1998 was a big year for me. That spring I finished my first year of college, toured across the state of Wisconsin in the summer as a band member of the famed "KIDS from Wisconsin," and I also rented my very first apartment with two other roommates. I was beginning to feel like an adult - finally out of the nest and on my own (sort of).
As we spend this week packing boxes and preparing to move into a much nicer apartment in Champaign (no pigs!), I'm reminded of the experience of my first rental and how it taught me two very important lessons that I will never forget.
Lesson #1: Always make sure that you have lights and hot water:
When I arrived with U-Haul trailer in the afternoon of a cloudy June day at 211 Fulton Street in Eau Claire I was excited. I couldn't wait to unload my furniture, set up my room, and spend the first night in my own apartment. I was the first of three to move in and, at least for the summer, I had the place pretty much to myself. It was therefore to my considerable dismay when I flipped on the light switch in living room that the lights didn't come on. I went all over the house turning on all of the lights and nothing happened. There was no electricity.
Immediately I felt a sense of despair and the excitement of the new apartment wore off. Later in my adult life, after I purchased my first home, I learned this is called "buyer's remorse." What was going on? It was then that I realized that we needed to actually call the electric company (NSP back then) and let them know that we were actually occupying the apartment. At the time I didn't know that my roommate had already taken care of this and that the problem would eventually be solved - something was wrong with the meter as I found out later. In the meantime I would spend two full days without electricity and without hot water. Oh yeah I also learned, as it turns out, the electric company is also the gas company.
Which brings me to Lesson #2: Make sure you can communicate with the outside world from your apartment.
Back in those days nobody had cellphones. As a result I couldn't let NSP know about my problem until the next morning - at a pay phone next to the McDonald's on Water Street. You see, not only did I forget to set up the electricity, I also forgot to set up a phone line in the apartment. I couldn't call NSP from my apartment to let them know there was a problem because I didn't have a phone line.
On my second day at the apartment (after a romantic candlelit evening for one - candles purchased at Shopko) I awoke, took the coldest shower of my life (remember - no hot water), and then got in my car and drove around looking for a pay phone. I finally found one on Water Street and called NSP. After waiting on the line for a while, I talked to someone about my problem. They explained that my roommate had already set up the gas and electric so there must have been a problem with the meter - they would send someone out the next day. So I spent another night in the dark. (I decided not to shower the next morning until I had power).
Finally, after two days, electricity and gas was restored and everything was fine - just in time for me to leave for Milwaukee and KIDS. I even got myself a phone line too - after calling the phone company from the Water Street pay phone.
These days I've moved enough to know the ropes. Get your ducks in a row before you move. Today Kaia and I both spent time on the phone (cellphones) making some final arrangements for our new place including internet, water/sewer, electricity/gas, etc. Now all that remains is packing. I wish I would have thought of all of this in 1998 but I guess sometimes the best teacher in life is experience.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Cleanse
Last weekend Kaia and I took a trip to Eau Claire to visit family. Our official reason for heading up north was to attend a wedding party thrown by Kaia's father and his wife, who were married in Door County in February. It was wonderful to see the family and so many people I haven't seen in a long time. Additionally it was nice to get out of Champaign and see some lakes and rivers, hills and trees.Being a new visitor to Eau Claire after living there for so many years always makes me want to squeeze in as much as possible, however short the visit. Last weekend we were in town for four full days - which means I needed to fit in as much as two full weeks worth of activities. Here is a sample of three:
1. Tube the river? You'd better believe it. How about twice? Okay! Even after getting horribly sunburned the first day? Yep!
2. Go to the Joynt? How about three nights in a row!
3. Eat three meals a day? Screw that - four to five meals per day!
You get the picture. Don't do something once - go back and do it again and again.
As we drove the excruciating seven hours back to Champaign, I pondered on all of the excesses of my weekend. I had eaten too much, had too much to drink, and WAY too much sun. By the end of the drive I decided to go on a "cleanse diet" for the following week. This diet included avoiding red meats, refined sugars, alcohol, and other things that are generally considered "bad." I put myself on the Zand "Quick Cleanse" supplement regimen - which I had left over from a previous cleanse (I got it as a 2 for 1 special about a year ago).
Today I am on the last day of my diet and I can officially say that I feel better. I've lost some weight - cutting out ice cream and beer were two crucial factors - and I'm feeling healthier. I'm also proud to say that we haven't actually modified our diet that much this week. Being poor graduate students, we tend to not eat much meat to begin with. We already eat lots of fresh vegetables and fruits, especially in the summer when we get food from our CSA and our local farmer's market.
