New Home

haHA! I've found a new place to live! Mainstreet, Evanston Illinois! I've struck a fantastic balance between being near work, near the city itself, in a neighborhood thats both beautiful and entertaining, near public transit, near(ish) the freeway, super close to the lake, near a coffee shop that has good coffee and culture, near bars and restaurants, near a music venue, near a boat launch, near an awesome university. With tree-lined streets that don't have their trees pruned to accommodate power lines above them. I am super excited.

Not to mention my apartment-to-be. Its in one of those courtyard brick buildings that seem to be iconic of Chicago, the unit is on the top floor in the courtyard/street-facing corner, has hardwood floors, granite counter tops, a full size stove, big windows, parking, laundry, heat and water included, possibly a garage space for my motorcycle, a secure place for my bicycle, two blocks from two different grocery stores. Did I mention its like 6 blocks from the beach and a boat launch? Theres also a bike shop.

Right now I'm at a coffee shop on Main street called the Brothers K Coffee House. Its pretty awesome. Its a the corner of a building, at an intersection, with windows on all sides, and a 20 foot ceiling. There's a guy setting up for an open mic; it will be interesting to see how their open mic scene compares to Cincy's. Or rather, how It compares to Baba Budan's; I can't say I really went to many others.

After I filled out my rental application I stopped into this bar/music venue near the leasing office. It was a pretty hip looking place, and it had a really interesting and reasonably priced menue. On tap they had an awesome belgian, which was awesome. I started chatting with the bartender, he was nice and friendly as I talked a bit about moving up here, but his eyes lit up when I told him I was bringing a boat. Turns out he's a hobiecat enthusiast, he teaches a kids watersports camp in the summers, and he runs the rescue operations out of the boat launch thats a few blocks from the bar we were sitting in. He was psyched that I was bringing up an 18 foot boat; said the 16's could just barely keep up. So that's awesome. I gotta try to get a spot on his beach; there's limited space and a lottery system to assign them.