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!

I'M AN ADULT... In Bright Blue Sneakers, Carrying the Same Backpack I Used in the 8th Grade

Hello again, internet, it’s been a few days! Mainly because I still don’t have internet in my apartment and the internet I have been using has become even less reliable – if that were even possible; perhaps the neighbors are onto me…

This is being written straight from my new, temporary job, but more on that in a moment.

Last time I wrote, I was preparing to make guacamole! Almost immediately after hitting send, I grabbed my keys and walked to the supermarket. I had just planned on getting the ingredients but then I saw something that blew my mind. They had strawberries on sale… for 99 cents a box! I love strawberries. It took all of my willpower to not just dump the entire display into my cart, but I did buy a few boxes.

I walked back over to the apartment and began my guacamole experiment. I’ve never made guacamole before so this was, quite literally, an experiment. I found a fairly simple recipe on Pinterest and got to work. This was also an experiment in kitchen supplies because I was not only doing this without a mashing tool but I didn’t have a mixing bowl; I used a fork and a pot. I expected it to be easier to use a fork to mash up these very ripe avocadoes but no, it was a full blown arms workout. The guac ended up looking very nice but tasting pretty bland. I haven’t eaten enough guacamole sans burrito – where you just get a whole lot of flavors jammed together in the equivalent of a taste rainbow, making it hard to distinguish exactly what you’re eating – to know how to make it less bland but I’m sure there will be future experiments.

With guacamole completed, I relaxed for a bit before getting ready to see MY DAD! I was very excited and got “dressed up.” This meant skinny jeans, a tank top, and a cool little jacket he bought me. I also did my hair and threw on some red lipstick for good measure (I’m a city girl now, I wear lipstick on a Wednesday).

The problem was that I didn’t realize how hot it was outside. I was leaving my apartment at 6pm and it was 80something and humid. I was a human sweat monster by the time I got to him. A very cute human sweat monster, but still completely drenched.

We weren’t really sure what we were hungry for so we walked around a bit (despite the heat, humidity and the fact that it was now RAINING! Yeah, the trifecta). We ended up going somewhere my dad had never been but was right by his hotel (I’d never been there either but my dad has spent more time in Chicago than I have). It was called Miss Ricky’s. My dad was inspired by my makeup choice since their logo is a big pair of red lips. It was an interesting place with “food just like your mom made if your mom was a drag queen with a full sleeve tattoo.” That tagline alone had me sold. We started with some spinach jalapeno dip and then I got French toast. It wasn’t the most conventional combination but since when have I cared about convention. The highlight of the meal, however, was the Death by Chocolate Cake. My dad and I split it and there were still leftovers for me to bring home.

We went back to my dad’s hotel so I could pick up my suitcase. My dad brought me a suitcase from home filled with more stuff that I wasn’t able to bring when I first came out. At that moment, the most important thing in that suitcase was bedding! I’ve been sleeping on the air mattress without any real bedding and the only thing that is worse than sleeping on an air mattress is sleeping on an air mattress without any sheets on a hot night where any inch of exposed skin will immediately fuse with the plastic-y surface and moving even a single muscle will cause more discomfort than one can imagine. Having real sheets on that stupid thing has been a life saver these past two nights. He also brought lots of my picture frames and other things to make it feel homier, which is a big bonus when added to the pillowcases and quilt.

I went to bed pretty early (and got a better night’s sleep than I have in a while) because I had to be up at the butt crack of dawn yesterday. I have managed to connect with not one, but two temp agencies, and my first assignment began yesterday!

Now when I woke up, it was raining. This was not ok with me because I’d planned my outfit the night before and white blouses and rain don’t mix (at least not when you’re trying to look professional and I was!). I ditched the top and went with something that didn’t have any chance of becoming sheer and a pencil skirt. Now, I have a very cute pair of black ballet flats that match any business outfit you can imagine but I also have a twenty minute walk to the train station and I was not going to risk getting my feet and stockings soaked and then having to sit in them all day, so I threw the shoes in my bag and put on my bright blue sneakers. These sneakers obviously didn’t match, but I’ve seen a lot of women do the same thing, their sneakers just haven’t been as neon as mine are.

Speaking of the bag I dropped my work shoes into, this would be a bag that I had packed the night before. It had things like deodorant, a binder/paper for taking notes, my lunch, a book to read on the train… all very sensible things. It also happens to be the same backpack I used in middle school. It is so old that it still has “Thommie” embroidered on the front pocket. I didn’t even have the benefit of it matching my sneakers because it is bright pink!

