gnat's favorite dinner party game

behold the death chair:

of the dozen or so potential seating options in my apartment, maybe two thirds were fully structurally sound. the rest presented varying degrees of danger, ranging from "slightly wobbly" to "highly likely to pitch you onto the floor immediately." at last count, five separate individuals had fallen out of their seats in my apartment. i consider it a game, akin to russian roulette - there's that exciting moment just as you sit down when you wonder if the seat you've chosen is about to collapse under your weight. you may say that this is not a very nice thing to do to dinner guests, to which i respond that after two years of coming over for dinner once a week they should probably be able to recognize which are the death chairs and which are safe.

it's been fun, death chairs. into the trash you go.

gnat cries wolf

after two days of anxiety, tense conversations, visits from supportive friends, and general freaking out, cara and i signed the forms to say that we have withdrawn our intent to sublet the apartment.

(it was only fitting that we celebrated with a cupcake from more)


what this means is that i'm staying - until when exactly, i'm not sure, but i will not be vacating at the end of march.


it's dramatic, i know, but coming that close to giving up the apartment felt something like the chicago residency equivalent of a near death experience. until the end was staring me in the face, i didn't realize how much i wasn't ready for it. my life in chicago has become routine - i guess i've lost my sense of wonder, or at least my will to act on it and take advantage of everything the city has to offer. it's time to shake off the complacency and really enjoy what remains of my time here. i want to be sure that when it actually is time to leave, i don't do it with feelings of regret.

that said, it's time to make a bucket list. what things do i absolutely need to accomplish before i leave? what things do i need to go back and do again? help me interwebs - i want to do this right.

gnat bites her tongue

i may have lied yesterday - more news on this later (if and when i have any).

gnat makes the same mistake over, and over, and over

you would think, by now, that i would know better than to trust weather.com, but no - every morning i faithfully check the day's forecast and clothe/shoe myself accordingly. this proves to be a stupid, stupid idea almost every time. 

this morning weather.com told me that it would start to snow late this afternoon, perhaps early this evening. no problem, i said. partly sunny until 3PM? i'll definitely be home by then, i said.

well friends, it is snowing. a whole lot of snowing. 45 degree angle snowing. remember the time i wore ballet flats out into a snowstorm? because in about fifteen minutes i will be repeating that experience.

gnat devours four unlikely animals (in one fell swoop)

i knocked one and a half items off my january wish list today.

i know what you're thinking, "how do you knock half an item off a wish list, gnat?"

well, hockey is maybe a big deal in chicago, which to be fair i think i knew. the blackhawks won the stanley cup a few weeks before i moved here, and there were banners and lights and stuff all over the place, so i figured people must like them and they must be kinda good. still, somehow it didn't occur to me that i might not be able to find tickets to a game. as it turns out they still exist, but the games are in march and the tickets cost $400. not going to happen.

instead, i am going to watch a game at a blackhawks bar. this promises to be warmer and infinitely more terrifying (exhilarating?) than actually attending a game. there you go. half.

i also knocked a full item off the list - today andrew and i took a field trip to the famed encased meat emporium, the sausage superstore of lore, hot doug's! we braved the 50 minute schlep to a neighborhood that even google maps doesn't have a name for (let's call it west and kinda north somewhere) and stood outside in the bitter cold (have i mentioned yet how cold it is here? because it's pretty cold) in a line wrapped around the building for hot dogs. but not just any hot dogs:

the game of the week! can you read that? it says:

"the mountain man (a damn tasty combination of elk, antelope, venison, and buffalo) with blackberry mustard and goat cheese"

i had never eaten any of those animals before (i had seen them in zoos, not the same thing) and though blackberry mustard sounded questionable i am a fan of anything with goat cheese on it. pictured here with duck fat fries!

(upon checking the website just now to verify my description of this item, i found that the weekly special had been changed to smoked spicy alligator sausage with shrimp remoulade. holy crap, i need to go back tomorrow.)

delicious. totally worth standing outside and not being able to feel my toes for 45 minutes. mission accomplished... for now.

gnat learns an important lesson about appropriate footwear (and priorities)

i neglected to look out the window before leaving for class this morning.

had i looked out the window, i would have, no doubt, noticed that it was snowing. had i noticed that it was snowing, i might have rethought my choice of shoes. had i rethought my choice of shoes, this:

might not have happened.

what's sad is that i own boots that are suited to this weather, but i walked out, noticed it was snowing, did a quick assessment of the situation, and came to the conclusion that if i went upstairs to change my shoes i would be late for class. so instead, i trudged out into the snow in my little ballet flats (which, to their credit, have excellent traction, but do absolutely nothing in the way of warmth/dryness). i did, however, make it to class on time, so i guess that's a good thing.

yep. i may masquerade as a chicago resident but it turns out i'm still an idiot from california who assumes there's no reason to check the weather in the morning (and risks frostbite in the name of punctuality).

gnat has angered the gods

i woke up to this text message from mom:

"worst storm in 70yrs in chicago"

yeah right, mom. a mere 12 hours ago i was posting an entry about how perfect the weather was, and weather.com didn't give any indication of any kind of storm (although it does now)... i looked out the window first, and i guess it's a little windy? then i consulted google.

"chicago faces possible worst storm in 70 years"

"powerful midwest storm knocks out power, flights in chicago"

"chicago storm may beat 1975 gale that doomed edmund fitzgerald"

my bad, chicago.