Tuesday, February 10, 2015

In Edgewater







After a brief hiatus to pack up our lives and get resettled less than half a mile from Lake Michigan, we are here, home in Edgewater.  We've been here for getting close to a month but it feels much longer than that; already it feels like home, like a well worn in sweater.  For all the stress that moving brings, it was a relatively smooth process for us.  T. and I experienced enough issues with our previous location that it felt incredibly redeeming and satisfying to pack everything up into boxes that I had collected from work and consolidate our lives.  

The day I picked up the keys to the new apartment was sunny and chilly.  I'm not sure if I took a breath at all on the drive from the property management company to the new apartment, I was so excited and anticipatory of our new beginning.  I found a parking spot right on our block and put the keys in the lock with bated breath, all at once happy and relieved to step inside and admire the place in daylight.  Though it was empty, it already belonged to us--that much was true.

So we moved the mattress over and over the course of the next two weeks, moved our belongings from the apartment by the airport to the abode by the lake.  Immediately I began to notice a difference in my quality of life, once that is still evolving and changing, for the better!  I find myself to be happier and more relaxed, adapting to our newfound urban way of living.  Once the old place was empty, we mopped our way out of the living room and turned the key in the lock behind us.  A literal closing of one door and opening another... a new start in the city of our dreams.

No sooner had we moved in than Chicago experienced its 5th worst snowstorm in recorded history.  It was a fun initiation and we more than survived, even if it was an inconvenience.  But that's more or less been the worst of it...  we're figuring out the best places to order out from, we've started a subscription at the local natural grocery store to get a weekly produce box, and we sold the car I bought almost exactly a year ago.  I've gone on a few runs around the neighborhood and I am absolutely beyond thrilled to get to explore all summer.  We've been making plans for warmer weather, installing window dressings, and learning how to cook in our now much smaller (but nicer!) kitchen.  

This is a small snapshot of our life, almost a month into our lease here in Edgewater, and how I'm falling in love with my best friend and my neighborhood and the city by the lake more and more every single day.  There are all of these changes ahead for us, so much goodness to look forward to, and I can't wait for whatever comes next.  I wanted a tabula rasa, a blank slate, and I've found the freshest, clearest canvas upon which to start anew.

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