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Hot Chicago
We were right! Someone finally noticed this weird Chicago heatwave phenomenon besides Deeps and me.

In fact he, Deeps, passed along a link to this short article today about the hugely mysterious and largely unreported weather experience in Chicago. Every year dozens of people die and no one really knows why – seems like the deaths could surely be prevented. What the article doesn’t cover is why Chicago is the epicenter for such deadly heat.

Again, I’m a bad blogger
We went on an apartment-hunting trip in Boston last week and I’ve been swamped with the details to manage. Setting up house across the country isn’t an uncomplicated process. Regardless, we’ve got a place and we’re dealing – which frees me up to do a bit more writing. Sadly, no one really cares.

Apartments for you
I made this big checklist that was very useful for my apartment search, so I included it on the List of Lists. If you’d like to visit it directly, just go here.

Music to my ears
And by popular demand, I’ve added the Music List (it’s really short) to the List of Lists.

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By: Alyssa | Wednesday, July 31, 2002 at Wednesday, July 31, 2002 | |

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
I promise I'll write about something that doesn't have anything to do with babies, the heat, or moving to Boston.

Until then, Two things
I realize in a few short weeks I’ll be without a home and without a job. I’m starting to wonder how this happened. Well, I guess in fairness I’ll have a home – thanks to a little fact-finding/hunting trip for an apartment we’ve squeezed in for a short portion of next week.

Apartment hunting is always a treacherous adventure even in the best of circumstances. We won’t be looking under the best of circumstances – we’re in and out of Boston in a few days and need to hand over a sum of money that most Chicagoans would consider to be obscene. Still, the more I roll the numbers around in my head, the easier it becomes to delude myself into thinking it’s really not that much. Really.

Okay, I guess that was really just one thing. It’s just a big thing on my mind – without any links.

Music
A friend asked me about music and if I had a music list. Sadly, I’m really backwards in this area. If left to my own devices I would own like 5 CDs. Deeps is our resident music lover and expert – as much as anyone is an expert at anything in our house. Yes, my husband has a huge music collection that is as wide and varied as his reasons for marrying me.

Honestly, his CD collection has brought much music and light and joy into our house – we have an interesting soundtrack to our lives. Right now we’re listening to Clem Snide's The Ghost of Fashion which I really like. It’s kinda funky and something of a bizarre twangy (not country) sensibility that I kinda like.

Anyway, there will be a music list shortly – primarily driven by a request from the outside world and the input of Deeps. Soon, very soon – there shall be another list.

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By: Alyssa | Wednesday, July 17, 2002 at Wednesday, July 17, 2002 | |

The New Baby!
No, it’s not my baby – sheesh. Easy with the pressure, people.

My sister, Kelly, gave birth on Friday afternoon to a bouncing baby girl. She’s a cutie too! Little Ainsley joins the ranks with her cousins Alexa (AKA Wild Child) and Christian (AKA Wild Child too) to round out the myriad of grandchildren/nieces/nephews (depending on where you fall in the family tree).

Everyone is fine and doing well at home – but due to the excitement and overall brouhaha surrounding her arrival, I’ve neglected the blog. While it’s not my baby, I’d say it’s at least as demanding as a plant.

The New Apartment!
For those who are worried about whether or not I’ll have to live a box – fear not – I have scheduled a visit to Boston to find a residence. The nice thing is that someone picks up the tab. The bad thing is that I’ll have to give away all of my money. Thems the breaks.

For anyone who is looking for an apartment, please feel free to use my handy apartment checklist. I use it for “screening” apartments before determining if it’s even worth the bother of looking at them. I have other checklists for actually visiting the apartment. I’m scary with my checklists.

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By: Alyssa | Monday, July 15, 2002 at Monday, July 15, 2002 | |

My $4000 apartment.
So as you may know, Deeps and I are relocating. That’s fine – we’re planning and trying to be ready. But damn, Boston - why so much money? I thought it would be nice to live in the City, but I’m trying to figure out how we can afford it... I may have to pay double the rent I pay now for a place that’s smaller. Plus I’ll have to pay for heat and parking – things that were included in my previous rent total...

I know, it’s expensive in lots of places – but we live in the 3rd largest city in America. We’re no slouches – how did Boston get to be so much more expensive? We’re not pig farmers and ranch hands, we’re smart and savvy business people with a thriving community and theatres and music and museums and history and a GREAT LAKE for Pete’s sake!

Anyway, it’s expensive and I’m worried we’ll have to live in a hole with all of our stuff. That would be so sad.

HOT! HOT! Seriously, it’s hot!
We have a little heatwave going. I think we’re in Day 3 of it. I’m not sure if this happens in other cities – but sometime around day 3 or 4 of a serious heatwave, you start to hear stories on the news about people who have – essentially – baked to death in their own apartments.

It’s a sad, sad fact and it happens every single summer. We get these ozone action days, the heat index is over 100 degrees and people bake to death. I don’t know why it happens – I know the city of Chicago sends out hordes of people to prevent it and plans are in place to provide cooling centers. So, if you’re in Chicago and don’t have AC – go to a police station or fire station or public library to rest up. Drink your fluids and pray for rain. Looks like the heat will continue for a few more days.

My Sweaty Day Adventures
The AC in my office failed over the weekend so the poor schlubs who arrived to work on Monday morning (me included) got a big smack of hot in the face. We had a little sweating party that lasted until this morning when the AC got a bit more stabilized. You take a little thing like AC in your cushy office for granted.

I will say that those Lever wipes - which really are just big moist towellettes - are fantastic and helped to keep me from being overly ripe on my drive home yesterday. Small favors... small favors.

I know I’m not the only one suffering from the big heat and I could prattle on and on, but I found that Sars does it much better than I could. Her anti-heat rant is snort-worthy...

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By: Alyssa | Tuesday, July 02, 2002 at Tuesday, July 02, 2002 | |

 
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