I Have a Bed Now, But...

Wow, so a lot has happened since I last wrote (roughly 48 hours ago) and even since I last posted (roughly 24 hours ago). It’s kind of a blur, actually, but I shall do my writer-ly duty and recount the events of the past 48 hours as best as I possibly can. (Dad, since I know you’ll be reading this and you were there for the majority of events, you can let me know if I left anything out).

First off, I did not jinx myself when I said that my temping job was easy. The only problem was when the stupid IKEA delivery people called three minutes after my lunch break ended so I had to have my dad call to find out what time they would be delivering my bed on Saturday (sometime between 3-7pm… thanks, IKEA) but the work day ended major incident free and I was on my merry way. I headed home to get changed and my dad was going to come meet me to see my place before dinner, but this turned into me being picked up by the Uber he had taken and us going straight to Pequod’s because the timing got so messed up. (In hindsight, there were about 50 better ways we could have handled all of the above, but we got to Pequod’s and that was the important thing).

Waiting for us at Pequod’s (mainly because she got out of work early and not because we had so royally screwed up our own arrival time) was Amanda Lauren Belscamper. Two of my favorite people were finally going to meet! It’s weird because they both already felt like they knew each other, but I think that just opened the door to having even more fun. I’ve been to Pequod’s before – many believe they have the best pizza in Chicago, I need to do more taste testing before I agree with them, but it is some damn good pizza. They have a caramelized crust that it pretty incredible… Even though my dad has been to Chicago loads of times and had heard of Pequod’s, this was his first time there. Mandy and I, however, had both been here before and knew that their pizza takes a long time to come out, so we ordered some fried veggies to keep us full until the main course was ready.

I’m not even sure how long we stayed at the restaurant, but it was a really wonderful night (and it went late!). We said goodbye and my dad and I got on the bus while Mandy went to the train. Even though it was late, I still wanted my dad to see my apartment. The grand tour is about a minute – two if you include walking up the stairs. We made plans for Saturday and Chuck grabbed another Uber to head back downtown.

And now we’re on to Saturday. I packed a bag and got on the train to see my dad. His hotel had a fitness center that we wanted to take advantage of and it was a great way to start the day.  It should be noted, however, that the view from Chuck's room included the Trump Tower and a very large church -- as you'll see in the picture, it's the one place where Trump is higher than Christ although he does think he's the second coming!When we were done with that and had checked out of the hotel, we took an Uber back to Logan Square, but not directly to my apartment because we were very hungry. I suggested we go to Dunlay’s On the Square because I’d been there before, but we decided that we should try somewhere new and went next door to Johnny’s Grill, which sort of looks like your average 1950s diner but is attached to a place called Mezcaleria Las Flores, which is anything but. It’s more of a hipster, tequila bar. We sat on the Mezcaleria side because they had tables and not just bar dining. I was in a breakfast mood and not even seeing the table next to use get delivered a monstrous plate of fish and chips could dissuade me (I did make a mental note about it, however). I ordered the 2 by 2 breakfast which was two eggs (cooked in the style of your choice) and two sides. I got scrambled eggs, pancakes and breakfast potatoes.

These were hands down the most interesting breakfast potatoes I’ve ever had and probably the most delicious. They were very crispy and flavorful. I just really enjoyed them, My dad had some too and was considering ordering them as a side after we'd started eating. We decided against that, but I'm sure there will be a lot of breakfast potatoes in my future. They also gave us a postcard with the bill, which I always think is fun (the postcard, not the bill because money...).

I took my dad on a little tour of Logan Square, which really means that I made him walk to the library with me before we went home. (I was looking for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire since I just reread HP3 but they didn't have it. I didn't know that there were any libraries that didn't carry the Harry Potter series, but I couldn't find it anywhere).

And then... we waited. My bed could be delivered anywhere between 3 and 7 and we had to be there to sign for it, which meant that we were sitting in my apartment without any WiFi, just waiting... It was pretty brutal. We used some time to hang up a few of my pictures but mainly we stared at the ceiling (or the inside of our eyelids -- my dad napped). 

The bed arrived at 6:15pm. I was not impressed. I was pretty pissed off, actually. We only had a few hours to work on this thing before my dad went back to Massachusetts. I was also unhappy because after unrolling the mattress, I discovered that I had to wait 72 HOURS before I could actually sleep on them. I thought I was done with the air mattress but NOOOoooOOO. For the record, the mattress is currently three inches thick. I measure and will keep you updated on it's expansion. 

9/10/2016 -- 6:20pm -- 3 inches

Anyway, we got to work. The way the bed works is that it is actually a day bed where you can pull out a second bed from underneath, so it was quite the building process. (We also realized that when that second bed is fully extended, there will be absolutely no space for anything else! Like, not even opening/closing the door. Me and whatever lucky guest I have spend the night will have to close ourselves in and then pull out the bed). We also didn't have an electric drill, so we were doing this thing by hand! A few minutes in, I texted my landlord to see if she had an electric screwdriver... she wasn't home... But we persevered. My main job was finding the correct pieces and eating when it looked like something might have gone wrong! Good old Dad did most of the building! 

