Winter Is Coming

First, it was going to be somewhere in Latin America. Then Singapore. Then maybe Ivory Coast. Then Sao Paulo. Then Bogota. Then Fresno, CA. In the end, after much consternation, it was Chicago. I have been transferred to the Willowbrook, IL – the Craster’s Keep North-of-the-Wall outpost of the company I work for. 

I officially moved on October 1, 2019. Winter was still but a thought on the horizon; a whisper in the winds of a pleasant autumnal zephyr. I chose a neighborhood roughly halfway between the Loop and the southwest burbs where the office is located. I still live in the city, but with easy access to I-55 to whisk me out of the city on the days I am not out on an audit and have to go into the office. The first month was hard. I had to make four business trips all in the month. I didn’t have a car. I didn’t have a bed. I didn’t have window blinds or curtains – or a dresser, couch, chairs, table, or even my clothes and personal items. 

In the shorts stints I was in Chicago in-between the trips I managed to get my stuff and cobble together the furnishings of a modern apartment. Amazon Prime became my ever-present frienemy. Friend, for their rapid delivery times and availability of items, and enemy, for the monthly fee (my parents disowned me and put my brother on their account) and the couriers’ constant inability to deliver into my building through the gated courtyard. 

By the time I departed for The Congo, I was nearing a semi-passable apartment. I was sleeping on a fully assembled bed with a mattress, I had a kitchen table and chairs, and I had even purchased a car. 

Two weeks later, when I got back from the equator, this happened:

Four inches of snow in two days, all preceding Halloween. I still didn’t even have a snow brush (although if I had had one, I’m sure my mom would have somehow found a way to swindle me out of it, even though she lives 800 mi away – she’s a notorious snowbrush larcenist – just like she stole Amazon Prime away from me). There was snow, there was ice, there was slush. Some communities tried to cancel Halloween, or postpone trick-or-treating until the weekend. 

As for me, I spent my Halloween in my apartment using an alan key to assemble even more Amazonian furniture. O’ how I wished I could have gotten some of the furniture from The Congo shipped right to my apartment, pre-assembled, shiny, and beautiful. I also promptly ordered a space heater to complement my furnace, and I unpacked my box with my coats, hats, and gloves.

So here I am, now a resident of Illinois. While I am working here I expect to be on the road conducting audits about two weeks out of every month. The other two and a half odd weeks, I expect to be in Chicago, working out of the burbs office or otherwise experiencing Chicago, spending time with my friends here, and making new friends. I have a spare bedroom (I still need to get a mattress for the bed though), so feel free to come and visit. There are special discounts on EricBnB from December through March. My neighborhood is Little Village, which has a vibrant Mexican community. It’s like a vacation in Mexico here every day, and you don’t even need to bring your passport to get in. 

Also, when is George R.R. Martin going to publish The Winds of Winter?