Decisions

My home

Hey guys.

Welcome to my blog.  I've started many of these in my days, but this one is actually pretty special.  It's a travel blog.

You see, I'm currently living in Seattle, where I've lived for the past 10 years, and have been enjoying for almost my entire life.  I've had an urge to move to a new city and try something new for a long time now.  Many cities have crossed my mind, such as New York, San Diego, Austin, Munich... the list goes on and on.

Last month I went to Chicago.  The reason I went is because someone I was dating was going to visit his parents and I was to go.  So we bought tickets (there may have been drinking involved) and said that was that.  We were going to Chicago.

But that relationship ended.  I bought travel insurance, but since there was no loss of job, loss of family member, or loss of limb or dismemberment, I couldn't cancel.  So I thought ... I'm going to Chicago!

And so I went.

The architecture in Chicago was amazing!

And had a really, really, really good time (can anyone name the reference?)

While there, I explored Craigslist, and asked people about places to stay and whatnot.  I met a guy there who had a place, and we met up, we agreed that I was going to make this move and live with him.

Also while in Chicago, I met a guy who owned a bar and said he'd let me bartend for him at his jazz bar downtown.  I was set!

I kept this pretty hush hush upon my return to Seattle.  Only a small handful of close friends knew initially, and I let it slip here and again to a few friends.  Then I created an invite on Facebook to a night out on the town, celebrating my departure from Seattle.

There were a lot of questions ... initially, "Where are you going?" because I wanted to keep that a bit ambiguous.  Then, "Did you know it gets really cold there?? AND REALLY HOT?"  That's pretty much how it's gone with 100% of the people I've talked to about this.  Apparently it gets really cold in Chicago.  And really hot!

About a week after my return, maybe not even that, I went online, looked at tickets, and booked myself a one way ticket from SEA>MDW.

In the weeks since, some shit went down.  The guy I was to live with got a bit spastic.  Spastic probably isn't the right word, but I spoke with the realtor/landlady and turns out the rent was a lot higher than had been discussed with the guy.  I spoke with him, he apologized and told me he would try to work things out.  Yadda yadda yadda, a while later, the landlady told me he was trying to spread out the deposit amount over several months and they can't do that so they are returning my application fee and moving on with someone else.

The guy tried working it out with me, but after talking back and forth with him, the landlady, and the realtor, I decided -- this guy is not someone I want to sign a year lease with.   So back to craigslist... found a bunch of nice people and decided to temporarily stay with a guy at a furnished place for rent that's quite a bit cheaper than the initial amount discussed with the other guy.

So off I go!  I leave this Friday, May 31, 2013, on probably the biggest adventure of my life to date.

And Chicago might not be the end!  I hate the cold/snow, so perhaps I'll be moving on before winter hits.  Then my blog 'Seattle Boy In Chicago' is going to have an unfitting title, but for at least this summer it'll be the document of my life on this summer's great adventure.