So, there I was, walking to my first ever office job, looking like a high schooler on a field trip.

I was, however, very thankful that my recent acquisitions from my parental unit included a new umbrella, because I got the umbrella that I brought with me to Chicago in the 5^th grade and it is sized accordingly.

This was my first time dealing with morning rush on the train. I expected it to be crowded but what I did expect was the guy standing next to me. He wasn’t just standing next to me – he was actually asleep. It was weird, but I got to work without incident.

I actually got there very early. I got a visitor pass from the front desk and headed to the sixth floor. I am filling in as the receptionist at GATX (pronounce gee-ay-tee-ex, not gahtix) which a railcar leasing company. Yesterday, I was training with the actual receptionist and today I’m going solo. When I arrived, there was a picture of a railcar on my right and a wall on my left. Naturally, I went to the right and stood by the door, which meant that I was sort of hidden from view of anyone who was coming up the elevator. Since I was early, I had expected to wait, but what I didn’t know was that I was actually standing by the executive offices and that “wall” opened up into the reception area and normal people offices. The person who pointed me in the right direction was the CEO… Oops.

As I said, yesterday I was just training. The girl I’m filling in for is actually going to Boston for the weekend! I gave her tips on what to do and see and she told me about lots of bakeries in Chicago because she used to work at one. The job isn’t very challenging (totally just jinxed myself by writing that while I’m at work on my own…). My biggest problem was getting the company name right because when you’re nervous about answering your first few calls, GATX can end up sounding like JETX, GETX, TAGX, or gahtix, which I’ve already told you isn’t the name of the company.

The schedule is kind of nice because the day is broken up. Work starts at 8:15 and then I get a break from 10:30-11 (paid), lunch from 1-2 (not paid) and then the day ends at 4:45. It’s mainly phone calls and connecting people to whoever they want to talk to. I’d really like it if people spoke into the phone more clearly but I have to imagine that this is the bane of every receptionist’s existence.

After work, I went to Target because I was very close. I didn’t need a lot, but like I said, I was right there. Even though I was going home at what I would still consider to be rush hour, the train ride back to Logan Square was a lot more pleasant – far less crowded and no one was sleeping to my knowledge.

Despite just sitting at a desk for 7 hours, it had been a long day and I was exhausted, so I polished off the chocolate cake from Miss Ricky’s and went to bed (on my air mattress with sheets!).

And this morning it was back to the grind. No rain, but I still rocked my sneakers and backpack! I left a little earlier this morning to use the WiFi at Starbucks so the train wasn’t as crowded. One cool thing that happened was because I would be opening the office today, I didn’t have a visitor pass, but instead a temporary plastic card. It just says temporary card, but it clips onto my shirt, so it feels very official and fancy.

As I was turning on the lights, I ran into the mail lady, Cynthia, who might have had the best reaction to my name ever. She was having coffee with another woman and they asked for my name and when I said “Thomson,” they both responded with the usual “No, that can’t actually be your real name” deal. I assured them that it was and Cynthia burst out “Who your mama name you after?” Why yes, Cynthia, it is a family name, thanks for the laugh.

Even though I might have jinxed myself by saying the job was pretty easy, there haven’t been any disasters as I’m writing this (it’s 9:45am), just average phone calls and a leaking refrigerator on the 8^th floor.

I’m able to write all of this today because they told me that I don’t need to just sit around twiddling my thumbs when there aren’t any phone calls to answer or things to be printed, so I opened up Microsoft Word and got to it. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to post it since I’m not going to do that from the office, but writing it is a start.

P.S. I managed to post this pretty much exactly 24 hours after writing it from my dad's hotel room.

Avocado Fries

Hello all, so much for me being a bad influence! On Monday, my compulsive Pinteresting paid off. (I Pinterest a lot of recipes and crafts and follow through on very few of them). Mandy came over and we made avocado fries.

To make avocado fries, one must start with avocados. We had a hard time finding good ones at the grocery store but we eventually succeeded. To prepare them, it's a pretty standard flour-egg-panko situation and then you drizzle them with some olive oil and put them in the oven for fifteen minutes. Simple enough!

