Thanksgiving Things

Last weekend, Chicago had it's annual Lights Festival, which is when the city decides it's close enough to Christmas to turn on all the stringed lights along Magnificent Mile and throws a parade. Since Cary Anne and I have been making an effort to get out of the apartment and actually see what the city has to offer, we decide to take the Vespa downtown to check things out. As you can imagine, there were about a million people there (and, based on the population of Chicago, that estimate is probably not hyperbole.)

Though the actual festival is an all day event, Cary Anne and I just made it down for the parade portion. Apparently this town loves parades so much that they have one for the Lights Festival, then they have another one 5 days later for Thanksgiving. However, this parade started at 5:30pm, and the Thanksgiving one kicks off at 8:30am, so you can guess which one I'd rather go to.

Overall, the parade was everything you'd expect: big floats, marching bands, screaming children. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday night in Chicago.

Then, yesterday was Thanksgiving. When Cary Anne and I decided to move to Chicago at the beginning of November, I wasn't sure what to expect for Thanksgiving. I knew we really wouldn't have money to spare to go to either one of our home towns, and I thought there might be a good chance that the holiday would turn into Cary Anne and I eating turkey sandwiches alone in our apartment, which was a depressing thought. But then, lo and behold, we got invited to two Thanksgivings here in the city (which is really just God showing off).

First up was Thanksgiving at our friend Stacey's apartment. Stacey and I each attended Pace University during our Freshman year of college, then we both transferred to schools closer to home, and we've just recently reconnected here in Chicago. Thanksgiving at Stacey's was basically an Orphan Thanksgiving, where a bunch of people who had no where else better to go ended up together. So the whole thing was 15 relative strangers sitting around, sharing a meal together, and getting to know one another, which was really cool. 

Next, we hopped over to Jesse and Ruth's, who are friends of ours from church, for desert. Much like Stacey, Jesse and Ruth were hosting several friends who had nowhere better to go. It was a really great time getting to know a whole bunch of new people (for the second time that evening), and we are continually surprised by how many people God has put in our lives in such a short time when we really knew no one in this city. All in all, we got to eat good food, play a lot of games, and thank God for how He has provided for us over the past year while celebrating where is is leading us.

After celebrating new friends, we got to celebrate something even closer to the American spirit: consumerism! Thats right, we stayed up til midnight to score some sweet deals on presents for friends and family (which really was necessary this year seeing as how we blew the majority of our savings on the move and being unemployed for a month). If you want to hear details about our Black Friday adventure, hop over to Spencer's comedy blog.

Settling Down, Settling In

Well, we've certainly been keeping busy since our last update. First, on Sunday, my parents stopped in for a visit. My dad's job sent him up for some new training, and of course my mother couldn't pass up the opportunity to stop by and see our new place. Since my parents are tourists (and Cary Anne and I are barely more than tourists), we decided to head down to Navy Pier for the evening, where my mom enjoyed souvenir shopping and Pops enjoyed looking out at the boats.

That same day, word came from Colorado that Cary Anne's brother, Marshall, had proposed to his girlfriend of a year, Mackenzie. Their first date was mine and Cary Anne's wedding, so we like to believe that we had something to do with it. We all knew the proposal was coming, so it was nice to finally see it come to fruition. Back in August, Marshall moved across the country from Virginia to be closer to Mackenzie so it's good that things worked out, because if not I can only imagine how awkward it would have been.

On Monday, my Kentucky license expired so we headed to the nearest DMV so I could get a Illinois license, and it was...crowded, to say the least. When I would renew my license at the DMV closest to us in Lexington, it wasn't uncommon for the employees to outnumber the customers, but at the Chicago location it looked like a crowd waiting outside a Best Buy on Black Friday.

Luckily, despite the sea of people, my number was called in about 20 minutes. I guess when Illinois officials envision the streets of Kentucky they see a lot of horses and tractors because they didn't trust me enough to give me a license without making me retake the written test. Before going, I had reviewed the more obscure info in the state handbook, and I kept spouting off little tid bits to Cary Anne on our way to the DMV. Know what the punishment would be if I got convicted of illegally passing this school bus, babe? A three month suspension of my license and a $150 fine. In the end, my studying paid off because I passed with a perfect score.

After our trip to the DMV, we headed out to the suburbs to see my parents one last time before they headed home. Since we were already out west, I couldn't resist stopping by the local Krispy Kreme, since there are none in the actual city. The place was roughly twice the size of the store I worked at in Lexington, with a large sitting area, two production lines, and bays for the delivery trucks to back right up to the warehouse. I sent this picture to my old boss, Clayton, with the message, "They have chocolate cake!" Our store stopped making chocolate cake back at the start of the year, and I think Clayton is still bitter about it.

On Tuesday, Cary Anne and I headed to our weekly Bible study. We've been attending the Edgewater campus of Community Christian Church since we've been here in Chicago. Community Christian is a church that started out in Naperville, and has sprouted satellite campuses all over Chicagoland. The Edgewater campus, right now, is basically 25 people meeting in a rented out art studio, a big change from the mega-church we attended back in Lexington. 

