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.