Day One - New Years

Happy New Year!

I'm alive and in Evanston. The flight was amazingly smooth, though it was a little disconcerting flying out of PDX at 11:30 a.m. and landing during sunset in Chicago. Mom and I went out to dinner as soon as we got in and found out that when everyone kept telling me it is cold here, they probably should have informed me it is effing cold. I think I just about froze my face off.

Day one in Evanston began with me ushering in two New Years days via Portland at 10 p.m. my time and my area at midnight. For some strange reason, I have been flat out exhausted the past couple of days so I passed the hell out the minute I got in bed post chocolate/wine/Sex and the City with my mother (best way to celebrate New Year's Eve EVER.) At about 3 in the morning I woke myself up by sleep talking - something I never do. But I did it with style...

Me: (sits straight up in bed) WHAT THE CRAP!?
Mom: (freaked out, sits up too) What is it? What's wrong?
Me: Did you hear that?
Mom: What? Did you hear someone?
Me: (slightly more awake now wondering why I'm talking) mumble mumble mumble
Mom: Do you want to go check?
Me: NO. (fall back asleep)

Don't ask me. I somehow managed to be an alarmist and a grump all at once. Typical.

Mom and I woke up super late (aka 11 a.m. here) because it was so dark in my room that we had no real way to check the time by way of daylight. I live in a modified cave for the second time in my life. No windows = dark and cold. Woohoo.


We decided to head out and stock me up on groceries and other household supplies that I may need and opted to go by way of public transportation. And let me just say, the El is AWESOME. It goes practically everywhere and the places it doesn't go, the busses do. A few transfers later, we found ourselves at Target and Jewel Osco (the Fred Meyer of the midwest). Though their version of one-stop shopping is a far cry from my beloved Freddies, we ended up getting the job done, but had to taxi it back as we had accumulated faaaaaaaar too much to cart around.

One thing I learned today: my mom is public transportation challenged. I love her to death, don't get me wrong. But she is just a kick in the pants to watch try to navigate the card system they have here. She simply could not figure out how to get the damn card into the slot - very funny to watch. I think she'll be taking a cab back to the airport. :)

I spent the rest of the night cleaning/rearranging my new space and desperately trying to find my phone charger which mysteriously disappeared. But I found it in the most logical location it could have been in - of course.

I hope you all are doing well.

Peace, love, chianti.