hits and misses

Now that I'm fully ensconced in my new homeawayfromhome, having procured an Illinois drivers license and license plate(s), and having almost closed on my beloved house in Alabama (where the grass is surely crunchy and the shrubs and trees in danger of dying a shriveled, crispy death), I have decided I have to come up with some justifications for being an Illinois resident.

One that easily comes to mind is the $35 mani-pedi just half a block away.  The Asian owners and employees have a limited vocabulary, and the end result may not be perfectly professional, but it's pretty damn good and well worth $35.  The discount price is only Monday - Wednesday, but outside of those 3 days, it's still only $45.  I've spent $65 on a pedicure alone back in Huntsville.  Frankly, I'd never gotten a manicure until I walked into this place - I've never had nails, using the fact that they are ridged and they peel and are thin and fragile as an excuse to keep them cut back.  Not that they'd ever grow anyway - with my propensity to digging in the dirt and hammering and cutting and nailing (different kind of nail), they never stood much of a chance.  It's also difficult to quilt with nails; the thimble doesn't fit.  There are all my excuses, and none really apply here (although I do hope to start a quilt this Fall).

So every 2-3 weeks I walk down to the the mani-pedi place and indulge in a massage chair, foot and lower leg exfoliation and rub down, hand/arm massage, and pretty toes and fingers.  Even if I am broke, I can dig up $35 for that luxury.

Another plus is the celebrity action.  Transformers 3 is currently filming, right in here downtown, and while I haven't actually managed to see any of the well-known participants, I have caught a little of the action.  Just seeing the way they can turn hunks of styrofoam into wrecked cars, torn up streets, and pieces of bridge is pretty amazing.

I also have the chance to see Bruce Willis live and in color at my favorite beverage store - well, one of the many locations of my favorite beverage store.  He'll be there for a charity event and admission requires a donation to the charity, but it still would be a chance I wouldn't have back home.  There are celebs that actually live here and tend to frequent the many festivals and shows around town, so a sighting is always possible.  Lacy even saw Opie at a breakfast place down the street!  I'm sure he's fairly tired of being referred to by that name these days.

I have to admit there are reasons NOT to like being here, but most of them are far removed from my actual existence.  The senseless murders that tend to pepper the south side - 13-year-old boys being shot as they ride their bicycles, cops killed outside their homes, bodies each weekend in double-digits.  There's also the proverbial "omg the winters!!! and the traffic!!!!", but even worse are the waits for dinner anywhere on a weekend night, if you can get in at all, the racing crotch rockets that love to take the curve from Ontario onto the long expressway ramp at insane, helmetless speeds, and how lonely a city of a gazillion people can feel at any given time.

Most of all, the downside to being here is when I wake up feeling lost and missing my family, and I can't just call them up and say "let's do coffee, or lunch, or dinner".  I miss "paint-n-pours", I miss after-works at the Nook, I miss lunch at Bandito or Blue Plate, I miss watching football with beer in hand on a Saturday afternoon, and I miss having them all a few minutes away.

There are lots of pluses to the move I've made, and one of them is having the kids come up and enjoy a weekend in the city.  But there's a big minus in not having them here all the time.  Hmmm....think I'd could convince them all to move??  :)