Distances.
It’s been a while, basically a month, since I last posted. I don’t really know why I have been labeling them in “days” when really they are just entries. But I still do plan to have a total of 30. I’ll get there eventually I suppose.
One of the reasons it has taken me a long time to post is because I recently moved into the city of Chicago. For the past four years I have lived in the northern suburbs of Chicago. People for some reason still called that living in Chicago, even though it can easily take an hour to an hour and a half to get into the city with medium traffic on the interstate. It would take an hour by Metra train. But that’s the key I think. People in the Chicagoland area assume that if you can hop on a train from where you’re at and it goes into the city proper you can say you live in Chicago. I mean, I told people that I lived in Chicago when asked. Not anyone from Chicago, though.
When I lived about a mile away from the city line of Indianapolis I used to feel really guilty when I told people I lived in Indianapolis. I didn’t live in Indianapolis, really. I lived in Greenwood. But no one knows where that is at unless they are familiar with the Indy area, so you tell them Indianapolis. I was like 10 miles from downtown Indy. Then I moved up to the north suburbs of Chicago, and it’s like 28 or so miles from the middle of downtown Chicago. But everyone said they lived in Chicago up where I was. I pretty quickly felt a lot less guilty for saying I lived in Indianapolis.
Distances are so strange. How we define what is far away and what is close seems to change depending on where you live. The mode of transportation really does help define what is close and what is far. When I lived in the north suburbs of Chicago, the closest store was a Dominick’s grocery store. It was 1.7 miles away from my apartment. That was really close for up there. The nearest Taco Bell was almost 3 miles away. Where I live now, however, 1.7 miles is actually pretty far away. That’s just because within a half a mile radius of where I live now there’s dozens of stores and restaurants. I walk everywhere I go now. 1.7 miles isn’t impossible to walk obviously, but it takes a while. And on hot summer days, you just don’t want to walk that far.
The other day there was a shooting 1.7 miles from where I live. In the city, that’s far away. That’s a totally different area from where I live. Different neighborhood, different demographics. If a shooting would have happened 1.7 miles away from us in the suburbs, people would be running for their lives. Protests. Neighborhood watches. Parents wondering if their kids could play outside anymore.
Anyway, Sarah and I are getting used to the city life. It’s been good. It’s so easy to get used to. Walking everywhere is wonderful. Not needing to drive nearly at all is incredible. Sarah takes the train to work everyday. Micah and I go to the plaza right outside my apartment and watch all the children run around, listen to the musicians, watch the clown. It’s great.
Here are just a few pictures. I haven’t been taking as many as I should now that we’re here. I starting to take more, though. Hopefully I’ll update more often.
Micah enjoys hanging out at the plaza watching all the kids run around and play.
Sarah and Micah enjoying the fireworks at the park near our apartment on the Fourth of July.
Sarah and Micah walking through our new neighborhood, Lincoln Square.
My new office, when I want to get some work done. A great local coffee shop.
Stepping Back 