on your marks

To get things moving, I'm going to do a quick Brent-style recap. What have I done since relocating to Chicago? Well, a lot:

I've left the friendly confines of Webster St., ridden the El, crashed a med student conference, grilled brats at one in the morning, gone to two Sox-A's games but no Cubs games, met a bunch of complete strangers who turned out to be awesome, walked everywhere in the city...

continue reading »...got tired of that and bought a sweet ten-speed at Working Bikes, been to Vegas for the first time, attended my first lacrosse game, won $300 in a road race, eaten some quality pizza and Polish sausage, saw my little sister graduate from college, nearly got killed by a Puerto Rican dude when Jon refused to take his coffeemaker, worked a ton, went shopping on Michigan Avenue (totally against my will), spent a week in New York City, found out I'm living two doors down from a minor celebrity (TV's "the Bachelorette"), played Capture the Flag in the streets (twice), took a picture at the Shit Fountain in Wicker Park, had my I'm-finally-okay-with-retiring-from-running moment, watched the Fourth of July fireworks with 500,000 other people on North Avenue beach, had lunch with my cousin, helped crew a 38-foot racing sailboat, met Boots Riley of the Coup, barbecued on the South Side, attended the first house party I've been to where a trampoline was present, eaten at McDonald's, played pickup baseball many times, been inducted into a bike posse, seen some awesome concerts (Gogol Bordello, Boris, the Intonation festival, Of Montreal, the Coup, and most of all Sleater-Kinney for the last time), hit the town in the legendary Mystery Machine, eaten a real Philly cheesesteak, had dinner at Ali Baba's, ridden my bike as fast as possible through nearby Cabrini-Green, run the lakefront, seen a free concert at Millenium Park, attended both days of the Upright Citizen's Brigade marathon in NYC, cooked for an entire weekend with Mari and Emily, gotten sprayed by Buckingham Fountain, played NHL '94, and, mainly as a result of moving here without knowing anybody, been putting myself out there and generally being a total badass.

It's been a lot of fun.

Things still on my list:

1. Go to a Cubs game. This is the single most important thing I can do while I'm in Chicago and I haven't done it yet. I'm always out of town when they're in town. It WILL happen. Fortunately, they suck, and scalped tickets are cheap. Wrigley is the church of baseball.
   
2. Hit the museums. The Art Institute, the Field Museum, MoCA, etc. Saving these for when it turns cold.
3. The Second City. I live about one block south of the Second City and there's really no excuse. Improv usually doesn't do much for me, but after seeing UCB with Jon and Tim in New York, I'm excited.
   
4. Find some decent Mexican food. La Pasadita is closest, but it's no La Costena. Actively soliciting suggestions.
   
5. See a show, or many shows, at the Empty Bottle
   
6. Eat a sundae at Margie's.
7. Wiener Circle between the hours of two and four a.m., or Tim will disown me as a friend.
   

You can expect further adventures to be documented, and posting frequency to pick up.



A final word: many of the links above contain pictures. If you're in one, and you don't want to be, email me. I'll take it down, no questions asked.