After the Bible study, our group of 7 decided to head out and do some chalking, which is basically diet graffiti with a positive message. Apparently, this is something the Edgewater campus has been doing basically since they launched a few months back, so once a week we go out and use chalk to write short, encouraging notes on the the sidewalk for people to read on their way to work the next day. At first I thought the idea was a bit silly, but as the night went on, people kept coming up to us talking about how they had seen the chalking before and how much they enjoyed it. So, my attitude quickly started to change as I realized even the smallest gestures can have meaningful impacts. All in all, it was a great evening and really made us feel like we are actually starting to settle in here.

New City, New State, New Time Zone

We've now lived in Chicago for a week and a half, and the days seem to be flying by. As you can imagine, most of our time up to this point has been defined by unpacking and applying for jobs. Finally, it looks like things are coming to a close on the unpacking front. When we first unloaded the truck and got everything from our old two bedroom apartment into our new studio, things seemed pretty overwhelming...

But slowly, box by box, our apartment started to take shape, and now it's almost completely organized. Here, I'll take you on a small tour...

This is our entry way. On the left is closet space, and on the right hang our movie posters.

As you come out of the entry way, on the left is our living room.

Just off the living room is our kitchen. And we though the amount of counter space at our old place was rough...

If you take a right out of the entry way, you'll enter our bedroom/office.

And just beyond our bedroom is more closet space and our bathroom.

So, the place is small, but we've managed to fit all of our stuff in, and it is helping us learn to humble ourselves, to realize we don't really need as much as we think.

Between unpacking sessions, we've been out hitting the pavement, looking for work. At this point we're both looking for pretty much anything, just so we can get a little revenue generated, so we've been applying anywhere and everywhere- book stores, restaurants, movie theaters, law firms, etc. We've both had some interviews, but at this point neither of us has officially been offered anything. Hopefully that will change in the coming week.

Luckily, we've been able to take the occasional break from unpacking and applying to get out and actually enjoy the city. Over the past week and a half, we've been to several free comedy shows (bet you can guess whose idea that was), and we've also made a trip into downtown (where the Christmas lights are already starting to show up), and we've even taken a walk along the coast of Lake Michigan near our place (despite the temperature being in the the low 40's).

We're basically tourists.

We're looking forward to really getting into the swing of the Chicago life, whatever that may hold for us. And we just hope it's exciting enough to keep our lives interesting and to keep you guys reading!

Everything in Transit

Apparently, when Cary Anne and I moved into our first place, we did it the easy way. We were able to do it in shifts, and we had a lot of help. This time was a little more strenuous-  we did it in one big jump, and we didn't have much help. 

Last Monday, we woke up, rented a truck, then went back to our place where we thought we had most of our stuff packed. Turns out, we didn't. First, we loaded the heavier furniture, like the bed and the couch, which was not easy with just the two of us. But we took frequent breaks...

As the day went on, my parents showed up to help out. As they loaded up full boxes and some of the smaller furniture, Cary Anne and I realized just how much stuff we hadn't packed. We began to throw together random boxes- our printer mixed with mismatched socks and some ipod chargers, a couple of books mixed with a frying pan and part of our vacuum cleaner. This really slowed the whole process. About a week ahead of time, we planned on driving up to Louisville to crash with our friends Chris and Hannah for the night, and though we would arrive around 7pm, but once we got the truck fully loaded and made the drive, we actually showed up around 11pm. Thankfully, they were still (kind of) awake, and we got to spend some time with them before heading off to bed. 

Our fully loaded moving truck, Vespa and all.

The next day, we drove the rest of our 5 and a half hour journey to Chicago. When we arrived, one of the maintenance workers provided us with keys to the building and to our apartment, and I pulled the truck around to the back so we could begin unloading. With basically no one to help (save our very nice neighbor, Wayne, who helped with the God-forsaken couch), moving in became a two-day process. As if things weren't bad enough with just the two of us on the job, the situation was worsened by the fact that the elevators in our building are something straight out of a horror film. A quarter of the time they don't even work, and when they do they lurch and jump, and the lights in them are constantly flickering. (However, the certificate posted inside says they were just inspected last month.)

Another stupid move on my and Cary Anne's part was the fact that we didn't label any boxes. In some ways, this was fun, because opening every box was kind of like Christmas, but for the most part it was terrible because after a sweaty day of moving, you don't want to have to go on a search for clean underwear when all you want to do is take a shower. 

Moving is exhausting

But now, five days after we started moving, things are coming together steadily. All of our stuff is in our apartment, and pictures have started to go up on the walls. (I'm sure we'll share pictures on our next post.) We've been getting to know our neighborhood by going out on walks, and yesterday we began applying for jobs at the businesses around us. Overall, we're settling in nicely.

Chicago sunset, as viewed from the window of our apartment.