The recipe we had suggested making a chipotle dipping sauce but we went with chipotle mayo instead because the recipe called for mayonnaise anyways and we couldn't find some of the other ingredients. We paired it with white bean veggie burgers which we topped with cheese, onion and more chipotle mayo. It turned out really well. Mandy thinks the avocado fries would be a perfect appetizer. I just think they were delicious.

She went home and I went to bed. It was my first Chicago “holiday” and I’d say that it was successful.

Yesterday started with laundry. Having been on tour with MCT for a year and a half, I have visited a lot of laundromats. My superpowers include the ability to find a laundromat anywhere (and I mean anywhere, have you ever tried to find a laundromat in eastern Montana? Because I have and it isn’t easy) and being able to break down how people spent their money at a laundromat if they give me their total (i.e. you used two double-load washers and went through four dry cycles).

Now, it is every 20-something’s dream to have an apartment with a washer/dryer (actually, we all dream of winning 10 million dollars, but apart from that, the washer/dryer combo would be nice), but dreams don’t always come true, so I have to walk four or five blocks to the closest laundromat. I tried to count but I forgot, so I’m guestimating. My laundromat is called Friendly Wash and it is very friendly. It would actually be a great place to do MCT laundry! They had lots of big machines and space for sorting, but mainly, they had free WiFi. WiFi is still an issue at the apartment, so the free WiFi was a godsend. (That’s another 20-something dream – for the entire world to have free WiFi).

I need to find a psychiatrist in the city, so I figured that I could use the free WiFi and the time I was going to spend sitting on my butt waiting for my laundry looking up numbers and making calls. I didn’t have much luck, I got a lot of voice mails (of therapists… I couldn’t even find a real MD) and when I finally did reach a human, it was a disaster.

I was look for doctors through my insurance’s website so that I could find a doctor in network for obvious reasons. This doctor was listed on that site so I called him. The call lasted 23 seconds. He picked up the phone and said “Hello.” No, hello, I’m Dr. Blah blah blah, just hello. I could already tell I wasn’t interested in having him as my doctor but I started to explain that I was new to the city and was looking for a doctor and was wondering if he was accepting new patients. He cut me off and asked what insurance I had. I told him and he just said “I don’t accept that insurance” and HUNG UP ON ME! What an asshole. I know that I don’t know what was happening on his end of the phone etc. etc. etc. but this guy is a doctor! He’s a psychiatrist! He knows that it is highly likely that the people on the other end of the phone are depressed and suicidal (I am neither thankfully, but imagine if I was) and he treated me like garbage. I was so pissed. I wrote a lot of negative reviews for him on any site I could find because people should know he’s a jerk before they even pick up the phone to call him.

When my laundry was done, I went back to the apartment. I was still really upset so I decided that the best thing to do was going to be to get myself gussied up even though I have nowhere to go, so I went and put on a face of makeup and did my hair (well, I washed my hair, it sort of styles itself by just being attached to my head). I did some proofreading work for my mom and “cleaned the apartment”, which meant washing the dishes and lighting a candle. I’m still the only one living here fulltime right now, but Janell will be coming back this afternoon.

I was going to take myself out to dinner (mainly for WiFi) but I realized that I still had three avocadoes and they would go bad if I didn’t use them, so I got out a knife and got to work. I only used one avocado but I just made myself the exact same dinner from the night before.

And then I was sort of at a loss for what to do. I wanted to watch a movie, but I am so bored with my DVD collection (it needs work – it has a lot of DVDs that I’m not longer interested in and I haven’t bought a new DVD in nearly two years!) so I ended up going to the grocery store and picking up Sisters at Redbox and a pint of brownie batter core ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s (well, technically from Tony’s because that’s the grocery store but B&J get the credit).

I wasn’t ready to just dig into the ice cream and start the movie, so I thought I would take advantage of the lack of furniture in our front room and do a little yoga. I thought I was going to do a 10-minute little stretch routine but it turned into a 40-minute power flow and I was drenched in sweat by the time I was done. I’d earned that ice cream! The movie was cute, but it made my miss my sister, so I texted her and then went to bed!

And now, I’m going to use my leftover avocados to make some guacamole and wait for my first ever out-of-town visitor! My dad is coming to Chicago today!! He has a business conference the next few days and it was the perfect excuse to come see me. We haven’t decided exactly what we’re doing tonight and he’s on the plane right now so I can’t really text him but I’m so excited for him to get here! I can’t wait for him to see my place (which needs to be cleaned because my clean laundry is currently doing a wonderful job as a makeshift carpet… Guess it isn’t so clean now…) and just see him in general.

