One Week in Chicago

This city has a lot of noise at night. Planes fly by overnight. I can hear the "L" going by at the closest stop, 3 or 4 blocks away. Sirens galore, police and fire. Probably some ambulances, too.

We live in a good part of town, too, near Boyz Town, at least, and that's got to mean something. I guess it doesn't have to mean anything. A gay friend of mine back in Boston once wrote a letter to the editor at the Metro about how he got harassing looks from black people in the South End and even heard disaparaging comments made by them. And the South End is just about gay central in Boston!

One thing I love in Chicago, though: the diversity. Back in the parts of Boston and northern New England that I normally visited, I would pretty much just see whites and Asians, and I wouldn't see them around each other that much.

Here in Chicago, even in the suburbs, I can walk down the street outside my apartment or go to some restaurant and see people of all different colors, nationalities and ethnicities. One of the guys who moved our stuff told us that Chicago has the biggest Bulgarian population in the US. My fiancee tells me that it also has the biggest Filipino population, too. We bought some furniture today from an Asian and black couple. Just down the street, there's building with Shalom (or is it Sholom) written on it. I'm sure I see plenty of Middle Easterners walking around these streets daily.

For a white bread boy brought up in Eastern Massachusetts who didn't even know what rascism was until I was in 3rd or 4th grade and never met a peer who was Jewish until he went to college, this experience has been pretty great so far. I wish I could say eye opening, but I have the feeling that this doesn't represent the reality of outside Chicago or even necessarily all of Chicago. In the past, I have probably heard about race riots in Chicago and that the city still has plenty of segregation going on. Nonetheless, this little neighborhood of mine has, so far, filled me up with lots of hope and has a bit of Utopia to it.

AS FOR THE UNPACKING AND FURNISHING PROCESS PROCESS

I've got the electronics set up. The cable Internet works fantastic after a tech came by this morning, but we still don't get all the channels we want and should get. I sent Comcast an e-mail about that one. Hopefully it doesn't require any extra work inside the apartment by a tech or something.

Yesterday, we bought a good media shelf for the electronics. Today, we got a big shelf that we plan on using for dividing up the living room and a great couch lounger. Spent most of the day putting that stuff together and waiting for the cable guy in the morning.

Behind the divider shelf in the living room and overflowing into the entertainment, we still have plenty of boxes to unpack. The main problem is that most of those boxes have books in them, and we can't empty them until we get shelves. And we can't really unpack anything else until we know where the shelves go and look.

The whole thing really just overloads my brain. I want to go off on some kind of rant about it, but I just don't know where to start. My brain just shuts down, so I don't even bother.

TOMORROW WILL BE DIFFERENT

I will dive into the serious job search. As things wind down somewhat with the unpacking and some of the small errands, reality sets in. My savings and possibly future income will only last me a short while. I need to get myself a job.

I'd like to get one quickly, too, because there's a couple things that I'd like to do with that future income that includes more than surviving.

And while working on the job search, I think I'd like to communicate with some friends and family that I left behind in New England and who I have moved closer to in the Midwest. I, sadly, don't think I'll be able to address all the communication after waking up tomorrow, but I want to start trying.

Please work with me as I try to improve my friendship service. =D

Thank you.