Thursday, March 17, 2005
About Chicago
So, thanks for commenting Erin. I don't know if you were just making small talk and expected an answer to your question about Chicago. But I'll use your comment to springboard into a rant about who knows what. (hey Arcade Fire just came on my satellite radio).
Chicago is really great, and from my one visit to NYC I can understand the idea in that its more liveable, primarily I think because Chicago has a land mass to spread into while the center of NYC is pushed onto an island. It is still cramped and busy enough for me, especially when you live in places like Des Moines or Edmond where you can drive and park your car pretty much anywhere. I managed to pick a place to live that's not too far into the city to be unbearably congested, but close enough so I don't have to get on the scary freeways except to leave the city for travelling. I'm still adjusting though.
The big thing is that there if I really wanted to plunge into all the stuff going on in Chicago, I would never get bored. It's really overhwhelming when there are entire types of art, music, film, expression, political views, etc. that have no outlets in cities smaller than Chicago. I consider it a rare treat that I live here, but I'm just taking the opportunities one day at a time (now Tori Amos Spark is on the radio, is that from the new album?) because I can't try everything, and frankly, some stuff just wouldn't be fun unless I did it with a large group of like-minded people. But its amazing I moved 5 hours east and now every live band, movie, cultural product, etc. I could ever imagine wanting to take part in I could find here. I feel like making my tastes more simpler, because some experimental film or theater showcases I just don't imagine myself paying 10-15 bucks to indulge in.
The mere fact that I live in Chicago is distracting, especially being back in an academic environment. After leaving a class at Drake in Des Moines that was particularly uninteresting I stepped out of the room and looked around and was like "Yeah, a boring day, what are you gonna do?". Now when that happens, I go catch the train home and I can see the Chicago skyline with the Sears Tower all lit up at night, and I'm like "Damn, here I am". There are a handful of times so far where I've been working on a paper and I'm I go through a thought process that goes along the theme of "YOu know, fuck it, I'm in Chicago!" and then I go out to a park or take the train to a new part of town or something.
Now working at my internship (starting April 5th!) will signficantly reduce my free time for studying so I might have to avoid Chicago's temptations by necessity. But I can imagine I will be distracted in a new kind of way, when I hit a challenging snag in my project (or if I'm given something mindless to do like my past internships), and I look out the window and see all of downtown Chicago around me, with Lake Michigan and all the lakefront parks around the corner, and who knows what outdoor festivals will be going on in the summer. It's going to be very hard to stay in my cubicle.
So it will be a dilemma indeed, but one welcome among the multidudes of professional and social challenges that exist here that simply could not come about in Des Moines, as nice and low-cost as that place was.
And now please check out this completely unrelated Ted Rall cartoon . I actually met him in D.C. and he a book for me! That cartoon will be all the politics I will infuse this post with.
Chicago is really great, and from my one visit to NYC I can understand the idea in that its more liveable, primarily I think because Chicago has a land mass to spread into while the center of NYC is pushed onto an island. It is still cramped and busy enough for me, especially when you live in places like Des Moines or Edmond where you can drive and park your car pretty much anywhere. I managed to pick a place to live that's not too far into the city to be unbearably congested, but close enough so I don't have to get on the scary freeways except to leave the city for travelling. I'm still adjusting though.
The big thing is that there if I really wanted to plunge into all the stuff going on in Chicago, I would never get bored. It's really overhwhelming when there are entire types of art, music, film, expression, political views, etc. that have no outlets in cities smaller than Chicago. I consider it a rare treat that I live here, but I'm just taking the opportunities one day at a time (now Tori Amos Spark is on the radio, is that from the new album?) because I can't try everything, and frankly, some stuff just wouldn't be fun unless I did it with a large group of like-minded people. But its amazing I moved 5 hours east and now every live band, movie, cultural product, etc. I could ever imagine wanting to take part in I could find here. I feel like making my tastes more simpler, because some experimental film or theater showcases I just don't imagine myself paying 10-15 bucks to indulge in.
The mere fact that I live in Chicago is distracting, especially being back in an academic environment. After leaving a class at Drake in Des Moines that was particularly uninteresting I stepped out of the room and looked around and was like "Yeah, a boring day, what are you gonna do?". Now when that happens, I go catch the train home and I can see the Chicago skyline with the Sears Tower all lit up at night, and I'm like "Damn, here I am". There are a handful of times so far where I've been working on a paper and I'm I go through a thought process that goes along the theme of "YOu know, fuck it, I'm in Chicago!" and then I go out to a park or take the train to a new part of town or something.
Now working at my internship (starting April 5th!) will signficantly reduce my free time for studying so I might have to avoid Chicago's temptations by necessity. But I can imagine I will be distracted in a new kind of way, when I hit a challenging snag in my project (or if I'm given something mindless to do like my past internships), and I look out the window and see all of downtown Chicago around me, with Lake Michigan and all the lakefront parks around the corner, and who knows what outdoor festivals will be going on in the summer. It's going to be very hard to stay in my cubicle.
So it will be a dilemma indeed, but one welcome among the multidudes of professional and social challenges that exist here that simply could not come about in Des Moines, as nice and low-cost as that place was.
And now please check out this completely unrelated Ted Rall cartoon . I actually met him in D.C. and he a book for me! That cartoon will be all the politics I will infuse this post with.