P.S. I'm supposed to start calling Mandy "Amanda" now. I'm not doing a very good job.

Bad Influences

To pick up from my last post yesterday, Mandy met me at Two Hearted Queen as my writers’ group was just about to finish up. She said we looked very serious and she thought I was taking a college class outside. I told her that it was legitimately the chilliest thing in the world. She ordered a latte while we finished up (I knew she wouldn’t mind having to go to a coffee shop). A few members of my group have a coffee blog and highly approved of my Koffee Shop Kwest.

We got back on the red line and went to her new apartment in Edgewater! I had told Mandy that I got an internship with a theatre company in Edgewater but when I was looking at directions for how to get to her apartment, I saw that she’d have to walk past their performance space every day to get to and from the train! When I told her this, she asked me if it was the Jackalope Theatre and I said yes (great name, by the way, I can’t get over it). She told me that half of the people who started Jackalope are her new neighbors. They share a porch! So that is a pretty crazy coincidence that I think will work out well for everyone involved (it gives me an excuse to email them anyways, which I need to do again). Aside from sharing a porch with my future employers, Mandy’s apartment is nice. Unlike Mandy’s last two apartments that I visited (her basement apartment on the South Side and her apartment in Berkeley, CA that we’re pretty sure had been used by college kids to make meth), I mean it when I say she has a nice place. Also, these apartments are so much bigger than NYC apartments. That should be obvious, but I feel the need to say it because I keep thinking it.

Mandy gave me the tour and then got ready to head back out for dinner and drinks. Mandy has declared that I’m going to be a bad influence on her now. She says that she’s been doing a great job eating well, dieting and being generally healthy but now that I’m here, all of that is going to go out the window because I love food and trying new restaurants. I’d like to point out that she’s the one who took me to Cheesie’s and is therefore a bed influence on me because I would like to go back there every day for as long as I live.

The second she said “grilled cheese restaurant,” I was in. Like, anyone who knows me knows that that shouldn’t even be a question someone needs to ask me at this point.

I knew this place was for me before I’d even gone in. Just getting off the train, you could see that the entire outside of the restaurant was the welcoming color of cheddar. Pink is my favorite color, but any color related to cheese probably makes the list as well. On the way there, Mandy had asked me if I wanted to look up the menu or if I wanted to be surprised – I decided to go in blind and boy, was I shocked! There were so many options. They had a grilled mac and cheese that I considered for a few moments before deciding to try something else (I’m embarrassed by the number of grilled mac and cheese sandwiches I’ve had. Actually, not embarrassed, people with weaker stomachs would be embarrassed, I just wanted to try something new). They had one called The Popper, which was a jalapeno popper sandwich that I also thought about trying, but at this point, my brain is so hardwired to my beloved jalapeno popper mac and cheese that it felt like I’d be betraying mac and cheese to order that one. (Like, at this point, I can’t think of jalapeno popper without mac and cheese attached. I do mac and cheese without jalapenos, but I still think about them when I get it). I went with the same sandwich Mandy picked -- The Frenchie, which is American cheese, mozzarella cheese, cheddar cheese sauce, thick cut French fries, bacon and chives on sour dough bread (with a sour cream dip). I went sans-bacon, of course. I was actually in heaven. I realized after ordering that Mandy and I probably should have done what Ryan and I did when we went out for grilled cheese in NYC, where each one of us ordered a different sandwich and then we split them so we both got to have a half of each, but a lot of Cheesie’s sandwiches had meat on them and I would not want to deprive Mandy of her newfound carnivorous ways. I mentioned this to her and she said we could do it next time… maybe we could order a sandwich with the meat on just one half?

Speaking of Ryan, we’re definitely going here when he visits. I’ve basically sworn off of cupcakes for the near future so we can continue our tradition of “Cupcake Crawls.” We did one for his birthday in December in Boston and then another for his birthday in May in New York (long story, his birthday is in December but we celebrated twice in our different cities). I don’t want to try all of Chicago’s cupcakes without him – I want us to experience them together! But, I can definitely continue sampling Chicago’s other eateries when I have the chance… like Cheesie’s.

