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This is as close as I can get to my apartment in Chicago on Google Maps. (See Google Street View steers Clear of Obama’s Neighborhood.) Here is an aerial view from Bing Maps:

Today’s sunrises

• Ann Arbor: 7:31 am
• Chicago: 6:45 am
• Providence: 6:41 am
• Silver Spring: 7:00 am

This is the first place I have moved to where I have really noticed the difference, probably because of the huge difference between Chicago and Ann Arbor. It still feels like the day is starting 45 minutes early.

Monday: Moved 95% of my belongings to Katie’s basement (1 trip), and all of Julie’s stuff to her new apartment in Edgewater (3 trips) in an I-GO Honda Element. It took about 12 hours total.

Tuesday: Recovered from moving and figured out what classes to register for.

Wednesday: Registered for classes, and moved the rest of my stuff to Katie’s.

Thursday: Cleaned old apartment.

Friday: Had a final lunch with my Web Services coworkers in Hyde Park, picked up my paycheck, came back to Logan Square and got my leaky front wheel tube replaced, biked downtown for Critical Mass with Katie and Xixi.

Saturday: First day of last minute shopping before my trip.

Sunday: Went to the Chicago Botanical Garden with the whole Logan Square crew for the day.

I’ve never ridden extensively at night in any city, and I’ve never even been outside in Chicago that late – I usually go to sleep early anyway, and the buses from downtown stop running around 1 am so I’m always been back at my apartment by then. So the combination of both of things was very exciting! Also, there wasn’t any wind at all until we got to the turnaround point and were on the lakefront trail, and the temperature was perfect.

Once again, my sit bones were killing me by the halfway point. I also had trouble getting my hands in comfortable position — I kept them straight top part of the handle bars almost the whole time ready to pull the interrupter brakes because I was afraid I was going to run into someone or not be able to stop fast enough for a traffic light. I don’t know. I should probably try adjusting the saddle position, and if it that doesn’t work try a different one. I’m also considering switching from drop bars to bullhorn handle bars because that way I would be able to have my hands on the sides of the bars and still be able to reach the brakes easily.

Anyway. Apart from the butt pain this was the best ride ever! Definitely beats Bike the Drive, which really isn’t that different from riding on the trail

Not looking forward to this:

And as interesting as Ann Arbor’s downtown area is, it is relatively low-density, and there are no major drug stores or supermarkets within walking distance.

But in general it compares favorably to Hyde Park as a neighborhood, apart from the presence of Lake Michigan.

Today I jumped in the lake with my clothes on and went swimming, after dunking my feet and undergoing an intense internal struggle for half an hour. Triumph! Wet denim cutoffs feel pretty gross both in and outside of the water, but it was totally worth it.

I am glad I did it even though

• I woke up in the middle of a bad dream at 4am and seriously considered going back to sleep and skipping the entire thing
• The wind was coming from the north, which made biking the first 15 miles frustrating (combination of bugs flying in my face and having to slow down almost to a stop on flat ground)
• My sit bones were killing me after the first five miles. I am never sure if this is because my seat is no good, or just because I haven’t biked long distance since the fall.

But it was awesome to see the sun rise over the lake and to see so many people out there who also got up before the crack of dawn to bike up and down the lakefront.

2) Saturday I went to a one of a City Year community service day. I helped paint part of a mural illustrating the growth of broccoli for an elementary school in Kenwood. It was nice to be around the other volunteers, who were mostly people my age, and participate in something City Year-related after hearing so much about the organization from my roommate Laura.

3) I also went to El Circo Cheapo with Katie, which is kin For $10 we saw some very impressive hula hooping, juggling and aerial acts. The only downside was that because there wasn’t a stage or graded seating in the performance space, it was hard to see what was going on a lot of the time.

The other cool part apart from the show itself was walking from the Ashland-Lake El stop to the venue.

View warehouse walk in a larger map

I have never walked around that area of Chicago before so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but basically it is blocks and blocks of anonymous looking warehouses, only differentiated by the small signs posted outside the entrances listing each building’s tenants. It was both surreal and calming, and I kind of want to go back there even though there weren’t any stores, parks or public places besides the street and the sidewalks.

4) Today I had a Chicago thrift store epiphany after going to the Village Discount Outlet on Milwaukee near Western. Since moving here I have been the Salvation Army on Union, the Brown Elephant on Halsted and the Unique Thrift Store at 35th and Archer, and was completely unsuccessful at all three. At Village Discount, I easily found 5 shirts that I really liked, and bought them all for $13!

5) And after that, I saw Sita Sings the Blues downtown with Julie and Katie, which was excellent.

I need to post here more often again, if only because I feel like I am losing my ability to write effortlessly and coherently. Several times last week at work I took 20-30 minutes to write relatively short emails, because I spent so much time thinking about the best way to phrase each sentence. Even writing this paragraph has been a painful process. Is it still called writer’s block if the writing in question is as trivial as a text message or email? I don’t know but whatever it is, I have it.

1) A customer service person roaming the second floor at Dick Blick’s walked over to Julie and I and said “I like your coat.” (My coat?) “Yes.” (You’re the only one.) “I was looking at it and I wondered where I could find coat in that color.” (L.L. Bean. That’s where it’s from.)

2) I went to a Chinese New Year party with McComas and the gang, complete with bubble tea, dumplings and karaoke. I sang Hey Jude with Alex, although no one could hear me because I wasn’t close enough to the mic even though I felt like I was screaming at the top of my lungs. It was pretty great, probably about as great as a good dance party.

3) On the way back we got disoriented and walked 11 blocks in the wrong direction along Fullerton, which is easy to do because as McComas pointed out the stores along that street keep repeating themselves. Finally at Pulaski it became clear that the block numbers were going up and that the visible train tracks were not the Blue Line but Metra Milwaukee District North. Crap!

4) Caught the second to last bus home. Only had to wait 10 anxious minutes in the frigid 3F “feels like -9F” air. I wonder why the bus doesn’t run later on Saturdays? Decided that the bus is way preferable to the train at this time of night — almost half full, with a friendly female driver, and no homeless people stretched out across the streets.

Chicago is so cold. This is definitely the coldest winter I have ever experienced. I didn’t think it could be that different from New England. Supposedly this winter is especially bad; according to Wikipedia the average low for January is 18F – I wish! On Friday it got up to 30F and that was balmy!

This is because Metra uses a different ticketing system than CTA, so I need to use cash to buy a ticket instead of my Chicago Card. I also haven’t taken it because outside of rush hour times, it only runs about once an hour. (It also has the one of the worst websites of all time.)

The Gold Line proposal is an attempt to integrate the Metra line into the CTA, and I think it is genius. (Curiously enough it is proposed by a fellow NSIT employee!) I am very happy to read that it already is gaining support in the community.