VDay Chicago Style

The only reason I look forward to Valentine’s Day anymore is because it is the end of our celebrations/gift giving for the entire year. Don’t get me wrong, I love giving gifts, especially to Billy. But when we have Christmas, then our anniversary on December 30th, then my birthday on January 21st, then Billy’s birthday on February 12th, and THEN Valentine’s Day, it gets to be a little much. We’ve found a way to semi-manage the chaos by not doing anniversary presents and planning a trip instead. This year, we couldn’t handle the dullness of celebrating once every week, so we decided to throw a fun move across the country into the mix. Poor Billy hasn’t gotten a birthday present or Valentine’s Day present yet.

On the morning of Valentine’s Day, I drove Billy to the hospital so I could run errands and get out of the house finally. I hadn't really wanted to leave the house until that day because it is so frrrreeaking cold here. And we discovered the greatest way to start your Valentine’s morning is to get rear-ended by a FIB (Fu*%ing Illinois Bastards is what we’ve been told out-of-staters call the drivers here. For good reason). The lady was extremely nice and admitted she was completely to blame. Plus, the damage on our car isn’t too bad. Her car was fine and she said that any damage we saw was from the accident she got in last week. I’m sensing a pattern here. She also told us that unless someone is hurt, there’s no point in calling the police—they don’t really care about traffic incidents here and might not even show up. Which is maybe why all the drivers are so shitty. Anyway, we were all unscathed except I have some wicked whiplash and had a headache the rest of the day. Or maybe I was just milking the “I got in a scary accident” card to get a Valentine’s massage.

            Oh and then when I went to run some errands, I parked in $8 per hour parking garage which I thought would be validated by the place I went shopping, but nope, not so. I’m such a city rookie. Although, I am getting really skilled at putting my grocery cart on the cart escalator. So, that’s kinda fun.

We started the tradition several years ago of getting take-out or pizza on Valentine’s Day so as not to deal with the reservations and crowds. Now that we live in Chicago, we had to get the Chicago style deep dish, of course. It was delicious going down, but not quite as delicious when I puked it up later that night. My only wish is that this incident doesn't ruin Giordano's for me forever, because I just barely fell in love with it. That would be too cruel. We also rented “Arrival”—which is about as romantic as our movie choices ever get. So our Valentine’s Day was one to remember—complete with car accidents, expensive parking and lots of vomit.

Moving Yet Again

Our life is so crazy and confusing, that we find ourselves explaining it to people multiple times a day and even we don’t really get what’s going on. But I’ll try to summarize. Billy has been waiting to start his 3^rd year of medical school, otherwise known as his clinical rotations (not residency), and we have been living in Utah until we found out where we were placed. Billy has been driving as a taxi during January for the Sundance Film Festival. I quit my job at Bella Lash too early because I thought we'd be moving in January. Then, when I found out we weren't moving until February, I got a job at the Sundance Film Festival, working in the box office. And I started my last semester of my accounting program a couple weeks ago. So, we are all over the place.

But the real news is, in December, we found out that we are moving to Chicago! We figured we loved safe, warm, and slow-paced Grenada so much, so why not move somewhere dangerous, freezing, and bustling? All kidding aside, we are pretty excited. Chicago was our #2 choice and we are at the perfect time in our lives to live in a city. We’ve been placed there for Billy’s clinical rotations for at least 6 months. Everyone please pray to the clinical placement gods that we can stay there longer, because I hate moving maybe even more than I hate Donald Trump.

            I can’t tell you how excited I am to finally be in our own place again. My in-laws have been so wonderful to let us crash at the compound for so long (we call it the compound because there are 9 Strongs living there at the moment).  At first, we were just going to stay there a couple of months, and then it gradually got extended month by month until February. Every in-law’s nightmare. We’ve been here since July with most of our stuff in storage and so I’m ecstatic to not live like a hermit anymore. And to explore a fun city that I’ve never been to. I am going to be needing a hella long list of places to eat and see while we are there, so please send me your recommendations now.

            We finally signed a lease on an apartment with only 10 days to go before we head out there. I used to complain about how Billy’s school only tells the students where we are going for clinicals about 3 weeks before the student needs to be there. But, we actually found out where we were going about 2 months early and we still left everything until the last minute.  But it’s still more fun to blame the school for everything.

We signed for our apartment without ever going there in person and now I'm worried that it smells like smoke or cat pee or something. We did a video tour and saw lots of pictures but I forgot that places can smell like crap. We had such good luck with our apartment in Grenada, and we bought a car from California this fall without ever seeing it either. We like to live on the edge that way, and somehow it keeps working out. Fingers crossed for a smell-free apartment!

            I’m embarrassed to admit that living on our own with our own furniture and belongings will be a first for us, and we’ve been married for 6 years. When we first got married, we lived in a furnished apartment for 4 months. Then we did summer sales in a furnished apartment in Minnesota. Then we moved in with my parents, then Billy’s parents, and then to a furnished apartment in Grenada. We haven’t needed our furniture or even some of our wedding presents until now.  I have no idea what we even own. We considered getting a furnished apartment in Chicago, since we're only guaranteed 6 months there, but it's high time we act like adults. So, this’ll be a real adventure for us. I'm all about adventure, but grown up stuff is not really my jam. Talk to me once we’re settled and I may concede that it was fun. But it’s too soon to tell at this point.