Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Part 4 - Living it up in the city...

6) Grad school in Obama's backyard

After I graduated as an undergrad, I decided that I hadn't had enough of theory and literature and other urbane topics, so I applied to grad school. I got into my dream of dream schools, the University of Chicago, to earn a MA in Humanities. I still think there was some mistake, and that my name got mistakenly placed on the "accept" list rather than the "throw out" list.

But in any case, I packed up and moved to our current President's neighborhood of Hyde Park on the southside of Chicago (for all of my Chicago peeps, SOUTHSIDE!!!). I rented a grad student studio, on the fourth floor of a walkup, complete with radiators and squeeky wood floors that made my downstairs neighbor hate me.

Unfortunately, the only pictures that I could find of my little studio are of my cat, so I swear, I'm not just blogging more about my cat. Oh, this is also the apartment in which I first had Eddie.

Here, Eddie is sitting before one of the windows, which overlooked a beautiful park. Hyde Park has a colony of feral parrots living in its trees (yes, you heard right, feral parrots). You'd look out at northern Illinois tree varieties and see little green and yellow parrots flying around.

Here you can see a glimpse of 1) the beautiful wood floors, 2) the brown armchair that I got for free (FREE!) that Tony now hates and wants me to get rid of but I refuse because I've had it since grad school, and 3) the pale look of one overtired/underfed grad student.

Here, a visiting Tony (we were long distance at the time) sits at my desk, which is where I lived for that entire year. Again, for my Chicago peeps, notice the Marshall Field's shopping bag behind him. We miss you Marshall Fields!

The navy blue theme continued unabated...

7) Living in Sin Moving in Together

Well, years of Catholic schooling and upbringing failed, and Tony and I decided to move in together. (We got engaged right after though, so I predict only a minor sentence in Purgatory as our punishment). I spent the last few weeks of grad school traveling all over Chi-town, looking for cheap rent, and finally found a three bedroom (3!) in the neighborhood of Logan Square.

The built-in dining room hutch had me at hello...

So did the original hardwood floors and trim...

Well, the kitchen left something to be desired. Check out the awesome heating system we had. My allergies were not happy. And who puts an oven next to the fridge and away from any countertops? Seriously....

Other problems: The porch was broken and we had to sign a waiver saying that we would never allow more than 5 people on it at a time. (Scary) The next door neighbors were obviously selling drugs on the street (Logan Square is a neighborhood that's still in transition from gangland to yuppieville). The landlord won't fix the electricity, and using more than two appliances at once caused a shortage. (Frustrating) It's one of those places that we laugh about now, but it was a disaster at the time. But it was our first place together, and it's where the boy proposed to me.

This is the first time we combined all of our books and made a book room. That's love.

Me and my best friend on my birthday in possibly the hotest apartment ever. I hung red curtains to try and bring some color into the space. This is the first time that 1) my decorating didn't revolve around navy blue (what?!? crazy), and 2) I started to read blogs and realize that I could be doing so much more with my living space. It was the start of something big, people.....

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