A Trickle of Strangers Were All That Were Left Alive

Monday was much more dull than its predecessors and really just involved going to see a small one bedroom apartment that was very charming, in a way, but was in one of the worst maintained buildings I've ever seen and isn't available until September 1st.

My apartment hunting skills are slowly improving, though, and I'm learning which neighborhoods are going to be the most lucrative, with a lot of help from my various hosts. Currently, I have my sights set on the Uptown neighborhood, which is close enough to Lincoln Park (where the Landmark theater to which I'm transferring resides), but isn't as expensive. It has a community college and a brand new Target and some cool looking restaurants and coffee shops. And, if I end up moving into the studio I just saw a couple of minutes ago, I'd be right across the street from a head shop, too. Perfection.

I've been compiling lists and making phone calls while simultaneously trying to meet some new people and make friends. Last night was my first night staying with new people, Eileen and her husband Elliot. They are an adorable rockabilly-hipster couple with just huge hearts and a beautiful apartment in Logan Square. When I got to their place yesterday, we left immediately to go see their friends--newlyweds about to leave for their honeymoon in Wales the next morning. They made us steak sandwiches and cous-cous salad and we drank and talked out on their deck, as the evening was perfect outside. They all love food and beer and music and were all hilarious and sweet. It was a great night.

By the time I woke up this morning, they had both gone off to work. I've spent the first part of my day running around and looking at studios, so I need to go back to the movie theater now and talk to the manager to try and facilitate this transfer.

If I don't find an apartment by the time I start work, which seems to be the most likely outcome, I might choose to buy a new set of work clothes rather than attempting to unpack my own, which are of course all in vacuum-sealed bags in my backseat. I think it's a good call.