For Your Edification

I feel a clarification is in order.

For the record, I HEART Chicago.

I don’t just like Chicago.

I don’t just endure Chicago.

I don’t hate Chicago.

I loOove Chicago so much I would make-out with it and there would be frenching involved.

But I don’t want to live here forever. And I think that’s OK.

Because I can love Chicago for what it is (a beautiful, vibrant, cultured city) and still not like things about it (i.e. the winter and any darn thing I don’t care for, so sue me).

Part of the reason you might think I don’t HEART Chicago is because Chicago was never meant to be home. Chicago was supposed to be an amazing 1-2 year adventure, where Mr. Dub would get his master’s of smarty pants, and I would explore the city when not heavy with child. We would savor every last bit of our urban life, only to pack up and head back to western suburbia when our time was done.

But two days shy of our western voyage, we ended up staying here. And while we traded our $100-a-month parking space for a piece of the ‘burbs, we’re still 30 minutes from the Magnificent Mile. And nearly four hours on plane from anyone who shares our genetic composition.

Which is OK … for now.

Just this past weekend we headed downtown and joined the throngs at Millenium Park celebrating the Blues Festival. We dined with a close family friend and walked around the city in late summer sunlight. It was fun. It was invigorating. It made me HEART Chicago all over again.

And not a day goes by that I don’t drive my dearest to work and remark on the sheer beauty of the tree-lined street and its lush canopies. Chicago may be a city, but we’re still the Midwest, which means there are forests a’plenty and scenic farmscapes mere minutes from The Loop.

(To be honest, Arizona looked a little dirty to me when I was visiting. And I double-HEART Arizona.)

But in the winter here, not a day goes by that I don’t complain about the cold, gray look of leafless trees, salted roads and dull skies. That I don’t lament the fact that I have to lug Miss Dub around in negative temps. That I don’t try my darndest to figure out just what you’re supposed to do with your ankle-length down coat and six additional layers once you get inside the grocery store.

And I miss my family. I miss my friends. I miss the West and its spirit.

But that doesn’t mean I’m not making friends out here, that I’m not happy where I am, that I’m not treating Chicago as a permanent destination and not just some stopping point on my life road map.

I enjoy it.

I treasure it.

I HEART Chicago because Chicago is home … for now.

And when it’s not, that will be OK, too.

I’ll just open my HEART to some place else.

Just thought you should know.