gnat surfaces

alright so me being m.i.a. is not a new thing, we all know this - in any case, here's a recap of what happened after i unplugged the router and went offline two weeks ago.

we packed. and packed, and packed, and packed.

everything in the apartment broke at the same time - no kidding, the kitchen sink stopped up, we blew a fuse in the hallway, the microwave mysteriously refused to turn on... it knew we were vacating and it was not happy about it. i spent several hours plunging and cursing and fiddling with circuit breakers, all to no avail.

we packed some more. well, cara packed, i plunged.

...cara had a lot of things to pack.

i had fewer things to pack, which managed to fit in a few suitcases... with a little finagling.

i took a break from the packing and plunging and finagling to say goodbye to some friends over pizza.

finally, we managed to empty the apartment.

the last thing to come down was the chicago skyline. because we were sleep deprived and it seemed poetic at the time, each of us took down one of the three panels: eileen the first,

cara the middle,

and myself last.

and then it was time to go.

these pictures don't really capture the utter disaster that our moving day actually was - when i say we were sleep deprived, i really mean we hadn't slept properly in a few days (cara hadn't slept period), we stupidly packed the kitchen first thing in the morning and couldn't feed ourselves despite having a fridge full of lovely things like eggs and milk, the movers were hours and hours late, and as i've mentioned before things just stopped working left and right. to top it off, my girl guy must have known we were going because he started up before 8am and didn't quit all day.

i suppose none of this matters anymore, because we don't live there anymore.

anyway!

we moved. i am no longer a chicago resident. this may cause you to wonder what's going to happen to gnat's chicago experiment, a blog about my life in chicago. fear not! i have plenty of backlogged adventures that never made it into posts, so i have enough material to keep the blog afloat for a bit (provided i ever get around to writing it down).

so goodbye for now, from california, more chicago adventures coming soon.

gnat relives the move, in reverse

so, there's a lot of this happening these days:

there's been a sort of sad reciprocity between the last week or so and my first few weeks in chicago. just as when i first moved here, most of my things are in suitcases or boxes or in california. i'm on craigslist constantly, only now trying to get rid of the furniture rather than collecting it. my days aren't very structured, again. i spend a lot of time wandering around - the difference of course being that now i know exactly where i am and where i'm going... and how to get back. i've reverted to my touristing ways, now desperate to soak up every experience i know i am having for the last time as a chicago resident; things as stupid and small as taking the el or walking down michigan avenue have suddenly become novel again. everywhere there are reminders of things that have happened in the two years i've been here, good and bad.

like before, i've been doing my best to pawn off as many of my belongings as possible to friends and find alternative solutions for everything that's left. i don't have bobby (my trusty nissan sentra) to take me home this time, so i'm stuck boxing and shipping anything that's worth the postage and leaving everything else. as moving day gets closer, the level of importance an item requires to warrant an airmail trip home gets higher and higher.

my girl guy has really been at it these last few days. this morning he started singing at 8am, forcing me to get out of bed and close my window and to wonder whether or not i'll miss him.

gnat is reunited with an old friend

that's right everybody - my girl guy is back.

he's been on hiatus since december, so when i felt the little tug that told me he was out there (a little bit like the spidey sense, except it goes off for imminent loud redundant singing instead of danger) i thought i must be wrong. still, i peeked out the window and sure enough, there he was.

now i've had the winter blues all week, so i perked right up when i saw him. i snatched up my scarf and coat and ran downstairs to introduce myself. unfortunately my excitement faded quickly and was gone by the time i made it over to his corner.

i think the following photo, taken by a passer-by, speaks to the emotions i was experiencing as he continued right on singing about his girl throughout our encounter:

that, my friends, is an unsuccessfully suppressed grimace.

i have no idea whether the groundhog saw his shadow last week or not (or even what it would mean either way... groundhog day isn't really something we pay attention to in california). what i DO know is that it's starting to get warm enough out there that my girl guy can comfortably stand outside and sing for hours on end, and for that i am definitely grateful.

gnat transitions smoothly back into chicago life

ok, so all i've done since being back (besides going to class) is attempt in vain to get over a cold (which i picked up, believe it or not, while still in california -suck it, cold weather). still, today i am overwhelmed with this feeling of excitement about being back in chicago. i'm in such a good mood, in fact, that even though it's freezing outside (technically, way below freezing) i actually kinda like it. i've procured a massive coat which is reminiscent of a sleeping bag and let me tell you, its ability to keep the cold out is downright miraculous.

