Furniture at last!

Yesterday marked the official christening of my new apartment as an actual living space.

For over a week, I had a set of walls, running water, and cable, but none of that stuff to tie the room together.

You know, furniture.

I got some last weekend, but thanks to my building's ridiculous freight elevator schedule, couldn't get anything delivered until yesterday. But now it's here, and now I sit on my couch rather than lying on the floor. I feel so much more civilized. Since I told people I'd post pictures of the new apartment, and since I only recently noticed I can include pictures here, I've done so.

The living room: Before Furniture

I was really going for the whole 'transient' look...It went well with the hobo beard

The living room: After Furniture


A significant upgrade I'd say.

With my furniture in place, I set about putting the finishing touch on my place. I had just the signature art piece to tie the whole place together, and today I finally got a frame and happily displayed it...


Marvelous!

Sweet Home Chicago???

So now I live in Chicago.

It’s definitely going to be a long process to get fully comfortable, but part of that is the complete lack of furniture.

I flew into Midway yesterday around 1pm and after collecting my giant checked bag took a cab up to my apartment building. The cab driver got lost, twice. An auspicious beginning for sure (Also, why is it that even if the cab driver gets lost, you still owe him the fare on the meter and all he has to do is apologize? Why didn’t he get lost back to Pennsylvania?)

Anyway, I got in, and after going through the move-in process and receiving about a dozen keys and a dozen forms, finally set foot in my new one-bedroom apartment.

Nice, clean, and completely empty.

So I went down to pick up my UPS shipment. I had shipped five extra large boxes to my building with a lot of my stuff in it. No furniture, but most of my clothes and personal stuff.

Apparently UPS routed the boxes to Chicago by way of Afghanistan. Every box looked like it had been beaten to death by a group of angry thugs. I’m putting the pictures up on Facebook, so everyone can see if they want, but it looked pretty bad.

Fortunately, all my stuff was there with only a few casualties. My dvd player now has a nice dent in it (but its functional, phew), and my Buddha came detached from his base. He’s still smiling though, so I’m guessing he’s cool with it.

So I unpacked the boxes and spent the last 24 hours trying to get situated.

To finish up my last post, the cable guy did come this morning and worked real well despite the handicap of not having a TV. So for now my cable box is a really expensive digital clock, but I should have the TV soon (crossing fingers). I also got my internet hooked up, although it doesn’t seem to be working as well as the Wi-Fi network I was leeching off of yesterday.

Even with all this running around, I managed to find time to catch the Phillies-Cubs game at a bar near the apartment. Stupid Phillies bullpen.

This weekend I’m hoping to get the bed and furniture settled (if not delivered). Maybe by this time next week, I’ll have a furnished apartment.