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 unplugs the router

for the last time from our apartment:

gnat is heartbroken

june 7 is so soon...

gnat faces her impending move

i spent the morning putting up the craigslist ad, responding to requests to show the apartment, packing up the things i won't need over the next few weeks, and creating a list of things i need to pawn off on somebody before i leave. the list is more than a little haphazard, and putting it together reminded me of the first entry i ever posted on this blog as i prepared to leave los angeles:

things gnat needs to work up the nerve to throw away today:
- "bison" colored can of paint. ("bison" is a nicer description, it seems, for the color of crap. it's a can of crap colored paint.)
- four sets of banged up but still functional plastic drawers.
- 17284392925 plastic hangers. can i donate these? sell them back to target?
- a pirate flag. yep, a pirate flag.
- pennies. a billion pennies. wtf, pennies. i can't even use you to do my laundry. you suck.


it's funny, i find myself again needing to get rid of 17284392925 plastic hangers and approximately a billion pennies. seriously, pennies. wtf.

i came here two years ago with two suitcases and nothing else, how in the name of all the plastic hangers in all the gin joints in all the world did i amass so much stuff? if you or anyone you know in the greater chicago area can find any use for an easel, a robin hood costume (complete with bow and arrows and teddy bear little john), or the aforementioned hangers please let me know.

i'm already experiencing separation anxiety.

gnat sets an end date

and it's saturday, march 24.

...i'm not ready.