adios, belongings!

Yesterday, we finished up our humungo purge-all-the-things project at Casa Saratoga. When we went abroad in 2009, Rob's Mom was kind enough to let us basically box up our lives and stash 'em downstairs at her house on the hill. We had a TON of crap, and at the time, I was much more concerned with simply getting stuff out of her way (and getting out of the country!) than with parting with anything, so we amassed something like 50 boxes/bags. When we got back an moved into our little studio apartment, we left like 96% of the stuff there and just kinda started over with the handful of things we wanted or needed.

That crap on the mountain has been an ever-present dull ache of weight on my shoulders. I've been meaning to get up there and purge and better organize it for almost two full years, which is embarrassing at best. With the upcoming move and the hired movers being willing to make stops at two places to pick up our stuff (!), we had no choice but to get crackin'. Since Rob is home for the week, we set aside an entire day to sort out what should be tossed, donated, stored, or shipped... and an entire day it took.

Eight hours of solid work at the house cut our pile o' crap by at least half. We filled the bed of Rob's Mom's pickup truck with a load of donations, and piled up an additional seven boxes + two bags for later drop off. Three huge bags of trash and two boxes of recycling makes me itchy wondering why the hell I even boxed up that stuff in the first place. SO. MANY. THINGS. Things that have no use or personal attachment. Things I swear I didn't actually have. Things I thought were lost for good and that I actually squealed over upon unearthing. But mostly things that we do not need, so off they go to someone who can actually use them.

If I had to guess, I'd say that we've whittled the grand total of our crap (spread between alllll the houses/apartment) to less than 2/3 of what we once had. And I'll probably ditch even more stuff when I'm actually boxing things up, simply because I'm over it. I took a couple pics o' the piles, but no one really cares to see those because they're boring and ugly. So here's a pic of some jumping cats instead:

yay!

Chicago maiden voyage wrap-up in bullets

• landed in Chicago around 8pm on Thursday
• surprised by cold but not unbearable temps – I’d guess in the low thirties
• ordered beers + apps for dinner at Pints on North Ave
• bought my very first fancy growed-up cold-weather coat, thanks to JCrew’s 30% off online sale (I got an insane deal)
• took a short ride on the L up to Lincoln Park for some wandering in our future stomping ground/neighborhood
• checked out Weiner Circle for my first-ever Chicago dog
  

• met all of Rob’s new coworkers at their holiday dinner in the Willis Tower/Metropolitan Club (murder mystery + decent food + honkin’ glasses of wine + really friendly coworkers + great views + accidental seats at the head table…eeek)

• inhaled my first Dunkin Donut at 1am
• woke up to SNOW
  

chowed on a massive breakfast of huevos rancheros + melt-your-teeth-strong coffee at Milk & Honey

headed downtown on Saturday afternoon for some touristy time

visited The Bean in Millenium Park + watched the ice skaters

ate some more, this time: Potbelly for lunch (their pizza samwich > hangover)

snagged the last two pairs of Loft skinnies in my size in the whole wide world, which is really convenient because they’re the best ever and the only ones that fit

met up with my Mid-West native friend Amy to check out the Zoo Lights at the Lincoln Park Zoo (she mocked me for wearing my hat + a hood and for the tights I wore under my jeans. I've obviously got some 'cold calluses' to develop...)

split (and finished!) a large sausage-tomato-basil Pequods Chicago-style pizza + local Half Acre beers

enjoyed an egg nog & brandy nightcap + the best episode of Saturday Night Live I’ve seen in a long time

slept in + lazily watched football + slowly packed for home

endured an uneventful flight (the best kind!)

exited the terminal back home to find a huge hoard of people with giant American flags, posters, balloons, the works. apparently the last soldiers left Iraq yesterday (!) and a whole flight of them was due to arrive shortly after my flight…SO COOL

arrived home to not one, but THREE, packages of awesomeness I ordered as Christmas gifts

changes

I just dropped Rob off for his Chicago-bound flight, and things are starting to set in. I'm so excited for the upcoming changes, though it all comes with a side of nervous energy. It's one of those things that you know will have an enormous impact on a lot of things, but just seems so distant and theoretical until things really start happening. I'm trying to wear my big-girl britches and head off any upcoming freak outs at the pass, but I have no idea what to expect in the next few weeks.

My first ever trip to the city that'll be our home base will be in two weeks, so it's nice to have something in the short-term to focus on.