I moved to Chicago a year ago this Friday.  In this past year, I have learned lots of things about this fair city of mine.  I’ve learned the difference between Lou Malnati’s, Giordano’s and Gino’s and taken a stance in that debate (Lou Malnati’s deep dish, for sure).  It’s come to my attention that distance is best measured in minutes, not miles), that corruption is to be expected in local politics and, despite all bets from my parents, I have also learned that wearing comfortable footwear is a must (I didn’t go down without a fight though–my cute heels went everywhere with me until I realized that being suicidal at the end of a trip to Border’s was just not necessary).

Last Sunday, Ryan and I went for a walk alllll over the city.  For 3 hours, we walked around, grabbed coffee, peeked in cute little boutiques, (Barker and Meowsky: A Paw Firm was a fav) and ran errands.  At the end of the day, we were cold, bogged down with shopping bags and couldn’t figure out why we were so compelled to spend our day outside.  It’s March, for crying outloud–not exactly the time to be outdoorsy (yes, I consider window shopping an outdoorsy activity).  Then it hit us.  The temperature was over 30 degrees–we had to be outside.  That doesn’t happen often, no matter what month it is, we had to enjoy it!  You know you live in Chicago when anything over 30 degrees is considered “good” weather.

Fortunately, when you realize that 30 degrees isn’t warm and you live in Chicago, there are a million cabs that are more than happy to deliver you to your doorstep.  Our cabbie on that particular day had a special trick up his sleeve to make the jolting stop and go’s at stop signs more enjoyable–he could tell us the day of the week we were born on just from our birth dates.  And fix a Rubix cube.  You know you live in Chicago when riding in a cab is an experience in itself.

You know you live in Chicago when…