You know those dates that you have on your calendar FOREVER and you’re convinced will never actually come?
(It’s like graduation day or the day of starting a new job or something like that. It’s like I kept counting down until this day but now that it’s past I’m kind of like, “Wait, that life transition just happened? The day is past? Now what?!”)
February 25th was one of those dates for me/us.
If you follow me on Twitter and/or Instagram, it’s already old news that yesterday we moved out of our apartment in Lakeview (a neighborhood on the north side of Chicago) and moved a few miles southwest to the near west side of Chicago (‘officially’ called West Town).
We had lived in Lakeview for two years. We moved to that apartment in February 2012 and it was a little piece of heaven.
Compared to the apartment we shared with a roommate before that, we had a ton of space. We even had an extra bedroom that I quickly turned into a shoe/coat room. Yep, necessary luxury, I assure you.
We got engaged the week we moved into that apartment. The (now) Husband popped the question on one knee in the still-empty hallway amid rose petals and a timeline of pictures of us and champagne… it was amazing.
Shortly after we moved in, we adopted our little Monster (Ozzie) and welcomed him to our (still new) home.
We also had a great housewarming / engagement party with lots of friends and laughter.
And those events were just within the first month!
Of course we came back (and recovered) from our Jamaican wedding to that apartment.
We prepared and went on our African honeymoon from there.
And most recently, we found out that we were going to be parents in that kitchen, just a few feet away from where the Husband had proposed 18 months earlier.
It’s amazing the amount of memories that can be tied to a place after just a few short years!
I’m going to miss our neighborhood, and the coffee shop I frequented, and the shops and restaurants within walking distance. And I’m going to miss walking Ozzie around so much grass and around the prettiest walk-ups in the city. I loved, loved, loved that neighborhood!
But, I’m excited to move on. While I cherish those memories and will always remember them in that apartment, I’m ready for bigger* and better!
*OK, not necessarily ‘bigger’ since we’re still in a city apartment, but one with more storage, at least.
And I think that’s the great thing about life, it’s very possible to treasure the old memories, love them and keep them in a safe spot in my mind/heart, but also be 100% ready to move on to new adventures.
I can’t wait to see what this house has in store for us over the next two years!
(Now if only I could find absolutely anything I needed…)
Cheers!
