Suburbanite in the City

Living Social Getaway

There’s an awesome Living Social getaway deal right now my friend posted on Facebook…$87 for a stay in a queen suite at a super cute historic Wisconsin hotel, winery tour, voucher for gourmet candy apples, vintage movie theater, and breakfast.

I need a boyfriend. Although it’s such a good deal, I’d contemplate splitting it with a friend (or getting a group of friends to buy it) and then go have a girl’s weekend. It may be a little too romantic though.

Forever alone. 

“Rent” at Northwestern University

During the first weekend in my new apartment, my roommate and I went to see Rent at Northwestern (my alma mater). This show is one of my favorites - I’ve seen it several times when the national touring companies came through Chicago, I have the DVD of both the movie and the last Broadway performance, and have seen a fair share of maybe less-than-legal versions floating around on the internet. Safe to say, I love this show, and when I found out Northwestern was doing it, I was super excited to go see it. Northwestern has an amazing musical theater program (Adam Kantor, the final “Mark” in the original Broadway run got the role right after graduating NU) and so I knew it would be high quality (not to mention I knew some of the cast members from my time at NU, which I didn’t realize until I read the program before the show started…several of them were freshmen when I was a senior, so our paths crossed a few times. I also know the choreographer, and everything he does is amazing).

Anyway, this version was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I was expecting it to be similar to the Broadway version as far as staging goes - definitely not the case. First, it’s done in a black box theater. I wasn’t sure how that would work, but the show as a whole works so well in that format. They had decorated the whole theater with Christmas lights, and the actors utilized the setup really well and were able to interact with audience members (i.e. “Out Tonight”) with the circular format of the seats. The set design was flawless. The staging for “Contact” was also really creative. I don’t want to get too into it, but it was unlike any other version of Rent I have seen. 

Also interesting…they didn’t stick to the type-cast roles, as in the actress playing Joanne and the actor playing Collins and Benny weren’t black, Angel was white, etc. At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about this. Northwestern is diverse, and they probably could have found talented people to play the roles who fit the typical character descriptions, and the cast as a whole wasn’t all white. But, it is nice to see that they picked the best people for the part/went off of voice and acting ability, as opposed to sticking hard to the ethnic guidelines that Broadway uses. It’s kinda cool that a white actor gets a chance to play Collins (and he has a smooth baritone voice, so I’m glad he did), since on Broadway he would never have that chance. I always thought it would be fun to play Mimi or Joanne, but since I’m super pale white that isn’t realistic (not to mention I’m not a solo singer anyway, but I digress). I applaud NU for casting diverse actors, but truly letting talent dictate who gets which parts, not strictly adhering to character descriptions. I think for Rent it is important to have a diverse cast since it’s set in NYC, but I don’t think having a white Collins or Joanne is detrimental to the show as a whole, especially when they are as talented as the students at NU. They also double cast Maureen and Roger, but not the other characters, which is interesting. I wanted to go back and see the other two actors portray those roles, but I was out of town one weekend and they sold out for the closing weekend performances this weekend.

This show sold out super fast, so they added an extra Sunday night performance that will be filmed for a documentary, that I’m hoping they’ll air so I can see the show again. Information on the show here: http://www.communication.northwestern.edu/tic/performances/rent/index.php

I am moving back :)

gradschoolroundtwo:

I got an email this morning saying I’m approved for the apartment and can come in to sign the lease.

Come November 1st, I will once again be living close enough to downtown to take advantage of Chicago life, close to the university, and close to boystown (where a vast majority of my best [guy] friends live, so I can finally experience Sidetrack). Plus, my roommate seems awesome (also a dancer), so we should get along pretty well. Yay!

I’m so excited. 

I am reblogging myself. I will be moving back to the city in just a few weeks, which means more exciting adventures to be had (and to blog about). I feel like the weird mood I was in all last year with not totally loving what I was doing had a negative effect on my city experience, so this year I am determined to really take advantage of it and do it right. 

