Yellow Snow

My lettuce is crisp. My lettuce is green.
My lettuce is fresh (so clean, so clean).

I just made that up. And when I say 'lettuce,' I don't mean cash moneys. I mean actual lettuce. As in, the type you find in the produce aisle.

I've always had difficulty keeping my lettuce fresh, usually because I buy the bagged variety. Within a couple of days, my BAG lettuce ends up being BAD lettuce (hohoho, heeheehee). I either have to finish a whole thing of lettuce within a few hours, or throw it out and buy some more.

But not anymore, friends, for I have found the secret to fresh, crisp, green lettuce. Right now, at this very moment, I have five (FIVE) ziplock bags filled with leafy Romaine, just as tasty as it was four days ago. Yeah, that's right. FOUR.

And it's all thanks to a simple method. First, I bought an actual head of lettuce, as opposed to the bagged variety. Then, I bagged the lettuce when it was still a little wet, BUT I also put in a paper towel to absorb excess moisture. So I still have bagged lettuce, but now it's FRESH.

That's it. Thanks to that secret, I can now enjoy a healthy salad every day of the week.

IN CHICAGO!

I'm sitting at my desk. In my apartment.

IN CHICAGO!

CHICAGO! CHICAGO!

CHIIIICAAAAAGOOOOOO!

Extend the vowels to show excitement!

EEEEEXTEEEEEEENZZZEEEE!
(for you penis)

It's amazing! I love this city. I love my neighborhood. I love it here. The first thing that hits you when you walk around is the smell. Or smells, rather. There are so many delightful and exotic smells wafting through the city, a byproduct of the hundreds of restaurants cooking unique and delicious foods. In the span of four days I had:

Thin-crust pizza
Hawaiian Chicken
Bagels
Crepes
Delicious brunch
BBQ Burgers
Greek Food
Chicago Hot Dogs
and
Cinnamon/Vanilla French Toast

And all of this within like a half-mile radius of where I live. And I haven't even visited every restaurant on my street!

The food is good. I'm going to love it here just because of the food alone.

You'd think that with all of the eating I'm doing, I'd get fat fairly quickly.

Not so fast, jerk!

Thanks to Chicago being such a densely packed city, nearly everything is within walking distance. I want to go work out? Ten-minute walk down Clark. I want to go to the zoo? Eight-minute walk down Webster. Sushi? Two-minute jog on Fullerton. Burgers and fries? 10-second stroll once I leave my apartment (seriously, there's a Five Guys not even fifty feet from my apartment).

I'm going to be doing a lot of walking. And whatever isn't within walking distance is definitely within public transportation distance. Want to go to the aquarium, but don't want to walk three miles? How about a ten-minute train ride? Or need to go to the airport, but can't afford a taxi? For $2.25, the L will take you there in half-an hour. And with all of the traffic in this city, public transportation is actually more efficient at times.

My classes are awesome. The city is awesome. My dog loves the snow (it's the only place she'll pee now when we go out, which will make things difficult once the snow melts...). The food is great. The weather is amazing, though I probably won't like it once October rolls around.

My only Chicago complaints?

EVERYTHING IS SO EXPENSIVE.

Delma, Gabriel, and I went to this place called "Oven Grinder and Pizza Company" a few blocks from my apartment. It was a Sunday night, so not too busy. We just wanted some of that famous Chicago pizza. We ordered one pizza and one oven grinder, just to see what the hell an oven grinder actually was (GAMEPRO TIP: It's a sandwich). Gabe and I also had beers and Delma ordered a Coke. For all of that, it came out to nearly $60! And there were no Coke refills! Or as the waiter called it, "pop" refills. And the pizza was weird. It wasn't pizza. It was like a blob of goo. Apparently we went to the wrong pizza place to get Chicago deep-dish pizza. "Oven Grinder and Pizza Co." is famous for their pizza pot-pies. Which is what we got. It's like a pie with pizza fillings inside. And it was ok, but definitely not worth $60.

Also, groceries are expensive. $4 for a loaf of bread? No, thank you.

But yeah, aside from that and the fact that I miss my famiy, things are going good. I'm heading out to an improv jam tonight to hopefully meet people. And make friends. Cus I'm so lonely. :(

I've also started writing a lot more. I'm trying to do at LEAST an hour of writing a day, even if it's just random free-writing. I've come up with several ideas for short stories and I've realized that if I ever want to become an actual "writer," I should start writing. A lot. So I'm hoping to have a few short stories completed by the end of the month. Like, completely-completed. Not first draft completed. Revised fifty-times and I've-gone-over-the-story-so-much-that-if-I-read-it-one-more-time-I'm-going-to-vomit-my-Dunkin'-Donut-all-over-my-toaster-oven completed.

[Just kidding, I don't have a toaster oven.]

And I think I'll leave you with that image of me barfing on a kitchen appliance.

adieu~~~

EDIT: JK THERE'S MORE!

Quick anecdote about my stove/oven. Cooking in my kitchen is an adventure every time. Why? Because my stove is missing those markings on the dial. You know, to let you know if the flame is "HIGH" or "LOW" or "MEDIUM-LOW." And my oven doesn't tell you when it's ready. All of my cooking has involved an unsavory amount of guesswork. Thankfully, aside from burning some french toast and having the smoke detector go off, nothing too bad has occurred. I'll let you know if I ever burn down my apartment. Which might actually be impossible in this weather. So aside from the cost of living and missing my family, the fact that my stove does not have markings on it is one of the few faults I can find with this city.

But I've just started living here, so we'll see if I like it in a few weeks.