After dinner, we went to the bar her roommate, Reagan, works at, which is definitely a nicer spot than it was made to seem, so I was feeling particularly underdressed in my tank top, MCT hoodie and shorts. Mandy had invited a friend from work, Paige and a friend she met when she was living in San Francisco, Derek, and we all planted ourselves at a table outside for a nice night of getting to know each other. Before they arrived, Mandy was paranoid that we wouldn’t like each other but I had faith and things turned out wonderfully. The most difficult part of the night was a debate over whether or not I should start calling her Amanda or if her new, adult, Chicago friends were allowed to call her Mandy (they’re not, and I guess I’m supposed to start calling her Amanda, but that probably won’t happen very soon).

After the restaurant closed (at 10, although we hung out until about 10:30 or 11… sorry!), Mandy and Paige were headed further uptown to another bar and Derek and I headed home. I would have gone with them, except I had my large, pink backpack with me from writers’ group (we spent the evening calling it my “Kimmy Schmidt backpack” because in the pilot episode of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, naïve, innocent Kimmy takes her backpack filled with thousands of dollars in cash out into an NYC night club, where it is promptly stolen. I’m not naïve or innocent and had a happier ending last night, of course, but we were all thinking about it). Derek and I don’t like in the same neighborhood but we live in the same direction so we got off the train at the same stop and then I was going to take the bus (Derek lives in walking distance from the stop but I do not), except, oh wait, ROOKIE MISTAKE, my bus wasn’t running. I guess it doesn’t run late on Sunday nights, so I called an Uber. (Note to self: Look up bus schedule. The public transit here has a very helpful app but I should know the exact hours that my bus runs so I can hopefully save some money on Uber).

I crashed hard when I got home, but so far, Labor Day has been good to me. I don’t have work (get it? Because I never have work because I don’t have a job right now) so it’s another lazy day. Mandy also doesn’t have work so she’s coming over for dinner tonight. We’re actually going to cook for ourselves! We’re going to try making “baked avocado fries,” because Mandy has loved avocado since I met her and I developed a fondness for it in Central America over the summer. So, how’s that for being a bad influence, huh?

KOFFEE SHOP KWEST

Yesterday I was freaking out about what I would work on during Writers’ Group today, but then some stuff happened that I could write about and as that stuff was occurring, I came up with a the blog revelation to end all other blog revelations. (Or, actually start all blog revelations because I’m not sure I’ve ever had a blog revelation before…).

Nothing really happened after my SOS writing crisis post, but stuff happened this morning. It’s all related to writers’ group, so writing about it now feels apropos.

Actually, first let me complain/express my confusion that I got better WiFi at the train station than I do in my apartment. How is that a thing? But, I digress.

There is actually that much to write about, perhaps the fact that if I knew a thing about sports, I wouldn’t have found myself in the situation that I ended up in. The group I’m a part of has meetings all over the city. I previously attended the one in Logan Square because that’s where I live, so it makes a lot of sense, and that’s basically the concept – that you go to the group in your hood, but you’re welcome to go to any of the other ones if you have the time in your schedule and are willing to travel. This Sunday’s meet-up is a little different because it’s a coffee shop that the group does not normally visit – “we’re exploring and writing.” That’s literally the event title on the page. Apparently the group has a tradition in the fall of finding new coffee shops to meet, so we’re all new to Two Hearted Queen today. It is in Lakeview, which isn’t too much of a hike from my place, so I was game to go! I had a few options of how to get there – I was going to take the 74 Bus to the Fullerton train station (the 74 and I are going to be pals, I can tell) and then I could take the red line for two stops and walk 15 minutes or the brown line for four stops and walk five minutes. The brown line option seemed much better to me, except the brown line train just didn’t come. It said it was coming and due but then there wasn’t a train… So that was weird and while I was checking to see how long it would be before the next one, the red line came. I am capable of walking a mile (I’m in training for a 5K, duh!) so I jumped on board (well, no, I didn’t jump, I stepped on like a normal person).

Noticed how I mentioned that I was game to go in the last paragraph? (I bolded and underlined it for you, just in case you missed it). Well, there was another game that people were going to today. A Cubs game to be specific and unbeknownst to me, the subway stop I would be disembarking from was the one for Wrigley Field (you would think they’d name it that but NOOOoooOOO, they stick with the street name. Go figure). So suddenly, I was in the middle of the royal blue and red mass of baseball fans and I needed to be walking in the opposite direction of them. It was a bit overwhelming. And by a bit, I mean, I think I’m lucky to be alive. Once I was a block or two away, I was fine. I did see an occasional baseball fan wearing a backwards cap or jersey walking in the direction of the field but I was no longer in danger of being trampled or dying of suffocation (or being trampled and them dying of suffocation).

