Day 1

So the big day finally happened. I got up at the crack of dawn to make my 8:10 AM flight. My Dad is freakin' awesome. He drove down from Dawsonville to pick me up at my place at 6:00 AM and take me to the airport. It's amazing how much stuff you can pack into two bags. My idea was to have two large bags checked and bring my work laptop as a carry-on. One bag weighted about 60 lbs and the other weighted 45. Travel tip - If a bag weights over 50 lbs, they (Delta) charge you something like $80. Ridiculous. I had my personal laptop in the heavy bag so I took that and my alarm clock out to just make it under 50 lbs. However, you still have to pay $25 for a 2nd checked bag.

Other than leaving a little late, the trip was pretty uneventful. It's a pain in the ass carrying two laptops on your shoulders and dragging around two 50 lb bags. I was actually sweating when I got to Enterprise. I think the guy there felt sorry for me and gave me a water.

I found my place in Oak Park without much trouble and got there a little after 11 CST. Oak Park is a suburb of Chicago, about 8 miles west of the city. I have a roommate that I've never met. He's out of town this weekend so I won't actually meet him until Monday night. He's trying to sell his place here. Property values here are higher than Atlanta...A LOT higher. He has a townhouse with 3 bedroom, 2.5 baths. One parking spot is outside (no garage). Asking price is $430k. My place in Smyrna is 2/2 and in a suburb of Atlanta. I have a garage and a pool. My place will sell for about 40% of what he's asking. Amazing.

I was pretty hungry by this point so I walked from the house to the town of Oak Park. There's a lot of stuff withing walking distance. I found a quaint little Mexican place called Chipotle to have my 1st meal. Give me a break. I'm going to be here for quite some time so I can afford to eat chain food. Besides, Chipotle is freakin' awesome. There was no sweet tea. I expected that but it's a strange sight to see when there's only 1 pot of tea at the drink station.

Next I went to meet a real estate agent. I kind of forgot about this and looking back it was kind of stupid to schedule this immediately upon arrival. It took me a while to find his office but I saw Lake Michigan for the 1st time. It's just like driving along the ocean. I've never actually drove along the ocean...but I can imagine. There are boats and beach volleyball courts everywhere. The office is in a neighborhood called Linkin Park (yes, the band is from Chicago). I can't really afford anything in this area. I could buy a place with 500 sq which includes parking. There are other places that are bigger but parking spots cost ~$30k. That's not a typo...parking here is expensive. I got to see Wrigley Field for the 1st time, including all the bars around the area. My agent actually suggested I rent in the area for a while to decide what area would fit me best. I think he just knows I'm poor. Housing will be an ongoing topic here I think.

I got "home" and it starting raining so I didn't really do anything else. I went out for dinner and went to Whole Foods to pick up a few things. Whole Foods may have high quality stuff but they're expensive. I miss Publix. That's pretty much the end of Day 1. I watched some movies On-Demand. My roommate actually pays for cable, so he has a great picture and gets just about everything. Sweet.