And All That Jazz

We loved living in Chicago. I mean loved living in Chicago. Streeterville was the best neighborhood in the city and allowed us to walk everywhere and be in the middle of it all. I especially loved living right off of Michigan Avenue. Here are a few things we’ll really miss, along with a few things we won’t miss.

I will miss being able to walk to work, especially because our walk was along the Chicago River and was really a refreshing and peaceful commute each morning. I will not miss walking to work for 6 months with my dress pants shoved into Ugg boots wearing a full-length down jacket with the collar pulled up so only my eyeballs show and wrapping a scarf around my head like a babushka because I actually worry that a hat will make my hair look worse than the freezing wind and wet snow and showing up at work with my makeup half gone because it’s now in the inside of my jacket, my legs so cold they feel like they’re being stabled with a thousand tiny forks and my eyelashes frozen together. Nope, won’t miss that.

I will miss being able to walk only a block to the grocery store. I will not miss the days when I forgot that I walked to the grocery store and left with 2 gallons of milk, a jug of juice, our weekly groceries and an 8-LB BAG OF NAVEL ORANGES that I just had  to have. I still shudder thinking about my arms on that walk home and the look on Jeff’s face when I finally barged through our door kicking half our groceries into the apartment.

I will miss the street performers along Michigan Avenue that we began to recognize after passing by for 2 years – especially the really old little man playing the accordion in his Cubs hat. I will not miss the homeless people along Michigan Avenue that we began to recognize after passing by for 2 years – especially the crazy old homeless lady who screamed at me and started following me in her zillion layers of clothes one morning for giving her “a look.” Thank you also to Jeff for speeding up and basically running away without looking back to save me if necessary….

Leopard Guy street performer - he shoved his whole body into that box

I will miss Cubs games at Wrigley Field. I will not miss having to take the Red Line to get there. Grody McShrody.

July 3rd Cubs game with the Blonns

I will miss living across the street from Nordstrom. Wait- happy day! We live directly across the street from Nordstrom again! Hooray!! (Yes, I Google mapped Nordstrom before we moved to Dallas and found the Galleria Mall. I just happened to fall in love with an apartment directly across the street from the Nordstrom entrance. Pure coincidence, I swear.)

I will miss our apartment in Streeterville. The location, the kitchen, the rooftop deck and party room - all amazing. I will not miss the view from our apartment for a number of reasons: 1) The giant air conditioners on the roof of the building below us made me feel like I was covered in pollution every time I stepped on our balcony; 2) The couple who “made-out” every Sunday morning in the condo building across from ours. We initially thought being able to watch people in the foggy showers across the street was pretty awesome, but this couple made me want to vom. Jeff endearingly referred to them as the “sexers.” and 3) We didn’t get any sunlight. Ever.

Jeff grilling on our balcony...

...and the view below our balcony.

I will miss the variety and quality of restaurants all around us, especially the multitude of delicious Italian restaurants brimming with bread and melty cheese. I know Jeff will miss Giordano’s, although I think he would settle for any deep dish pizza at this point. We will both not miss the fact that there were no Papa John’s in the city. Sometimes you just need a big cheesy PJ’s.

I will miss Christmas time along Michigan Avenue. The lights, the stores, the people – it was pure Baby Jesus magic. I will not miss the hoards of people overflowing the Disney Store when I was trying to buy something for my niece or that I would occasionally forget that I walked to Macy’s to do my Christmas shopping and left the store with a heavy knife set for the in-laws. That was another long walk home. In the cold.

I will miss and really loved having a doorman. Derek, Freddie and DJ were so polite (I’m a sucker for anyone calling me “Miss Mary”), opened the doors for us, accepted our packages, and told us to “be safe.” I will not miss the doorlady on the weekends asking every single time we left the building if “you all need a taxi cab?” when we were already halfway out the door. I know this one sounds petty, but it got so annoying.

Last, but by no means least, we will really miss our friends. I will especially miss Carie and my girlfriends from work. I'm so glad I was able to visit Carie in the hospital on the day she had little baby McKenna, but am so sad that I'm not there to hold McKenna every few days and watch her grow. I will not miss our law firm work schedules leaving us with little time to actually spend with our friends. We promise to visit often. Yay travel benefits!!

 Carie and Mary at a Cubs game

Lauren, Mary and Megan at Hub 51

~Mary

El Rodeo

Before last weekend, the only thing I knew about “el rodeo” was that it’s the name of a delicious Mexican restaurant in Indianapolis. How quickly that changed with a $15 ticket to the Cowtown Coliseum Championship Rodeo at the Fort Worth Stockyards.   

Me and JP. In the heat.

Thanks to Erin, our adventure started at the Fort Worth Stockyards on a balmy 106 degree Saturday afternoon. We started the day off with really big beers. 

 The Millers - pun intended

Then we watched “The Herd” of longhorns go down the main street.

Cow butt

Ignorant of all things bovine, we had to use our phones to figure out whether all cows are female (they are) and whether all longhorns are male (they aren’t – despite the fact that all the longhorns we saw were definitely male).  We then wandered into true country western stores to look at hats and boots (I won’t even mention Jeff picking up the ladies boots for himself….hilarious). We feasted on steaks at Cattlemen’s Steakhouse (except poor vegetarian Erin who ate salad and side dishes) and headed over to the rodeo. While sitting in the stands, Erin and I googled rodeo fast facts to learn a little about what we were going to experience. Nothing on dear Wikipedia could prepare us for what we were about to witness. 

Scary bull.

This is just one of the videos Erin captured. We also saw calves being chased so fast that they slammed their faces into the metal ring. Cringe. In addition to bull riding, we watched cattle roping, steer chasing and some serious bucking broncos. There were even girls out there doing this stuff! My heart was racing for pretty much the whole time, and there weren’t enough 24 oz. cans of Miller Lite to numb the anxiety. I asked Jeff what they did to make the bulls go crazy like that, but quickly plugged my ears when he started to say something about “nuts” and “electrocution.” Nasty. 

 Not the best pic, but hopefully you can tell this cowboy is being whipped around

Speaking of nasty, one of the bars we went to was called Filthy McNasty's. So funny for so many reasons.

Fort Worth was quite the experience, and pretty much summed up all of my stereotypes of living in Texas in just one night. It’s way different from Dallas even though it’s less than an hour away. I also have to admit that I had a blast going into the different bars, walking down the middle of the street with a beer and watching all the true cowboys and cowgirls spend a night on the town. The girls really do wear boots and daisy dukes. I think they could be my friends.

We live in Texas!

Here it is - a brand new blog for me to share stories and pictures about our new life as (almost, ok barely) Texans. I know - this surprised me, too. We hope this will keep us better connected to friends and family all over the country. While I have no idea where this blog will take us, or whether Jeff will ever actually post, we hope it's at least a little comical and that it gives you a small glimpse of how things are going down here in the Big D. Enjoy!