Musings of a Chicagoan

Well, it has been a while since I’ve written an entry of a personal nature on this website, any sort of status update, and I suppose one is overdue. In short, the latter half of this year has been tough for me, but things have made some abrupt turnarounds for the better beginning at the start of November, and at the moment, my life feels a great deal better than it was even a few short weeks ago.

And, of course, it never was anywhere near as bad as the horrible travesties that some people have dealt with this year with Katrina, and, to a lesser extent, Rita.

I would say that it started with the summer. The summer was the hottest summer that Chicago has endured since I’ve moved to it, and the tenth hottest summer in its history books; it included one day where the heat index went up to 106 degrees. I lived at the time at a walkup apartment that was three floors above ground level, and it was not able to house a wall unit air conditioner, meaning that I slept and baked in the heat. It was, as you might imagine, a tough summer for me, given that I’m battling a severe weight problem and was carrying around about 310 pounds around in that heat.

During the summer, I accumulated what were, to my mind, mosquito bites. I asked Ask Metafilter about it, and several possibilities were introduced, including bedbugs, but I then proceeded to see a gray mosquito land and feed upon my hand one June afternoon, and chalked it up to mosquito bites. They worsened throughout the summer, until one early August morning when I went to see my physician for the first time. “Oh, those aren’t mosquito bites,” she said. “Those are bedbug bites.” I went home, and the rest has been covered in the “bedbug genocide” entries that I’ve written on this blog. If I were to recount them here again, I’d manage to work myself up into a good lather, something I’d rather not do.

My landlady was obviously not going to take care of the problem in a sufficient manner (she was not going to even inspect the other apartments for bedbugs, let alone preventatively treat them as she should), and that would drastically increase the chances of them returning to me after migrating to another apartment in the building. I knew that my mind would manage to work itself into knots, and that I couldn’t live with that high probability, so I asked my landlady to let me out of my lease early. I was prepared to fight her for it, but she readily agreed, and I moved out of the apartment at the end of October.

I had changed jobs in late April. I had in this blog referred to my old firm as Sheol & Gehenna. Both Sheol and Gehenna are alternate Biblical names for Hell. I had called my new firm Fluven & Postremo. I think ‘Fluven’ was a misspelling of the Latin word ‘flumen,’ for river (and also seemingly for the act of flowing); ‘postremo’ is Latin for ‘future.’ Essentially, I was calling my former firm Hell, and the second firm was Latin for “flowing into the future” or perhaps “onwards to the future.”

The future? Not so much, really. I learned at Fluven & Postremo that people can smile to your face while firmly implanting cutlery in your back. I prefer to be honest with people as best as I can, because, let’s face it, aside from the issue of morality, who wants to walk around remembering which lies you’ve told to which people? Because of this, I used to prefer to take what people said at its face value, unless they had proven themselves unworthy of this respect. The hard lesson I learned is that in corporate environments, that can be an unfortunately overly naïve tactic to adopt. You cannot go around assuming that everyone is lying to you, but it appears as if you must apply some cynicism and some interpretation of possible double meanings to most remarks people make. To put it in a different way, taking what someone says at face value is something they earn along with your trust. Because of this, in early October, the firm of Fluven & Postremo and I parted ways. The departure was unexpected, meaning that I had to mount a job search without income coming in, and had to conduct a move during an incomeless period as well.

The move achieved a positive result for me, but was, even with the help of my best friend and his wife, a physically arduous task that took nearly 12 hours to complete. When doing a post-game analysis with he and I, we tried to analyze what had delayed things so much. Should I ever look back on this entry in preparation for another move, I remind myself: do not think that you can pack any last-minute items while things are being moved. Be sure you have the keys the day before the move. And do not get a larger van than necessary, as the resulting lack of maneuverability will hamper your efforts more than you think. (Also, the physical task of moving down four flights of stairs, with resulting need for rest, will hopefully not be repeated in my life, as I never intend to move so high up again, unless such a building has an elevator.)

So, to recap: hottest summer on record, bedbug infestation (with resulting scarring, both physical and emotionally), physically arduous move, and unexpected job hunt. As I’ve ruefully said while looking at friends and family, it’s been a hell of a year.

That having been said, some solid accomplishments were made. The move was to a much better place, a place that has proven to be a much more comfortable home. The building manager is contactable via e-mail, which is a pleasant and convenient way for me to interact with them, and my appliances, tile, paint job, and bathroom are all new. As of yet, I have seen no sign that bedbugs traveled with me to the new apartment. I have had to deal with some rogue anxiety stemming from an irrational fear that they traveled with me to the new place and will begin chomping upon me once more; it is something I still have a bit of a problem shaking from my system. I had some brief problems with noisy neighbors, but this was resolved amicably.

And, the Monday before Thanksgiving, I accepted a job at a Chicago law firm, which I’ll dub with the pseudonym of Harrison, Dalton & Easton (HDE). My job for now is to be a floater secretary. What a floater does, specifically, is sits down at a desk of a secretary who has called out to use her sick or vacation days. As always, I’m a rare breed (the male secretary), but this time, not alone — there is another male secretary here at HDE, interestingly enough. Although I’ve been called to duty in some crisis situations, the job is slower-paced than I’m used to, having come from a litigation background. Still, I’m there in a pinch and usually always offer to take on any extra work that the floor’s coordinator might want to direct my way, and I appear to be getting a fairly good reputation where it counts.

The firm, in any one of a hundred different ways, is wonderful. I received a 5.5% salary bump from my last job, which in and of itself was a 15% jump from the job previous, so the higher salary I’m getting will hopefully help me get things on a financially sounder footing and accomplish some of the goals I’ve been hoping for. It is very well-furnished, well-funded, has an extremely strong technical support structure and a breathtakingly gorgeous view. I’ve described it to family and friends as having the resources of a megafirm but the familialness of a small one — really, the best of both worlds. I have been told that they are really rather pleased with my performance so far, which I consider a really good sign, and I’m doing my best to make sure that I stay on-time, responsive, and ready to help — in short, to make them glad to have me on their team.

So, then, the question becomes, what will be the next epic journey I pick up? Now that I need — for now and hopefully permanently — to no longer worry about bloodsucking little beasts and coordinating a huge physical move and finding new employment, what big projects will I be keeping forefront in my mind?

Well, my trapezius and rhomboid muscles have been spasming once more, so I hope to get that sucker ironed out, as it makes me feel decrepit to be walking around.

Tied intricately with that, and also standing on its own, is drastically reducing my weight before the next summer hits. My computer reminds me on its desktop (through the use of Geektool) of how many days I have left before June hits, and how much weight I could lose in that time. As it stands, it’s conceivable I could walk into June 2006 having lost 40-50 pounds. Summer will be more palatable now that I can actually purchase and install a window air unit, but just from e a heat perspective alone, it makes better sense to try to slim me down as well, considering I won’t be running the A/C 24-7, nor will I be able to take it with me on the subway or the streets of Chicago. And that even doesn’t take into account the thousands of other benefits associated with weight loss. Fortunately, HDE has a free gym on a lower floor of the building, and an in-house Weight Watchers meeting. I’m not sure I’ll go to the WW meetings — I’m not keen on introducing my work colleagues to my weight loss efforts — but God knows they’re making it easier for me, aren’t they?

I anticipate some real work on my gums in the coming year, but hopefully, the choice of dentist I had made will make it a less stressful event.

So, you ask, what would you like to walk out of 2006 with, Mike? A pair of choppers in great shape, a body with less heft in it, and a good financial state of affairs. Hopefully, these are accomplishable goals.

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