tonight my "practice of bioethics" class met at a tapas restaurant near my apartment called 1492 - the idea being to expose us to accomplished people in our field and teach us how to network over dinner. i tell you this because had i not been sitting with people to whom i needed to appear to be a serious, aspiring young scholar of medical humanities and bioethics, i would have taken pictures of all of the food.

it was my first tapas experience, but because i can't provide pictures i will spare you an in depth analysis, suffice it to say that everything was delicious. i even (accidentally) ate some crostini type thing with a huge mushroom (basically the only food i will not eat) on it and didn't hate it. still, the whole idea of tapas feels utterly impractical to me so i am unlikely to go back.

in other news, my girl guy was in fine form today, undeterred by the cold he gave a several hour long performance of "this little light of mine" on our corner.

gnat breaks radio silence

happy new year! did you miss me?

so, i'm still in california, albeit only for about 20 hours longer. my boarding pass has been printed, my laundry is done, things are mostly sorted and packed. the weather has been checked - no snow in the forecast, so fingers crossed for no delays. tomorrow's high will be 19 degrees. ("feels like" 7. excellent.) lets be real kids, this is probably the last entry i will write for months in which i don't complain about how miserably cold i am. brace yourselves, i know i am.

i never make new years resolutions but i decided to make one this year, which is to take more initiative in exploring and enjoying chicago. my january wishlist includes but is not limited to the following:

- blackhawks game, preferably with someone who a) understands hockey and b) is patient enough not to care that i will require constant explanation of the action

- revisiting al's #1 beef (remember why?)

- snow days chicago, which includes a snow sculpting competition. and dog sled races. why not?

- field museum

- hot doug's. (how have i still not been here? duck fat fries that don't result in unsightly and uncomfortable duck fat blisters, yes please!)

stay tuned for these adventures and more, and to find out if my girl guy is still standing out there singing even though it's 13 degrees below freezing!

gnat experiences falling snow for the first time in over two decades

i woke up this morning and looked out the window and there were white flecks lazily and confusedly floating down, up, sideways, in circles, in every direction, really - SNOW. yes, friends, today, for the first time since my family left illinois 20 years ago, i saw snow fall.

after taking several photos from my living room window, i threw on every item of clothing in the immediate vicinity so i could go outside and stand in it.

once the initial giddiness had passed (i'm totally lying, it's been several hours and i still can't stop looking out the window) i found something magnificent sticking to my sweatshirt:

guys, SNOWFLAKES ARE REAL! to think, all these years i thought snowflakes were a mystical imaginary entity created to keep me busy with scissors and coffee filters in arts and crafts during the winter months. no, snowflakes are an actual thing, and they're seriously amazing, and you can bet your ass i stood outside my apartment in the cold for several minutes, like an idiot, fumbling with my camera to capture the little bits of magic stuck to the front of my sweatshirt before they melted.

so much for considering myself...

an (honorary) today's chicago woman! i don't know if i've talked about the honorary street names yet, they're all over the city and some are pretty amusing. i spotted this one yesterday on ontario outside the corner bakery by school where i study. i wonder if my snowflake photographing stunt disqualifies me?

in far less exciting news, it's time for a FALL FOLIAGE UPDATE!

so, there's no more foliage. the city of chicago was nice enough, though, to replace it all with little christmas lights, which i almost like more:

speaking of christmas, the city is starting to get ready and i'm glad i get to see it before i retreat to california. my girl guy has taken a break from his favorite two lines of music and has instead been regaling us with christmas carols. there's a tree up at the hancock center down the street from the apartment:

and the tops of the buildings are all lit up green and red. here's the hancock tower:

the temperature has barely dipped below 20 and cara and i are already desperately struggling to keep warm. because it felt more winter-y, last night in lieu of taco tuesday we had posole, my new favorite soup, with homemade tortilla chips:

(you may be surprised to see the avocados floating in there... cara brought them back from california after thanksgiving.)

there's a very little part of me that's sad that tomorrow i'll be leaving the novelty of "real winter" behind for california's 50 and 60 degree december lows. there's a much bigger part reminding that little part that i'll be back for the VERY real january and february and that REAL winter does not mean the 20 degrees and fun little flurries of snow i'm so excited about right now...

gnat has pizza for breakfast (and breakfast for dinner)

for those familiar with chicago's illustrious deep dish pizza purveyors, there may, as of yet, be a few conspicuous absences from this blog's pizza discussion. for example:

giordano's famous stuffed pizza! i tried it when i came to visit in february, but as no photos exist of that experience and i was not yet a seasoned chicago resident we'll pretend that doesn't count.

