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Blah blah blah blah blog......
What I did this summer.
The biggest thing was move.
The website is coming around pretty
decently and I’ve gotten into a mode where I’m trying to make myself write
for a certain amount of time. Although with the holiday season there’s a
chance that I won’t be able to do so as much, but I won’t be taken any
sabbatical type leaves like I took recently.
Welcome to the city of big
shoulders... lots of wind and my habitual surroundings
Why’d you move to Chicago Steve?
A few factoring reasons mostly
dealing with the fact that with an altered.
-I can do 90% of what I wanted to
accomplish in NYC in Chicago, while it being a lot cheaper. I didn’t
even live on NY side, granted it was still riverside property but with a
converted 1 bedroom apt, nook converted to another bedroom for non-east
coasters, and an average of $2500-$2900 (with utilities and cable) and can
basically do the same things in Chicago for A LOT less. And our apt
wasn’t even all that nice. Our utilities were astronomical due to the
fact that the apt complex chose to use the most ineffective electric
heating system known to man for the upper east region. Last December our
utilities bill was $380. Not so much different than the $340 for the
month of November unless you count the fact that my roommate and I were
gone for a total of two and a half weeks! Everything was turned off, even
the alarm clocks. We brought in an electrical tech blah blah blah. His
explanation of why the bill was so high was, “because it’s the winter and
utilities tend to go up because people use the heater more”. I realized
that at that point in time he must have took me for little more than those
tiny boxes of raisins old people give out during Halloween. The sad thing
was the fact that I was nodding in agreement as if I was learning about
the wonders and mysteries of electricity. I explained to him that our
heater was shut off for 2.5 weeks. He then backed up and gave me the
explanation.
That the heater is always running,
that there’s a little warmer that’s permanently on to keep the inner
workings warm so they don’t freeze up during the winter months.
I understood this logic. But when I
asked him to explain why it was so high he told me that the heater used
more electricity when turned off than when it was running, I had to call
my good friend BS. Now I’m not an electrical engineer, and could be
wrong, but I don’t believe that the complexities of basically a large
space heater is going to run a significantly amount higher than when it’s
running full blast in November. This became a little project for me and
tried to do some research on our heater. It was a British company with no
American number whatsoever nor website. It was like the British
equivalent of crappy electronic American companies that slapped “1000” in
the name of their products in the 90’s to sound cooler and more
technologically futuristic. I have an AM1000 VCR. It’s great. I use it
whenever I want it to eat my vhs tapes of
Heartbreakers
and Scrubs
reruns. When the lease ran out on us, the rent went up an additional 200
a month. That whole section of Newport to Hoboken is getting out of
control. It’s becoming almost Manhatten-esque in terms of pricing. At
least the Jersey side had a
target, which of course opened a month after we left.
Can any electrically savvy people
offer half an explanation of my heater problem?
-So it was basically Chicago, or LA.
And I would never move to LA without a guaranteed job.
-I received one of the nicest,
flattering, compliments I’ve received as an adult encouraging me that I
HAVE to come to Chicago. This was repeated to my roommate two months
later when she visited separately. I’ll go more into that someday. But it
was a monstrous factor in me moving to Chicago.
-Oprah
-Accessibility to Kansas City. The
family still lives there. And the sister’s a junior in high school and I
have yet to see her play a high school game. To get a cheap ticket from
NYC to KC it’ll run 230-320 depending on the basics (time before, airlines
etc) the cheapest would be Midwest which normally includes a Milwaukee
layover. On some rare occasion great deals you can get a ticket for
$150-$180. In Chicago it’s not unusual to get a round trip for $70. $90
is about average on southwest. Even if you had to buy a ticket at the
last minute it would only run $200 max. Southwest doesn’t go to New
York. Long Island/Macarthur/Islip or whatever the hell you call it
doesn’t count.
-Southwest. I know a lot of people
hate Southwest, and people complain about it a lot. But if you’re paying
something that cheap for the opportunity to travel over three time zones
for 150 bucks, you really can’t complain. In the city, gauging by miles
doesn’t really exist. It’s by estimated time traveled. My parents
live 32 miles from the airport. It’s on average,
22-26 minutes away. 6.5 hours if my mom drives. She went ahead of
the curve and plunged into old lady driving status during her sprite
mid-30’s and like many people in old lady driving status, hasn’t looked
back in the rearview mirror. Part of the problem with Midwest thinking
(besides Chicago) is that if you drive any more than 10 miles, your going
to be on an interstate or fast flowing highway at some point. Kids in
Lawrence, Kansas
would always be working in
Kansas City 30 miles away cause it only took 22-30 minutes to get there.
Same with Lincoln, Nebraska and Omaha with 40 miles difference about the
same distance from the Long Island Airport to the city of Manhattan.
Which means I am about to go into my Long Island/Macarthur/Islip rant.
