T-Town to Chi-Town - Day 3

What a full day!! Looking for a place to live is a FULL-TIME JOB!! It is not for the faint of heart. Although today, I got faint. It is a good thing J was in meetings, or I may very well have called him and told him I was headed out of Dodge!! I wouldn’t have gone back to Tulsa, but I would have started driving and just kept going. It was like that.

Each time I look at a potential new home for us, I have Motor Mouth and Mini Me in my head. I imagine them in the area, going up/down the stairs/elevator, getting on/off public transportation, going to school, living in the actual home. There have been too many places that I hear Motor Mouth’s voice saying: “You brought me out of Oklahoma to THIS?!!” And then I turn around and walk straight out, without looking or touching another thing. You know, you can’t live somewhere you don’t want to touch anything.

Yesterday, J and I went to see a couple of places together. The one place was huge, but the current tenant told us – with great excitement – that the “shoot-em-ups have reduced 65%”. I didn’t know what a shoot-em-up was, so I asked. Silly me, I thought she meant drug users. She meant the gunfire has reduced 65%. That says to me that there are still 35% of gun shots being heard in the neighborhood. We could not get out of there fast enough.
This evening, we saw a great place. It has everything on our ‘Must Have List’, everything on our ‘Would Like to Have List’, and a few things on our “We REALLY Want This, But We Don’t Dare Ask For It List”.

From Craigslist, J scored a brand new, never lived in before, 3 bedroom, 2 bath, loft with granite countertops, stainless appliances, and in-unit laundry. There is a view of the Chicago skyline – and the Sears Tower – out of our living room window! It has a balcony big enough for our grill and patio furniture. There is TONS of storage. Some of the walls have exposed brick. The bathrooms are to die for!!

And, get this - the neighborhood is an art community with art galleries and the university is just a couple of blocks away. The best part is Motor Mouth's school! His school building looks great, gets good reviews and is literally, in our backyard – ah, well, we don’t have a backyard, but if we did, that is where his school would be. It is minutes to J’s office!! We will find out tomorrow if we got approved.

Earlier today, I was sitting in the parking lot at Park Community Church, trying to figure out how to find a library. Joe drove into the parking lot and came over to me. Joe is THE MAN for restaurants in Chi-Town. Joe knows like no one’s business. He asked what I was up to and I told him. Joe knows libraries too! He told me about this great library in Lincoln Park.

Okay, I love books, but I was on a mission to find a library that had a copy of the all important BIG BOOK of schools. See, Chicago has an interesting school system. You are guaranteed a spot in a neighborhood school. Only, not every neighborhood school is where you want your kid to be going, if you know what I mean. So, people apply to schools in the Fall. They all received their acceptance letters in early March. That means I am way behind the time to get J into a good school. And you can’t do anything school-wise, if you don’t have the BIG book of schools. I finally found the BOOK. Thanks, Joe.

This evening, we moved from Nicole’s house in Lincoln Park, to Chicka’s house in Bucktown. I swear, everyone in this church community has an amazing home! On our first visit, we stayed with MB who has an amazing 4 storey brownstone in Lincoln Park, right off the lake. Nicole has a great 2 level in an amazing neighborhood, also in Lincoln Park. Chicka’s house is also 2 level, and she has George! George is a Yorkie-Shitzu mix. We love George. Don’t tell Chicka, but we might steal him.

Okay, so that was our Day 3, in a nutshell.

Thursday April 3, 2008 - 11:54pm