Sweet Home Chicago

Like the blues song.

So I thought I’d actually post something substantial rather than yet more pictures of friends getting inebriated…not that there’s anything wrong with that…

Most readers (both of you) know by now what I’m going to relate, but I figure I’ll put it in writing for the record.

I’m moving to Chicago…. as soon as possible, which essentially means that I’m moving there as soon as I can get a job there.

There is really only one reason that I’m moving to Chicago (despite what I may be telling potential employers over the next few weeks to allay any of their concerns), and the reason’s name is Laura. Laura is the same Laura that appeared in that famous (or not) video from the last Union Pub Happy Hour in DC (April 2006 for those of you wanting to check the archives), unwittingly singing a Journey song for the camera and imploring me to “take the fucking picture!”

Laura and I did not have much going on in DC (at least with each other, but we’ll save that for a different story that likely will not be told here), but there was – at least in my own mind – a great deal of chemistry between us.


picture of us from April 2006 in DC


Her aversion to facial hair was the only real impetus for me shaving the goatee back in March (again, unfortunately I was lying about my motivations at the time). Anyway, we kept in contact off and on over the next few months. I sent her an email in June that pretty much described my feelings for her. She called me shortly afterward and we had a long talk. I think she was flattered, although I doubt it was a complete shock. I also don’t think it mattered too much at that point. I was unemployed and didn’t have much in the way of prospects. I did not have any way of funding a real trip to Chicago, and I don’t think much would have happened even if I had gone there then.


The rest of the summer ticked by. We both had other ‘situations’ during this time, if I can call them that. I knew I liked her a great deal, and part of me really believed I would get out to her and that we would find out if there was any possibility of anything between us, but on the other less idealistic side, I thought the chances were pretty slim.


I landed the job with Senator Clinton, working in Buffalo, and I think I was at least impressed with myself again, even if no one else was. I was a little more confident in my exchanges with her when we started talking again after she returned from Europe. Our IM conversations eventually grew into phone conversations as the weeks went by, and the phone conversations became virtually nightly in September and October. We seemed (this is still true) incapable of talking for short periods of time. All our conversations lasted at least an hour and frequently three.


In late October, both of our ‘situations’ were obviously fading out and I booked a flight for late November, two weeks after I would conclude my job for the Senator. Our talks continued and I think we both felt that we were genuinely learning about the other person – mistakes, faults, foibles, eccentricities, idiosyncrasies and all – but they didn’t seem to deter either of us.

Even though I thought it probably would be, Laura insisted that we not treat the visit as a ‘be-all end-all’ sort of trip that would determine the success or failure of the prospective relationship. She later confided that she had deliberately played down expectations. I don’t believe it would have mattered, because what followed was an utterly euphoric week that saw us both acknowledge and declare our love for each other.

I have never (and I do mean never – as in, at no time in the past) been so real – so ME – with any woman and realized that I was actually going to be accepted and loved for being that way.

I could go on and on (and I have, to her), but I won’t try to further nauseate any of you.

I’ll spare you the rest of it.

In short, I am in love.

So there ya have it. Laura will be bringing in the New Year with me here in Jimmytown. She arrives on the 29th and we will fly back to Chicago together on the 2nd so that I can get to at least one interview, look at apartments, and hopefully finalize plans for the move. I would like to be out there by mid-January.


Michigan Avenue in Chicago, December 2, 2006