(note: when cara and i went to pick up the pizza the place was was packed, people spilling out onto the sidewalk waiting for tables, presumably most of them visiting for the weekend. as we were snaking our way out with the pizza, i stopped to take the above photo and a woman behind cara said "see? that girl is taking pictures of the giordano's sign!" to which cara immediately turned and replied, "it's ok, we live here." seasoned chicago residents indeed.)

giordano's was chosen best by chicago tribune, new york times, chicago magazine, nbc tv, and now, also gnat's chicago experiment!

solely by virtue of its beautiful soft crust. one of my main dislikes about all of the deep dish pizza i've tried is that once you get through all the delicious cheese and toppings you find yourself faced with a crust that has the consistency of particle board. at giordano's, not so! it's spongy and wonderful.

also delicious this week, elly's pancake house at clark and north.

aleck ran the "hot chocolate 15K" downtown this weekend, (and kicked ass, congratulations!) and his night before carbo-loading meal of choice was pancakes.

(another note: i don't like pancakes, really. i am not a sweet breakfast foods person. elly's pancakes are amazing. all pancakes should taste like elly's pancakes, and then maybe i would like pancakes.)

i opted for potato benedict, which is eggs benedict on potato pancakes instead of english muffins with hash browns, and we split side of french fries.

we were ambitious and intended to try their pie (sweet potato!) for dessert but for reasons that are probably obvious that just didn't happen. even so, i was all carbo-loaded up and ready to sleep in the next morning and wake up just in time to congratulate aleck as he arrived home from the race (and have pizza for breakfast: see above).

FALL FOLIAGE UPDATE!!!

rather unexpectedly, the leaves have turned abruptly from yellow to, well, no longer there, without any of the transition to oranges or reds i was hoping to see. except for the ones that are still completely green. what gives?

the temperature has been in the 30s and 40s all week and my girl guy is undeterred - he's still been hanging out on this corner, still singing the same few lines of my girl, still making me wonder how long my water balloon throwing range is. (that's my bedroom window all the way on the left, two floors above the brown and white striped awning.)

gnat prepares herself for fall (and it doesn't show up)

no joke. check out my closet - sweater for days:

(yes, i arrange my sweaters by color.) it's beautiful out, no sweater necessary! i can hardly believe it. isn't october almost over?

the sky actually is that icky gray color, though. weather.com predicts that over the next ten days we'll dip down into the high 50s with some scattered thunderstorms. it's crazy, by now i figured i would be dealing with snow... ok, maybe not snow but also not this.

IMPORTANT NOTE: sweater collection or not, i would be just fine if chicago decided not to do winter this year and it just stayed 70 degrees out for the next few months. none of the above is intended as a complaint. the below, on the other hand, is.

there's this guy who has been hanging out on the sidewalk across the street from the apartment for about three weeks now, i call him my girl guy. i call him my girl guy because for hours on end he stands out there, singing at the top of his lungs, on a loop:

i got sunshine on a cloudy day, when it's cold outside i got the month of may

i guess you'll say, what can make me feel this way? my girl (my girl, my girl, talkin' 'bout my girl, my girl)

again. and again. and again. not the whole song, just the first few lines. for hours and hours. almost every day. if i sound frustrated it's because he's out there right now, and my efforts to drown him out by closing the windows (which is a shame since it's so nice out...) and turning the volume on the tv way up are failing. the guy's got a set of lungs on him. he's making me crazy.

in the interest of preserving happy thoughts, here are some pictures of cupcakes:

and even more cupcakes:

no, i didn't eat them all by myself.

and now it's time for a FALL FOLIAGE UPDATE!

still yellow! not a lot of orange yet, some scattered reds, some have skipped yellow and are half green and half bare. all the trees outside my window missed the memo and are still completely green. maybe that's because it's 70 degrees out.

next time on gnat's chicago experiment: gnat bites her tongue and posts pictures of herself wearing all of her sweaters at the same time and STILL freezing her ass off (probably).