My Chicago - Brady

Amy's post about imagining her real-life life in Chicago made me think about my own experience here. I was in a situation similar to hers. Kevin and I were engaged. He was in law school in Chicago, and I was living with my parents and working for La Porte's school system. I enjoyed our weekends together, but remember Kevin being the one who was really obsessed with the city. I figured we'd live here until we were both done with school and then move back to Indiana. (Which happened. Kind of.)

When I actually moved in, though, Chicago started to become my city. And just like I said in my comment on Amy's post, the day-to-day routines were what really made me love it. Some of my favorites were:

• Summertime Tuesday night movies in the park with wine, snacks, and friends.
• My walk to the Sedgwick Purple Line stop through the narrow brick streets and gardens in Old Town (especially in the spring).
• Shopping for Christmas presents at the small local stores near the Armitage stop.
• Nights at River Shannon, a great neighborhood bar. Christmas lights + peanut shells on floor + local beer.
• Saturday and Sunday trips to the Green City Farmers' Market.
• Showing up at friends' warm little apartments for parties and movie nights after long, cold, winter walks up Clark Street.
  
• Drenching our workout clothes in Lake Michigan to cool off after long runs on the Lakeshore Trail.
  
• Eating dinner with Kevin in our studio apartment, listening to new music he bought on iTunes (Sufjan Stevens' Illinois and Michigan albums, Wilco, and Death Cab for Cutie were favorites during that era).
• Being surprised and thrilled at how easy it was to live without a car here.
• Ranalli's. It was right behind our apartment building, had white Christmas lights up on their patio all year round, and served this delicious double-crust pizza as well as beer from all over the world.
  
• Stopping in to interesting neighborhood restaurants, bars, grocery stores, florists, clothing stores, etc.
• Living amazingly close to famous landmarks. Second City was 3 blocks from our old apartment, and we went to church occasionally on Michigan Avenue, right across from the John Hancock building.
  
• The Chicago Tribune on our doorstep every Sunday morning.
• Being able to give tourists and newbies directions. I felt SO accomplished when I could do that!
  

I think that as Hoosiers who have grown up close to the big city we tend to think of it as scary, expensive, hard-to-navigate, and therefore a place you only go on vacation. I am still surprised at how much I love it here and how comfortable I feel. I never expected to be a city girl, but I am. And I'm thinking Amy will be, too. :)

I'll leave you with some pictures of my first year or two living in Chicago - a very, very happy time in my life:

At the Green City Farmers' Market with Cindy, my mother-in-law.

Movies in the park.

Painting our apartment blue.

The apartment itself, just about in its final form.