The only thing I've really missed this week (besides the beer with dinner) is ice cream and other sweets - like Fair Trade Dark Chocolate. The above photo is our dessert from Friday - using no refined sugars! We took fresh strawberries and marinated them in honey. Then I whipped up a batch of drop biscuits from scratch (no sugar), covered them with the berries, topped it off with fresh whipped cream, and drizzled the entire thing with honey. OMG delicious.
Of course, tomorrow I will eat chocolate and probably have a beer. But it's good to know that I can be really healthy for a week!
Friday, July 15, 2011
Dog Days
It is, once again, the eve of a terrible, crushing heat-wave in the middle of the country. Excessive heat warnings have gone up, beginning Sunday through at least Thursday of next week. Here is the icon for the forecast for next week:
That makes me hot just looking at it. Luckily we have air conditioning in our apartment at good old Ashton Woods. As an added bonus, today someone came by and vacuumed our common areas for the first time since October! Let's hear it for maintenance! There are still, however, squares (1 x 1 foot) of dead bugs on the walls in our common hallways from the light fixture removal and replacement project last month. These will probably be cleaned up sometime in December - not our problem.
We are currently in the countdown phase to moving out (only 14 days to go) and being homeless for two weeks. Hopefully the heat will break by the time we're carrying our boxes and furniture down two flights of stairs and across the parking lot to our PODS brand moving/storage facility. Kaia has hired workers to help with some of the heavier furniture.
Packing has begun. We've packed many of the non-essential items and have already made one Goodwill run - a car full of clothes and dusty glassware. Goodbye tiny liqueur glasses that we've only used once in the past five years - it was a good run. Our plan is to pack everything except for some clothes, our camping equipment, our cats (they go to a kennel), our plants, and blast out of here on the morning of July 30th for a two week camping/crashing on our friends' couches tour of the upper Midwest - "impoverished grad student edition."
In the meantime as we continue to pack and I find myself asking questions like, do I really need this video cassette of the final episode of "Who's the Boss," "Growing Pains," "The Cosby Show," and "Cheers?"
That makes me hot just looking at it. Luckily we have air conditioning in our apartment at good old Ashton Woods. As an added bonus, today someone came by and vacuumed our common areas for the first time since October! Let's hear it for maintenance! There are still, however, squares (1 x 1 foot) of dead bugs on the walls in our common hallways from the light fixture removal and replacement project last month. These will probably be cleaned up sometime in December - not our problem.
We are currently in the countdown phase to moving out (only 14 days to go) and being homeless for two weeks. Hopefully the heat will break by the time we're carrying our boxes and furniture down two flights of stairs and across the parking lot to our PODS brand moving/storage facility. Kaia has hired workers to help with some of the heavier furniture.
Packing has begun. We've packed many of the non-essential items and have already made one Goodwill run - a car full of clothes and dusty glassware. Goodbye tiny liqueur glasses that we've only used once in the past five years - it was a good run. Our plan is to pack everything except for some clothes, our camping equipment, our cats (they go to a kennel), our plants, and blast out of here on the morning of July 30th for a two week camping/crashing on our friends' couches tour of the upper Midwest - "impoverished grad student edition."
In the meantime as we continue to pack and I find myself asking questions like, do I really need this video cassette of the final episode of "Who's the Boss," "Growing Pains," "The Cosby Show," and "Cheers?"
Friday, July 1, 2011
Cremona, Stressa, and the Long Flight Home
On Saturday morning I awoke early and went for a quiet stroll along the streets of Venice Mestra. For some reason or other I couldn't sleep so I decided to get up around 5:30 AM, figuring I could sleep on the bus (5-6 hours of bus riding from Venice to Cremona to Stressa). It was a lovely, cool, quiet morning, and the streets were empty except for a few people out for a morning walk or jog.
After breakfast at the hotel we boarded the bus and made our way to Cremona, home to Stradivarius and Amati, famous for the tradition of high quality, hand-made violins dating back to the 16th century. While in Cremona we strolled around an open-air market - I bought peaches from a local vendor (yum) - then visited the city hall to hear a short performance on a 17th century Strad and toured the collection of string instruments. Following this we had time for lunch and then it was back on the bus.
