It's been a very busy couple of weeks. But you knew that.
Lisa and I went looking for a new apartment yesterday, once again going with Apartment People. We made an appointment for 10:00 AM, made it, and waited for a hour and a half. We thought making an appointment might save us the long wait, but if everyone else makes one, what can you do?
Our agent this time was a fellow named John (same name as our previous agent, weird) who took us to six apartments on a Saturday afternoon. The first was okay, but not great. The second was unenterable; they had given AP the wrong key, apparently. The next four were all very good, but the winner ended up being the very last one we saw. It was really a toss-up between bachelors #3 and #6. However, we hadn't confirmed the pet policy on #3, which turned out to be cats-only. Number six won by forfeit.
It's close to twice as big as our current apartment, has a great kitchen, and is only about 15% more per month. It's also within two blocks of Devon Avenue, the place to go if you like food from other countries. It's also much closer to the lake, friends, and Lisa's brother than our current digs. Going up in rent isn't great, but it's getting us a place that should make us much happier. Much as we like many parts of our current apartment, there are serious drawbacks that we will not miss.
Our application is in, and we're currently waiting to hear back. If all goes well, we'll be moving during the second week of next month.
Meanwhile, I'm gearing up to go on tour at the end of the month with Stolie and Dave Tamkin, whom I've never met face-to-face. It should be good fun, traveling the southeast. My plan is to write about it while we're gone, Lis-style, although we're only covering four states in eight days.
We're preparing a redesign of ShooFly as well. We've done a whole bunch of sites since the site was last updated, so it's crying for help.
There are other things too: gigs (the music page is grossly out of date), trying to start a home studio (have Logic, have keyboard, need microphones), trying to train the dog, and so on.
Oh, and Lisa and I have a piece in the just-released issue of No East, a collection of online artwork from various Chicagoans.