Chicago Apartment Fees

I’m currently trying to move back to the city (or at least closer to it). I found a girl on craigslist who has a 2 bedroom place, so I met her, saw the apartment, and it’s awesome. Good deal. She wanted to just have me move in and have her dad (who is a lawyer) write up a mini-lease to have me sign. I had her send me the original lease, and saw that it said only the persons listed on the lease may reside there, so we started the process of getting me added to the lease (I should have just done what she wanted to and not told the management company I was going to live there).

The management company is trying to charge me $300 in “administrative move-in fees”. Um, what? First off, move-in fees are stupid. I’m fine with paying a security deposit, or last month’s rent or whatever, but a fee to move-in? Hell no. Especially not for an apartment that’s lease is already a third of the way over (she moved in at the beginning of July and I won’t move in until November). She already paid a move-in fee, too. She already has both sets of keys, so the landlords don’t even have to come to the building to let me in. It’s literally just adding a name to the lease. That also means that any official/legal sublettors also have to pay a move-in fee. That’s ridiculous. I even asked “she already paid the move-in fee” and they told me it’s for every new tenant, or for however many adults are living in the apartment. 

That’s on top of the credit check fee (which to be fair is less than other apartment companies charge, but still)…fortunately I just did my free annual report and have a copy to give them, so I managed to have them waive the fee. 

I feel like there’s no regulation for crap like that. Security deposits I totally understand, because they are refundable and are there to protect the company if you damage something. I’m totally fine paying that. But having a ridiculous move-in fee that borders on what a security deposit would be for no reason other than to make a profit is an abuse of power. It certainly does not cost $300 to add one name to a lease. My favorite is when these craigslist ads advertise “No security deposit!”, but then you read there’s a $600 non-refundable move-in fee.

In this economy, people are struggling to afford apartments. 10 years ago I would have been able to get a mortgage and would just buy a place instead, but now I can’t because the banks are so screwed up that no one can get a mortgage. Therefore, I’m forced to rent (like so many other people in similar positions). There are a ton of people looking for apartments, and I have noticed that in the past few years I’ve been renting the added fees and rents are rising drastically, because the supply of decent apartments is much smaller than the demand for them (e.g. my college 2 bedroom apartment in 2009 rented for $1550, and now I believe it’s about $1900). Because apartment companies know people can’t buy (even though real estate prices are so low right now), they are taking advantage by screwing people out of their money with all these stupid hidden fees. 

livinginlakeview:

Woman gives birth after running Chicago Marathon

In other news, I just did a painfully slow 2 miles. Woo.

Good lord - that is inspirational (and maybe just a little crazy)…not unlike the Northwestern Law student who took the bar exam while in active labor and gave birth two hours after finishing the exam.

(Source: cassieirwin)

Congratulations to all the Chicago Marathon participants

I will never know how (or why) you do it. But, congratulations (especially to those out there who I know). I volunteered as a medical team member last year and all of you are beasts, and I kinda think you may all be a little off your rocker, but more power to you.

I could never do it. 

Congrats again :-)

Bank of America Chicago Marathon

fuckkyeahchicago:

theexpeditionist:

Hey all you chicago marathon runners. I think you should all wear signs that say ” NO $5 FEE FOR USING MY MONEY!!!” at that Bank of America sponsored event.

  It’d be an easy, high profile, tons of press coverage way of getting Bank of America to drop that greedy little fee before it even starts.

 I’m just sayin’…. imagine if these people all had a little sign on them telling Bank of America to basically piss off????

that’s a good idea… if any of our followers decide to go for it, snap a pic and send it to us so we can blast it on the interwebzzz.

happy marathon weekend kids! — FYC

I am still alive, for those of you who are wondering

I’m still rocking the suburbs for the time being. I started a new grad school program, and am currently trying to land a job so I can afford to move out of my parents’ house and back to the city (or a suburb that’s less than 15 minutes from the city).

In the meantime, feel free to check out my newest blog on my grad school and life adventures: Grad School Round Two

I will still be around to post Chicago-related things and any in-city adventures I have. Stay tuned!