And then, I was at Two Hearted Queen, which at first glance, can’t avoid Alice and Wonderland parallels (not that I think they’re trying to). I feel like the best way to describe the atmosphere would be to say that someone let the Mad Hatter be in charge of the interior design but instead of suffering from the brain addling effects of mercury poisoning, he was born in the 60s and smoking a lot of you-know-what. But then he also did some LSD in the 70s, cocaine in the 80s and then got his coffee fix in Seattle or Portland in the 90s. It’s like a coffee shop for angsty, artistic stoners to come and write. Not that I’m a stoner. Or even angsty or artistic. I’m not into labels, people. What it lacks in butt paintings, it makes up for in snarky artwork that has expressions like “I like big cups and I cannot lie” and “Behind every successful person is a substantial amount of coffee.” I don’t agree with that last one because I like to believe I am successful and there is absolutely zero coffee behind me, but I understand why it would be hanging in a coffee shop.

Anyway, all of this is leading up to my big revelation. I have visited three coffee shops for writing/business meetings since I’ve been here (four if you include the Capitol One Café where I had that interview but didn’t get anything – they did give me a card for a free drink, so I guess I have to go back now and it should be noted that none of them were Starbucks because blech) and even though I despise coffee, I’ve enjoyed visiting each of them. This idea came to me somewhere between the bus and the train station; since I plan on continuing to write about my experience in the city, I have set up a new little challenge for myself. I’ve done Pizza Paths and Milkshake Marathons and eaten a lot of cupcakes just because, so now I’m going to start my Coffee Shop Quest! Now, writing that out looks a little weird, but it sounds good because you get the consonance in “coffee” and “quest” which both start like they sound with a K, so *drumroll* KOFFEE SHOP KWEST!

I am going to continue to visiting independent coffee shops and will rank them (rules and criteria are still being dreamt up – I’ll detail what I have in a minute) so by the end of my first year in Chicago (meaning next August, not January 2017), I will know where my absolute favorite coffee shop. Obviously some coffee shops are going to have an advantage – i.e. I’m more likely to visit the ones in Logan Square and visit them more than once because they’re closer, but distance will not be a judging factor, because it’s mainly going to be about first impressions and what sparks my interest. This blog will help me keep track of where I go, but I’m going to start another document for myself with all of my notes so that at the end of this, I can lay it all out for you kind readers when the time comes.

Now, there is obviously a slight hitch in this plan, because it is well documented that I hate coffee. To me, it tastes like garbage bean water and I’d rather drink from the toilet. I also don’t really like tea either. It’s hot, soggy leaves. That isn’t appetizing!

But, luckily, coffee shops are diversifying. Some serve food or pastries or non-coffee beverages! So, obviously part of this Kwest will be purchasing/rating these items. I sense a lot of hot chocolate in my future (NOT COMPLAINING).

So, I’ve made a little template for my notes and this is it:

Date:

Coffee Shop:

Location:

Reason for visit (if any specific reason):

Purchased:

Vibe:

Stand outs:

Downsides:

Subsequent visits:

Pretty straight forward. I’m not going to try to do any five star rating or anything. I will obviously take pictures for my records, but this is the official start of the Koffee Shop Kwest!

So, what did I order here? Well, it was lunchtime when I arrived so I got one of The Queen breakfast panini and a hot chocolate. The Queen was made of egg, spinach, avocado and hummus AND came is the shape of a heart! So they definitely get points for presentation. I didn’t taste any hummus, just spinach, eggs and avocado, but it was still good. They also had free cucumber water, which is a pretty classy thing to have. They had a deck of cards and you got to pick a card when you ordered and if you got the Queen of Hearts, you got 50% off your drink (I got the 4 of Diamonds).

Also, in case you’re wondering, the name is NOT Alice in Wonderland inspired. The shop was created by two women who combined their passions for coffee and giving back and created the name based on their mission “the union of two or more individuals, fueled by a common dream, who go on to find themselves in the midst of a much more magnificent community than they could have ever imagined on their own.” So, perhaps that does sound a little bit like what Lewis Carroll envisioned for Alice when he dropped her down the rabbit hole or through the looking glass, but I like it as I am here to join a new community of writers.

Below, you’ll see my picture collage of what I found here and my plans for after group including meeting Mandy and getting some drinks (not coffee tonight). Happy Labor Day!