Marge, my landlord, showed up with an electric screwdriver just after we'd finished the longest and most complicated section of building and were getting ready for a pizza break.  Oh yeah, and just after my dad had ripped his pants. Like his pants were destroyed and there is my landlord! We don't think she noticed.

He got changed and we went to the pizza place across the street, Vito and Angelo's. I'd never been there before but considering it is roughly 10 feet from my front door, I was bound to try it eventually and grabbed a take away menu because now that I've had it, I will be back. We got a veggie pizza and it was a round pizza cut into squares, which always confuses me, but it was exactly what we needed to get back in the building mood. 

With Marge's screwdriver, the rest of the building process went much, much, much faster. We ran into problems with the very last bit! The drawers! It was one in the morning and we couldn't get the stupid things to fit properly. We kind of got them in but they're supposed to be flush with the front of the bed and they are clearly not. I'm going to call IKEA but at that point, we needed to call it a night because my dad's flight left at 7:30am. The one plus here is that by the time we'd finished building it, seven of my 72 hour waiting period was already up. I pulled the air mattress back into my room (I'd moved it for the building process for obvious, tiny bedroom reasons) and went to sleep. I could have put the air mattress on top of my new bed but decided against it on the off chance that it hit a rough edge somewhere and popped. 

This is what it looks like, FYI

Not expecting to be working on my bed until the wee hours of the mourn, I'd made plans for an early morning phone call with Mr. Ryan Lind (early morning my time, slightly less early morning on his stupid east coast time). I dreamed that I had texted him telling him that I was too tired to talk and we needed to postpone, but like I said, it was a dream, so I was still on the hook. Or I would have been if phones still had hooks. I would like to mention that he was very impatient that I was running a smidge late! He's literally overslept through half of our morning Skype dates (we can't Skype yet because I'm still without the interweb) but I do it once and it's the end of the world. We're planning his visit -- he's not going to be able to come for my birthday because a) it's a holiday weekend and more expensive and b) he just got promoted to server at the bar he works at and that means more training, more hours and a lot more money, which is obviously incredibly exciting but he's pretty overwhelmed at the moment and needs a little longer to get into the swing of things than the three-ish weeks until I become a quarter of a century old. 

After that, I was on my way to writers' group -- the Koffe Shop Kwest continues! Today we were going to Bow Truss Coffee Roasters in Roscoe Village. Now, Bow Truss has several locations in Chicago (including one in my hood) so I was on the fence about going, but I decided that I needed to see people and do things so off I went. 

I took two buses to get here. It's the first time I've ever transferred from bus to bus as it's always been train to bus or bus to train. It was pretty straight forward except that I had to wait about 20 minutes thanks to crappy traffic. 

I had read up on Bow Truss and another part of the reason I was on the fence was that everything I could find said that they were strictly coffee. They also sold some pastries but no hot chocolate or tea or anything. Let me say it again in case you haven't been paying attention, I don't drink coffee! I figured I could get a pastries and be good. To my surprise when I arrived, they had hot chocolate on the menu, but no pastries, which was not good because I was hungry! I got a hot chocolate and for the first time in my life, I got "latte art" where they pour the milk or whatever to make a pretty design! It looked like a heart! That we a nice little surprise. 

 Now, I read a lot more on Bow Truss than the other coffee shops I've gone to so far because I was desperately searching for SOMETHING that would give me their full menu and hope that there was something I would like. I never did that, but I did find some articles about people complaining that Bow Truss's expansion from the Loop is causing the gentrification of neighborhoods. I can see why people would think that. The interior (of this Bow Truss, anyway) is shades of beige and gray. I'm sitting at a rather wiggly picnic bench and from my artisan hot chocolate, it's clear that they take coffee very seriously and was to bring approach coffee in a meticulous way that could suggest an uppity attitude.  As you can see from their name Bow Trust Coffee Roaster, they're the ones making this stuff. (When I first went to Metropolis Coffee, I thought that they were THE Chicago coffee company based on how many of their cups I'd seen around the city but now I've been here longer and it's clear that they have lots of competition for what brew is sold in hipster coffee shops; I've seen a lot of Bow Truss cups now around town now). They're playing Adele on vinyl. Despite the fact that this is the closest to a Starbucks in terms of aesthetic, that I've been since I've started this Kwest, it feels like these guys are trying the hardest. 

Also, so everyone following the Koffee Shop Kwest knows, any visits to other Bow Truss locations will be separate entries because each shop will have it's own vibe (or more comfortable chairs, perhaps). Also, starting today, price is going to become criterion for the Kwest) 

Also, I'm still really hungry and am debating if I should go to the gas station across the street for a snack, or pay four freaking dollars for some little chocolate bar thing that looks very good but is more expensive than my hot chocolate was. You'll be the first to know when I decide!