First of all, they still haven’t come to a decisive name to call the
airport which runs into problem one. Southwest calls it Islip, but I've
heard pilots and the rest of the airport community call it MacArthur, I’ve
heard the locals call it Long Island
Airport,
and the airport itself calls it MacArthur or some other way. I stopped
paying attention. It’s 40 miles from the city, which in that region,
equates to one trimester of driving time. People in the Midwest love to
fly cheap and they think 40 miles is nothing...till they ask for them to
pick you up or actually try to get into the city themselves. It’s just
not worth it. Its unequivocally the most solid excuse ever for paying for
convenience and go into
Newark, JFK or LaGuardia. When arriving at Long Island/MacArthur/Islip,
you do the mandatory 15-20 minute wait for luggage.* Depending on the
time, you then debate to take the $5 shuttle to the LIRR which comes every
half hour during the day hours, once an hour in the wee hours, or screwing
it and paying 10-15 dollars for the taxi. It’s out of jurisdiction with
no meter or rates. I’ve heard of people paying 25-35 dollars for the taxi
to the train station. Mind you this is an 8 minute ride to the train
station. The taxi drivers feast on Long Island/Macarthur/Islip/ East
coast New York/ Suffolk county airport travelers like seniors in the
freshman quad during orientation week. They see the naivety in the
travelers and drool.
*There should be a name for the
increment of time from the moment of seeing the luggage come out from the
chute or the silo-like dispensing mechanism, to actually in front of you.
Life slows down to a Spider man or bullet-time type of pace. And who ever
spots the luggage first game is pointless too, and yet we all play it.
It’s not like looking for a parking coveted parking spot at Ikea, scanning
all around in section G-8. Your both looking at the same stupid hole in
the baggage carousel. It’s not like it’s going to pop out from the
Cinnabon oven across the gate. And if you spot it first,” There it is!
There’s our luggage! You see it? There! It came from the sport we were
both looking at! Can you believe it?”
Upon arriving at the train
station you pay about eight bucks (can’t remember) to get into Penn
Station. Roughly a 35-40 minute ride into the city. After dragging your
luggage you have your choice of transportation depending on desired
location. If your in the area your fine. It’s only cost you 25-35
dollars and anywhere from 60-90 minutes of your time. Others though
aren’t so lucky. Cab ride 5-10 dollars, subway or bus 2 dollars.
With me it was a minute walk
from Penn Station to the 33rd. street PATH station (the subway that
connected Jersey and NYC) 1.50. And depending on timing and day of the
week it could be anywhere from 10 minutes to 45 minutes. In summation it
would take a minimum of 15 dollars to get to my house and anywhere from
2-4 extra hours of travel time to save 50 bucks on a ticket. I only did
that once. I didn’t even mention the $20 shuttle bus that takes only
20-30 minutes to the closest drop off point, and then have to call a taxi
company to take you to the airport for 10 dollars. I guess I just did.
-I will be here at least until the
end of next December. More than likely, two years. I can’t see myself
moving in the middle of the winter again, with the miserable weather and
the little annoying things like dealing with cable and internet
installation in which half the technicians go and hibernate anyway. More
than likely I will go back to the NYC area and only if I can really afford
to live there, aka, not living month to month.
-Upon first settling into Chicago,
Anne and I stayed with fellow friends and Road Ruler’s Dave and Cara.
Cara’s roommate, a 6’4 female, a Yao Mingish 8’2 in heels, had just moved
out and Dave was living a nomadic lifestyle, hunting and gathering while
doing appearances with Cara, leaving us and the apt with her two cats
Bowbie (bow-bee) and Pookabut (pook-a-butt). Looking for three weeks,
Anne and I couldn’t come together. Her requirements for proper living
quarters were simply a nicer looking apartment than our last. Myself, an
apartment that doesn’t smell like cat piss and use electrical heaters by
“British 1000”. I found out I’m allergic to kitty litter and not the cats
themselves. This discovery was reinforced by the fact that Cara
strategically placed the kitty litter by the toilet. Not a good
actualization when you yourself are concentrating on your own hygienic
tendencies.
-After weeks of deliberation. We
decided to just take the apartment below them. It was a little more than
what we wanted to pay but still significantly less than Jersey. We had
nice neighbors. Two airline stewardesses (Southwest of course) live on
the same floor, and a large nice guy named Jan (yawn) above us in this
little nook of apts.
-I have a door now. It doesn’t work
real well but a door regardless.
-Allowed to paint the apartment.
Enter Bob Villa.
-Like many houses and apartments in
Chicago. Ours come with a rounded bay window, and being the people
watching extraordinaire that I am, I would put myself in the category of
“Cat”, right above “3rd grader in detention during recess” and below “90
year old woman”. Due to this fascination with my corner bay window and no
conventional piece of furniture that could be placed there without it
looking awkward, I decided to build an 8 foot rounded bench that contours
with the room using 2 x 4’s and somewhat sturdy particle bored. It’s
broken 3 times. I’m not as carpenter skilled as my 8th grade shop class
“A” says I am. With the powers contained in Paul’s, Adam’s and My self’s
buttocks, we’ve all managed to go after its’ weakest point, like the
Chiefs cornerbacks, and split it. Those breaks all occurred in the first
two months. It’s been reinforced with enough nails that it could venture
into Marlon Brando type weight capacity.
So while I was channeling bob Villa
I also built a corner shelf. My estimation that, with enough skill and
tools, I’d be able to construct it in about 2 hours....After 5 consecutive
days I was able to get it to stand without tipping over. I was getting
better. This only broke twice.
On the brighter side I also made a
hat rack. This consisted of me painting a piece of wood and driving nails
halfway into it, took 3 minutes. It’s ugly as hell, but it’s behind my
door so you can’t see it. It has yet to break.
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