So guys, I'm going to my writers' group tomorrow (same group, new coffee shop -- new to me, anyways) but I haven't done anything since the last time I posted so I have no idea what I'm actually going to write about for three hours...

Coming to You from NOT my Writers’ Group

 So, last Friday, I got some super productive writing done at my writers’ group (I also got to stare at some butt paintings for three hours and that’s just funny) and I was excited to go back today, but my third roommate, Mary, needed to come over at 2 to sign the lease and Janell couldn’t let her in, which meant that I would have had to leave before the fun, social part of writers’ group even began, so I decided to skip it so I could save some money and write at the apartment. (I will be posting it from wherever I can find WiFi, because we currently don’t have it and the neighbor’s signal isn’t strong enough for me to steal it from them!).

Even though I’m not writing from New Wave Coffee Shop today, I still plan to fill you in on all of the incredible details since the last time I updated you on my wonderful, sarcastic life.

My last update would have been on Wednesday – Moving Day #2. Give a big cheer because yesterday was the final moving day!!! It feels so good, even though my room is basically still empty and I have roughly nothing in it right now. I’m just glad that I don’t need to carry my whole life across the city again.

I took another Uber yesterday morning. I was juggling about 100 things and the driver called me the actual second he arrived, which caused me to drop about 99 of those things and swear very loudly into the phone. Like, calm down, bud, I’m on my way and I’d be getting to you faster if you weren’t calling me right now!

It was an Uber Pool, which means that your driver can pick up/drop off other people along the way and we picked up a guy a few minutes later and dropped him off at Target, which is not a long walk. You paid $3.12 instead of walking a half mile… to each their own, but I think it’s a little sketchy. Other than that, the ride was uneventful.

I got all of my things up the stairs (thank you, once again, MCT muscles!) and then it was time to get some keys and sign a lease! Yes, I have officially signed the lease. I’m a lessee, according to my lease… that I signed. Also, I got like 500 keys!

I also have Lego Batman

Ok, more like seven, but that’s a lot. We have three keys for the front of the apartment, three for the back and one for the mailbox and I’m supposed to know where they all go. Actually, for the front keys, they came with those little rubber things that help you tell keys apart and I switched them up so that they are now in ROYGBIV order, so the key that opens the first door has the red one, the second door is orange and the third door is green. Pretty smart of me…now I just need to figure out the back half of the apartment. I might order other key identifier things, like rainbow unicorns or cats, for some fun, but since I don’t have internet, it’s hard to find those types of things. My system is working for now and that’s what matters. Actually, what matters is that I can come and go whenever I want because now I have keys!

Speaking of coming and going, I needed to go to CVS because the moving announcement I’d ordered had arrived. Actually, they arrived last Friday, but CVS never felt the need to tell me that. I knew it was going to be a long walk, but I went out anyways. And then it started to rain… so I stopped and got on the bus. And then the rain stopped, so I got off the bus and still had a long way to walk and at this point, it had gotten hot, so I was burning up. Long story short, I got a pint of Ben and Jerry’s on my way home. (The moving announcements turned out fantastically by the way – I’m adorable).

After that, I did some organizing and envelope addressing and watched Star Trek on my laptop. We don’t have cable or anything like that in the apartment yet, but I do have my extensive DVD collection to keep me company. As I was debating whether or not to put on Star Trek: Into Darkness, I got a text message from Claire Noone. Claire and I went to DeSales together – she was a sophomore when I was a senior – and Claire is planning on moving here in a month. She was here with her future roommate, another DSU grad, Parker (he transferred to DeSales in the fall of 2014, so three months after I’d graduated) because they were doing some interviews with potential landlords. The two of them are coming here for the improv scene and wanted to know if I’d join them for Improvised Shakespeare. I had no idea what it was but I was game, so I ordered a ticket online (thank you, 4G) and got dressed.

I looked so good though

In case you haven’t noticed, I like taking advantage of public transportation, so I got on the bus. Well, I waited for the bus, because it was late. I’d left with more than enough time to get to my destination but minutes and seconds were ticking away. The bus arrived and we were off! Just kidding, because with time already dwindling, we got stuck in construction traffic. The plan was to transfer from the bus to the train and then walk the last few minutes to the theatre but when I finally got to the train station, with just twenty minutes left before the show, the sign told me that the train I needed to take wouldn’t be arriving for another 14 minutes. I said screw it and called an Uber. (Actually, I didn’t say screw it, I chose a much stronger word because I didn’t really want to shell out the money for an Uber at that point, but I also didn’t want to miss the show. It’s improv – you kind of need to be there at the beginning). I made it with a few minutes to spare, got seated with Claire and introduced to Parker and prepared to have my mind blown.

