Sunday, June 28, 2015

Checking out Chicgao

Views from the Ferris Wheel at the Navy Pier
It has been roughly three weeks since I moved, two since I move to the new house and one and a half since starting work. I have had neither the time nor the energy to explore much, preferring to use my evenings to=recharge and recover from all the moving. I've learned over the years that moving is draining, not just physically but emotionally as well. There is a toll to be paid, whether I acknowledge it or not. Usually I don't pay heed to the sadness. But this time I did. I acknowledged that it would take me some time to get used to Chicago because I was not ready to leave Minneapolis and I had to. I think that did me a world of good.


Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Toss It

Settling in means I've been trying new bus routes, taking walks around the neighborhood, even chilling with my new flatmates one evening. I had Grace and Frankie on in the background and I am so impressed with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin - those ladies are rocking the seventies. There was a baby-birthing scene so inaccurate, it drew a lot of scorn from me. She said and I quote "I think the baby is in my pants" and then there really was a baby in her pants and all of this happened in a few minutes, with her mostly standing. Seriously.

Monday, June 22, 2015

Games

A friend developed a game app: Game of Letters

Go check it out (Apple only currently, hopefully coming to Android soon!)

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Weekends

I'm slowly settling in. Things I am getting used to include the buses with their automated stop announcements, the frequent trains, the bustle of downtown and the names of streets close to where I live. I am happy to spend my weekend unwinding, pretending this is permanent. As life would have it, I met an old friend in this new city this week and explored downtown Chicago (including trying this place called Eataly, which was quite interesting). MPR is playing in the background so I'm in two cities at once (I'm not done missing my potential summer in Minneapolis). Walks are my way of anchoring these days, when everything else is changing. It rained five minutes into my first walk, two streets from home. But today I walked around some more, marveling at the green paths and giant buildings.

Monday, June 15, 2015

Rainy days, summer days


Via Edwardmonkton.com
I've moved into YET another space. It is actually rather nice, has a window in the room with great natural light. The house has a back porch and more importantly a functional washer-dryer. Laundry is important for the soul. It is furnished and I have only had to buy minimal stuff such as linen and an incense-holder and lots and lots of chocolate-flavored cereal. The rain has been almost constant these last few days. The more I move, the faster I have learned to feel settled in. The frills fall away and I am slowly stripping to the bare essentials of what I need although there is a still long way to go in that process.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Summer life

I could tell you of the roomhunt that has taken me all over the city, sixteen hours in the trains, to a sketchy basement and a place where Internet didn't work, to neighborhoods where even sadness was shuttered. I could tell you about almost finding a place close to a beach but then it didn't work out. I could tell you about the delays in things, about the heat in a fanless room and the windy days. Summers in this country are strange for me - one day you sweat your flesh off, the next the cold wind whips you till you are indoors. If you sat for longer, I'd share with you the loss I feel at having left Minneapolis. It has just started to feel like home. I miss the softness of my bed, its wheel rolling predictably, of the calming creaks of my ceiling fan.  The incense that was mine, all mine. The comfort of the cool, bare wooden floors, sighing ever so lightly under my weight. Resting my cheek against the window, raindrops splashing lightly in the moonlight. Of the walks I took on familiar routes.


Sunday, June 7, 2015

Packing zen

Travel is always an adventure. As is packing for it. Over the years, here are some of my feelings about packing for travel, compiled for your convenience in the form of a list:
  • I will forget something. Even if it is a safety pin. Such is life. Let it go. As long as I have documents that identify me, it will be fine.
  • Travel checklists are a pain to make the first time but can be super useful in subsequent trips.
  • Wearing multiple layers of clothes to reduce baggage weight is NOT a good idea. It will mostly only overheat you and make movement hard.

Friday, June 5, 2015

Bittersweet

I am slight denial about moving, as if that would change anything. The weeks have flown by. Too soon, too fast. Same as ever. Life.

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

In those years by Adrienne Rich

In those years, people will say, we lost track
of the meaning of we, of you
we found ourselves
reduced to I
and the whole thing became
silly, ironic, terrible:
we were trying to live a personal life
and yes, that was the only life
we could bear witness to

But the great dark birds of history screamed and plunged
into our personal weather
They were headed somewhere else but their beaks and pinions drove
along the shore, through the rags of fog

where we stood, saying I

(I discovered the work of Adrienne Rich via Twitter and this is one of the poems I really enjoyed)