Author: cheerfulchaotic

I have a van reservation for all day friday. Now I just need (a) helper(s). Preferrably during business hours. Hmmmm.

I’ve developed one of my board game manias for Through the Ages. I haven’t had it this bad since the Scepter of Zavandor. (btw, I am _so_ over Scepter) I can tell I get a little off-putting with my enthusiasm. Especially since both games take hours to play. In order to work this mania out in a less irksome way, I’m thinking of writing an electronic version of the game. This brings up a couple technical questions, and a significant legal question.

Technical Questions: AI and Programming Language

My favorite LJ birthday wish posted by

Last night’s birthday party was very cool. I prepped a bunch of snacky things, a salad, and made potato leek soup with asparagus. Much fun was had. Jeff was introduced to the friends and got along well. I got to see a person or two I don’t often see. Jeff and helped me clean the place up afterwards, and much of the kitchen is now tidier than it has been since I moved in. bought the pies. put the candles on and lit them. I now have an excess of blue moon, but only because I bought a 12 pack and so did one of my guests. =) Btw, pomegranate fusion smirnoff ice was agreed to be an abomination by most of my guests. I was simply indifferent. And Jeff stayed over, that was an unmitigated good.

I also settled on a place to live. The space is sadly non-conducive to dinner and board game parties. (more conducive than ‘s place, but not massively so.) And sub-ideally located. The train ride will probably be about 10 minutes longer each way. But it is not badly located, the gym and the L stop are both within 10 minutes walk (as are both Whole foods and more conventional grocery stores) and it has central heat and air as well as laundry in unit. I intend to stay at least 2 years, because I need to get out of the habit of moving. It is also dirt cheap, so I will have no excuse for not paying down my credit card debt. My roomie to be has indicated that he’s totally fine with me having people over, though he won’t do so too terribly often himself (he likes to do it “right” when he does it. I think the serving of soup in coffee cups last night would have offended his sensibilities.) I also need to dispose of much of my furniture. Unless someone asks for it, most of it is going back to the brown elephant.

Happy bithday to scu,
Happy birthday to scu

I boned myself with my fear of commitment. And this was a no lube, no reach-around boning, just so you understand.

I had a decent apartment possibilty, nice kitchen, close to the train, central heat and air, large shared spaces, close to whole foods, trader joe’s, a cheap, but servicable gym, etc. For cheap.

Saw it saturday, it was rented sunday morning, I diddled around until monday afternoon to say I’d take it. Sucks to be me.

Now there are the sucky apartments and the distant apartments remaining. Bleh.

3 more apartments today.

1) was in what would have been a perfect location if they weren’t shutting down the paulina station for upgrades for a year (ie, the term of the lease), oops. Across the street from the library, near whole foods and the Y. Not to mention a ton of restaurants. map

Well, so far on the chicago apartment hunt I’ve checked out two places. One was badly located. The intersection given was a block and a half closer to public transportation than the actual address, and the bedrooms were tiny. Not gonna happen.

Place number two is home to a swell, earnest, semi-awkward, definite achiever gay guy (reminds me so much of “Best Little Boy In the World”). A few years older than me. Not hard on the eyes. The place itself is about as long a walk to the nearest public transit as I currently have, but a longer ride. About as close to groceries (Whole foods) and a cheaper, but just as fully featured gym. Has the amenitities I want, but is lacking/poorly configured on the space front. Would be awkward to impossible to have the dinners and game nights I have at my current place. Would involve disposing of most of my furniture. (no tears shed there). Would also involve a 3rd roommate, of the unknown variety (he lost two around the same time). So long as I can constrain my mess to my room, I think that will be a source of 0 stress.

Places 3, 4, and 5 are vacant 3 BRs, much closer to the whole foods, cheaper gym, and transit than Mr. BLBITW’s coach house. I’d have to find roommates, and might not have as much luck, but, rent would be slightly cheaper, and location much more appealing. How the space would work out remains to be seen.

So far no tree rats with rat mites.

Stay tuned for more. =)

Why do I mention my sexual orientation in roommate ads? It seems to encourage people to ignore all else for good or for ill and focus on that. I want to live with geeks. Queer geeks would be great, but geek is more important.

Not that geeks don’t often present their own roommate challenges. But the fashionista crowd and I just don’t make such great roommates (gay or straight).

This whining has been brought to you by Stephen’s internalized homphobia.

Yeah, Seattle is awesome. But no, I’m not living here. Probably not ever. Visiting will almost certainly happen again sometime, but not with the living. My decision not to live here is in no way a reflection of the awesomeness of the wonderful people I know here (including Ducky, Adam, Rehana, Zack, and Carl, whom I’ve seen this trip.) Nor of the vibrant culture.

I’m midwestern born and bred. Chicago’s a big town, and I’m far from done with it. I don’t know that it will be home forever, but it is home for now. I think I should continue the experiment with stability for a few years more. Stay in town a few more years. Stay with my employer a few more years (unless I find a research position that aligns more closely with my interests, that doesn’t suck, etc, etc.)

There’s definitely going to be some egg on my face for this, especially at work. At least three going away parties to cancel. But that’s not a reason to make a major life change. “Because I can” isn’t a reason either.

I’m glad I came out to visit. I love love love the Seattle field office location. If I could have the view from the Seattle office, and the bike lockup + showers, and the hills, and the greater bikability and the excellent lunch selection in Chicago, I’d do it in a heartbeat. But Chicago’s big in part because it’s so flat. You don’t get to stitch together your home out of pieces parts of different areas like some sort of frankenstein monster.

I was becoming a bit overwhelmed with my life in Chicago. Stress was part of what prompted this plan. I’ll find a better way to manage that. Scale back on my commitments. Moving across the country as a stress management technique has… issues.

This is a pattern for me. And I choose to change it. I choose to embrace the changes that can happen when I commit. I choose to grow up a little bit more. That’s a choice with some major consequences. But such are the strands from which adulthood is woven.