From here we drove to Stresa, a tourist resort town on the shores of Lake Maggiore, nestled at the base the Alps in the north of Italy. This town is famous for its hotels, one of which - the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees - used to host Ernest Hemingway during his visits. He liked the hotel so much he actually set part of Farewell to Arms there. In addition to its opulence, Stresa is also the sight of the famous 1937 "Stresa Conference" where British and French heads of state met with Mussolini in an attempt to forge an alliance against Germany to prevent the escalation of hostilities leading into WWII. This conference took place at the Borromeo Palace on Isolde Bella, an island just offshore(a ten minute boat ride) from the town.
We spent a lovely evening in the town. I wandered through the shops, along the lakefront, and spent a bit of time watching the town from the window of my hotel room five stories above the street level. Dinner was delicious - a great way to celebrate the success of our trip.
The next morning I woke up early and went for a stroll along the lake front in the early morning sunlight:
While on my walk I passed a group of Italian boys - late teens/early twenties - dressed in khaki pants and button down shirts with sweaters draped jauntily around their shoulders. They were joking around, laughing, giggling, hanging on each other, sitting on a park bench near the lake. They had clearly been up all night long. They had a look of drowsy contentment on their faces that one only can find on the faces of those who are in the company of good friends creating lasting memories. It made me think of staying up all night in London with my friends fifteen years ago.
My stroll concluded at the hotel where I wolfed down breakfast and then headed to a boat that would take us out Isole Bella and the Borromeo Palace. Here we had free time to stroll about the grounds for a couple of hours:
After enjoying a nice quiet morning on the island, we boarded our bus and took off for the Milan airport. From here it was a mere eleven hours of airports, planes, lines. We arrived in Chicago on time and picked up our baggage within minutes of passing through customs (quite a contrast to Rome). Once I made it through I said goodbye to the kids and chaperones, boarded the blue line train for downtown, then got on a Megabus to Champaign (I don't recommend this after flying internationally). I arrived at 1 AM Monday morning in Champaign where Kaia picked me up in the middle of a tempest and we made our way home.
After breakfast at the hotel we boarded the bus and made our way to Cremona, home to Stradivarius and Amati, famous for the tradition of high quality, hand-made violins dating back to the 16th century. While in Cremona we strolled around an open-air market - I bought peaches from a local vendor (yum) - then visited the city hall to hear a short performance on a 17th century Strad and toured the collection of string instruments. Following this we had time for lunch and then it was back on the bus.
From here we drove to Stresa, a tourist resort town on the shores of Lake Maggiore, nestled at the base the Alps in the north of Italy. This town is famous for its hotels, one of which - the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees - used to host Ernest Hemingway during his visits. He liked the hotel so much he actually set part of Farewell to Arms there. In addition to its opulence, Stresa is also the sight of the famous 1937 "Stresa Conference" where British and French heads of state met with Mussolini in an attempt to forge an alliance against Germany to prevent the escalation of hostilities leading into WWII. This conference took place at the Borromeo Palace on Isolde Bella, an island just offshore(a ten minute boat ride) from the town.We spent a lovely evening in the town. I wandered through the shops, along the lakefront, and spent a bit of time watching the town from the window of my hotel room five stories above the street level. Dinner was delicious - a great way to celebrate the success of our trip.
The next morning I woke up early and went for a stroll along the lake front in the early morning sunlight:
While on my walk I passed a group of Italian boys - late teens/early twenties - dressed in khaki pants and button down shirts with sweaters draped jauntily around their shoulders. They were joking around, laughing, giggling, hanging on each other, sitting on a park bench near the lake. They had clearly been up all night long. They had a look of drowsy contentment on their faces that one only can find on the faces of those who are in the company of good friends creating lasting memories. It made me think of staying up all night in London with my friends fifteen years ago.My stroll concluded at the hotel where I wolfed down breakfast and then headed to a boat that would take us out Isole Bella and the Borromeo Palace. Here we had free time to stroll about the grounds for a couple of hours:
After enjoying a nice quiet morning on the island, we boarded our bus and took off for the Milan airport. From here it was a mere eleven hours of airports, planes, lines. We arrived in Chicago on time and picked up our baggage within minutes of passing through customs (quite a contrast to Rome). Once I made it through I said goodbye to the kids and chaperones, boarded the blue line train for downtown, then got on a Megabus to Champaign (I don't recommend this after flying internationally). I arrived at 1 AM Monday morning in Champaign where Kaia picked me up in the middle of a tempest and we made our way home.
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