Chicago Is Different

A lot of people have been asking me how I like Chicago and all I can really tell them is that it's different. I lived in the same city, heck the same neighborhood, for all of my adult life. I had certain routines that became synonymous with being an adult and living miles from my family. Some big, some small. So when people ask me how is Chicago I have no real answer. Here are two observations that I have made about Chicago that has made it far superior to Boston.

The streets run on a grid for the most part go in cardinal directions. The first week we were here a friend was giving us directions that were simple, go south, then east. I'm not use to driving in the city being so easy. In Boston directions were more like, "You are going to go on a snaky road and curves a lot and starts out with one name, changes names with in the three miles you are going to be driving a number of times, and you might end up where you want to be." Garmin was a necessary for most people. Often times it was just true that you can't get there from here. I like the simplicity of urban travel here.

The second reason why Chicago is better is because all apartments seem to come with an abundance of closets. In Boston our old house had two closets in the whole 2 bedroom apartment. Not even big ones either. Our new Chicago apartment has a closet in every room. One of our closets even has a closet inside of it. If this was New York I could rent that sucker out as a studio apartment. It's great to have easy access to our stuff. Where's that sweater I haven't worn in a year, hanging up in the closet that's where. Not in a Tupperware container that is at the bottom of a stack of Tupperware containers.

So that's it. Chicago is different but not necessarily better. Boston does have better sea food.

Just Like In ER

I was working last night and was tired. I had worked the previous two days and was looking foreword to being done and having some time off. My patients were starting to grate on me, Steve was making dinner, my shift was almost over, I was ready to be done. I was doing some last moment clean ups for the next shift when the secretary announced that there had been a major bus accident on Lake Shore Drive.

"44 ambulances responding to bus accident on Lake Shore" he said. I thought it sounded like an episode of ER and continued with what I was doing. "The hospital is on hold." He said. I asked what that meant and he explained that it meant that none of us could go home.

Wait, what?

Apparently when we expect mass casualties they hold all the day shift nurses and have the night shift nurses come in there so they can admit as many patients into ICUs as possible. It makes sense and I think I remember hearing something about that in orientation but never thought it would really happen. Even worse, I thought it wouldn't happen when I was almost done working a stretch and was sore, tired, and just wanted to go home. Yes, a bus filled with people would mean that there would be some people needing surgery and some just a stitch up in the ER but why can't I go home again?

I started to think about almost every season finale of ER and began thinking that maybe this sort of thing happened in Chicago all the time. People assured me it didn't but I still ended up staying about a half hour after my shift until they had sorted out all the casualties from the bus crash. Luckly, there weren't too many people hurt and I got to go home and go to bed.

And I'm Out

I won't be able to post tomorrow so I am officially out of the Yo Lo Tango Blog Challenge. I was hoping to have my dad post for me tomorrow but he is having technical difficulties and can't. So maybe I will continue to post frequently, maybe not. Stay posted!