The concept behind Improvised Shakespeare is that the actors have all studied the Bard (and their “thees” and “thous”) and after getting a title from the audience, create their own Shakespeare play. Yeah, it sounds pretty unbelievable and it was. We were sitting in the back, so my suggested title was not chosen. My title, for the record, was “The Night of the Venomous Squirrel” – I had that horrific bus ride to think of what I might suggest. Instead, they went with “The Coughing Lumberjack.” (I guess I’ll have to do my own play about attacking squirrels now).

My world will never be the same. These guys literally created a Shakespeare play on the spot. They used Shakespearean language but there were some modern references and one entire monologue about how majestic bald eagles are, which made me very happy. I can’t get over how awesome it was. On my way home, I realized that they perform on Thursdays and my birthday is a Thursday. I already texted Claire (since she’ll be living here by then) and she’s game to go again. I told her I’d be happy to go to another improv show for my special day, but perks of being the birthday girl really are that I get to pick! Maybe if I go on my birthday, they’ll pick my play title! Ya never know.

Claire, Parker and I hung out after the show – mainly recovering from the brain damage of having our minds blown! We talked about DeSales, Chicago, theatre and more. I’m excited that they’re coming here. Hooray for more friends!

So cozy

I took the train/bus combo home and this time it was far more successful. When I got home, to my home, the apartment where I live now, I still had to blow up my air mattress. It took forever! Until I realized that there were two nozzles and I was using the small one to blow it up; once I switched, it took roughly a minute. I celebrated my first night in the apartment with a selfie.

It will be nice to have a real bed soon, but my first night on the air mattress wasn’t so bad! This morning, I woke up and made myself French toast and then I went to the grocery store. I’m now running into this problem because I don’t know how to shop for myself when I’m staying somewhere longer than a week, like how do people do that? I can shop for a family, but shopping for just me is a totally new thing. I kind of just wandered for a while. The supermarket is right across the street from my apartment, which is convenient, but I made another blunder to add to my list of rookie mistakes:

They asked if I wanted paper or plastic. I went with paper because those bags are sturdier. Or they would be IF THEY HAD HANDLES. These bags didn’t have handles and ripped as I was walking across the street. All of my groceries made it home, but I know that next time, I’ll ask for plastic.

After that, I continued to have a very productive morning! It was great. My plan was to run all of my errands and be right on time for writers’ group (we know how that turned out). My first errand was to Walgreens to drop off a prescription. Whitney will be happy to know that I am going to be changing pharmacies. The walk to CVS yesterday was a long one and I don’t feel like doing it again when I can get to Walgreens in a quarter of the time.

After that, I went to the library. I feel like I’ve been talking about getting a library card in every other blog post, but today I was finally able to do it. You see, the prescription that I dropped off had been mailed to me, meaning that I had a piece of mail to use to prove that I now lived in the Chicago area. So yeah, I don’t want to brag or anything, but now I can take out books, periodicals, DVDs and more at any of the 70-80 branches of the Chicago Public Library. (Sorry, Dad, I know you sent me something to help me get my library card but Dr. Belkin beat you to the punch).

My final errands before group was a trip to the bank and it was while I was walking to the bank that I got a message asking if I could be back at the apartment for Mary at 2. I could have gone to the first half of group, but like I said, that’s the non-social portion. The talking doesn’t start until 2 and I figured I could go back to the apartment and use some of those groceries I’d already paid for instead of buying a sandwich at the café (I don’t drink coffee, people, but I need to get something at these places. New Waves doesn’t have hot chocolate either… so rude). I made myself a veggie burger (but I forgot to get buns so I used wheat bread) and watched X-Men: First Class. Basically, I’m getting comfy in my new home, even if all I have to get comfortable on is an air mattress. 

Also, one of the neighbors has Xfinity, so it's pretty sketchy, but I managed to connect long enough to hit send on this post. I guess the Blog Gods want you to read my words.

Also, I ordered some shelves in the mail and they arrived this afternoon, so I put them together! Ta da!

Look at that craftswomanship