New Place

So I've moved from Lincoln Park in Chicago (here) to Lakeview, which is further north. That's not much of a difference, but now we (Mindy and I) live on Lake Shore Drive, which is right on the lake (here). And the two areas, close as they may be, are very different.

The most obvious is that we are now ON the lake. Not closer or with a better view, but we are right on the lake. Although our view is pretty good too (whenever a commercial comes on I just turn my head slightly and stare at the lake, the sailboats, the harbor—it's better than most commercials).

The differences: the people are older. More families. More older people. Even in our building you can feel the difference. It's a very nice building and most people in it you can tell have high standards of where they are supposed to live.

The word snobby comes to mind, but it's not quite right. Just more sophisticated. Less in touch with their goofy side. Older.

You walk down the street and instead of seeing people casually dressed, you feel like they have all taken it up a notch. It's weird for people like us because we are pretty simple, or at least we feel we are. So it feels weird. It was tough to adjust when we first moved in—it was like it was too nice a place for us.

But let me tell you, feeling a little weird at first in exchange for the view, the space, the pool, the gym, the grilling area on the 40th floor—I'll take it.

Also, we are right up close to Boystown, and I've never lived this close to it before.

I had visions of being stared at on the sidewalk or being hit on constantly. But no luck, as I said, I'm a simply guy and I don't think I have that put together look that is so prevalent in Boys Town.

So far the only real moment I've had where I thought to myself, "Of course! I'm in Boystown," was when I was looking around for a place to get a haircut. I saw two guys getting cuts through a window and thought, "Why not here?" The place was called "Great Head."

I walked on.