about them is true.
2). There is some seriously covet-worthy real estate in this town. Like this place!
(Of course the nerd in me would love to live in a conservation project)

Day II.87 (452) - Monday, September 10
Chicago Files
Chicago is a bike town. At least right now! We'll see how the two-wheelers hold up in the snow. I rode my bike from my apartment down the lakefront.
There's a golf course on the lake, and a cafe called the Clock Tower.

Day II.88 (453) - Tuesday, September 11
Chicago Files
Today I swam for the first time at Northwestern's pool. It's great - nice & big, with windows overlooking Lake Michigan.

I also visited the Roger's Park Fruit Market, at the corner of Clark and Rogers Ave. I highly recommend it: it reminds me of Three Guys in Brooklyn, my favorite place to shop for groceries in NYC. Perhaps it was the weird Jamaican spices and odd mix of immigrant foods (Asian, Caribbean, Hispanic) and delicious fresh produce, but whatever it is, it's my new go-to place in the neighborhood.

Day 443 - 448: Los Angeles to Chicago

Day II.78 (443) - Saturday, September 1
Thank god for Bernadette. Again. Thank god. 
Los Angeles, California to Salina, Utah
A new month, a new life, a new project underway...what a lovely view from the last morning in California (for a while, at least!)

And at the end of the day, the Arizona/Utah border...

Day II.79 (444): Sunday, September 2
Safe passage from Salina, Utah to Cheyenne, Wyoming

 Good morning, Utah!

 Central Utah...

Where are we now? Oh lordy.

Wyoming...big sky country for reals.

Sunset over Wyoming. Big sky country don't mess around with sunsets - this was one of the most spectacular & stunning nightfalls I've ever lived through.

Day II.80 (445): Monday, September 3
Cheyenne, Wyoming to Omaha, Nebraska

And a homecooked meal. YES!

Day II.81 (446): Tuesday, September 4
Omaha, Nebraska to Chicago, Illinois
The inexplicable road tripper's pleasure of finally seeing your destination on the sign:

Picnic tabletop in Iowa

Welcome to Illinois!

Check out my new digs:

 Pretty sweet! Shirts for sale at my new local coffee shop:

Day II.82 (447) - Wednesday, September 5
So Leslie and I took care of ourselves today by going to the Art Institute and play in downtown Chicago. After all that time in the car, it felt so great to not be traveling and to walk around on a glorious late summer day.

 Day II.83 (448) - Thursday, September 6
Got my WildCard at Northwestern today, so I'm officially a Wildcat! Until 2017. Goodness. Went for a run by the lake. I never thought a lake could be as blue as Lake Michigan was today. I'm so excited to learn this city.

As I was running, I was mentally linking the path I was on against the map in my head. I knew there'd be an overlook where you should be able to see the city skyline. I started to run faster - instinctively, as I got closer, I knew it was coming, I could feel somehow something exciting was just around the curve.

And there was.

I am so profoundly grateful to be here, in this moment, in this now. I am so profoundly grateful for my LA community, for my home. I am so profoundly grateful for what is coming: for the friendships I have, for the man I can't get enough of, for the studies I'm undertaking, for the community I'm growing here. I must truly be the luckiest girl in the world. And I'm enjoying it. This life is so full of goodness, and I want to honor that.

Day 434-442: Final sentences in a chapter

Day II.69 (434) - Thursday August 23

A treat for myself since I was staying over on the west side...hitting up the Abbott Kinney Intelligentsia. I love this coffee.

Day II.70 (435) - Friday, August 24
Date night at Luna Park! Bonus: my man got me DIY smores for dessert, cause he knows I love 'em.

Day II.71 (436) - Saturday, August 25

My best friend is one of the three most incredible women I know. She is fiercely generous, loyal, and strong. I miss her already, and I cannot express in words how grateful I am that Search brought her into my life a decade ago. I don't think I would have survived without her: then, in the middle, last year, and now. To my dearest friend, I love you - and I look forward to our Skype dates with wine until I can live near you again.

Day II.72 (437) - Sunday, August 26
After the craziness last night, my best friends came over and packed me out. They stayed for leftover tacos! Oh yeah, did I mention my best friend organized a killer goodbye party that involved a TACO CART? Pretty hard to top that.

Day II.73 (438) - Monday August 27

My work threw me a goodbye lunch and I got to pick the place, so I picked Mas Malo (no more of these awful seafood places where I have to plug my nose the whole time, no!). I had the ground beef and pickle tacos and Echo Park elote. So incredibly delicious, even if the 75+ year old founder of the Center pronounced the menu "challenging!"

Day II.74 (439) - Tuesday, August 28
Last time up the Culver City stairs. I will never get over the view from the top, and these mountains in this desert that I love.

Day II.75 (440) - Wednesday, August 29
I am slowly making progress, day by day, one step closer to finishing out this job and this apartment and this chapter of my life. Each moment carries me farther, if I am patient enough to see the process.

Day II.76 (441) - Thursday, August 30
Salvation Army, movers come and gone. I can't believe I'm leaving my little Airdrome sanctuary.  So grateful for my time here.

Day II.77 (442) - Friday, August 31

 People Who Make My Life Incredible and Whom I Love More Than Anything, Volume I. And yes, there were flaming margaritas and gringo Mexican food consumed in honor of my final night in Los Angeles (this go 'round).

My heart overflows.