Our ballots have been cast!

Robert and I went and voted early today at the nearby local mall. I like the early voting. You never know what could happen to you on election day – snowstorm, voter intimidation, long lines, underwear mishap. Knowing that our votes are cast is very reassuring.

The process was very easy. If you’d like to vote early in Illinois, you can check out the website here: Early Voting. We went to the mall, had to sign a document stating we wouldn’t vote again on election day, and then visited the electronic voting machines. I voted for Obama – and was happy to see his name was spelled correctly and he was listed first on the ballot. I’m happy that we got an “I Voted Today” sticker.

Read up on the issues in newspapers and on websites, it’s everyone’s responsibility. And then Vote Early! Or Vote on Election Day! Just VOTE!

Monday night Chicago was plagued with scary storms, including a series of tornado warnings that even caused the fair city to blare it’s warning tornado sirens.

Out in the western suburbs, we were quietly enjoying some tivo, but keeping one eye turned towards the sky, which was an unnatural, otherworldly color. Suddenly, the tornado warning sirens went off and our adrenaline started surging. TO THE BASEMENT, we shouted, and grabbed what we could as we ran downstairs – computers, i-phones, and for some strange reason, I grabbed Robert’s wallet. In case we needed to buy something down there, I guess.

We discovered we’re woefully unprepared for any type of emergency. The basement is still in a state of disrepair, and the flashlights were no where to be found. No bottled water, no emergency radio, no ponchos, no umbrellas, no first-aid kit, no nothing.

We used our wireless internet on our laptop to track the thunderstorm from the basement.

The first warning we saw on weather.com was for a tornado in our area and possible nickel-sized hail.

About 10 minutes later, after refreshing the page, the warning was changed. No tornado, and the hail size reduced from nickel-sized hail to penny-sized hail.

Robert turns to me, and without missing a beat, says “Recession”.

I couldn’t stop laughing. Luckily, we didn’t get hit by a tornado, and the Mini didn’t get hit by either nickel- or penny-sized hail. We lost our cable but not our power, but all of our neighbors across the street were without power for a day. I’m glad we weren’t swept away by any tornado or pelted with any type of money-sized hail.

When I lived in the city of Chicago, I was judgmental about the suburbanites who would venture into the city on the weekends, especially during the holidays or summer. I cursed their presence during traffic jams, I was annoyed when out-of-city drivers were in the loop, I was incredulous when anyone decided to move outside of the city limits.

Now, the tables have turned.

We’re in the suburbs. We no longer have the cache of saying “We live in the city”. We’ve moved 15 miles outside of the city limits.

Recently, I saw an acquaintance of mine who lives in Chicago, whom I haven’t seen since we moved. It was like Robert and I had suffered a death of a close friend or family member.

Her: “Wow, I can’t believe you live in the suburbs, how is it?” (said with a very sympathetic tone, and a fake-frownie face)

Me: “We really love it – we have a yard with real grass, trees, animals…”

Her: “But gosh, it’s just like you are in a whole ‘nother world – so removed from this world of being in the CITY. I mean, you’re so far away from THIS world.

Me: “Well, it’s the same world, just different. We love it.”

Her tone, her sympathy, her entire demeanor indicated that we were to be pitied, poor couple who couldn’t hack it in the city and had to escape. Exactly how I treated people from the suburbs when I lived in the city for 15 years.

So it was a good lesson to learn, but I wanted to point out that she’s actually BORN AND RAISED in the suburbs.

We’re VERY new to the neighbor stuff. We don’t know a lot of people here, and are unsure of how the whole having-neighbors-thing works. We’re used to living in the city, where you ignore everyone and pretend that they don’t exist. In the suburbs, it’s not like that. People are nice. They say hello.  They look out their windows to see what you are up to. And now, we look out of OUR windows to see what THEY are up to.

Before a recent trip, we decided to leave a note for our neighbor with a request to please call us if the house burned down, or got hit by a tornado, or squashed by the foot of Godzilla.

I left a friendly note in their mailbox, and right before we left, saw our neighbor out on his front step.

“Hey there,” I said “I left a note in your mailbox. We’re going out of town for a few days, would you mind keeping an eye on our house for us?”

“I’ve been keeping an eye on that house for 20 years” he said.

I didn’t really know how to take that.

Robert and I went to the gas station in our little town the other night, on our way home from work. We were surprised by the sign on the gas station pump:

Who knew you could get a corn dog, filled with corn doggy goodness, for only 49 cents? I wonder if you can get something else filled with corn doggy goodness? Like a donut? Or maybe a gallon of gas?

And although we love a good corn dog (especially from a state fair), we did not partake of the 49 cent corn doggy goodness-filled corn dog. Too cheap. I like my corn dogs to cost more than a dollar.

Today was the primary election here in Illinois, and the first time that we have had the opportunity to vote in our new town. We’ve been accustomed to voting in the city of Chicago – voting in the western suburbs seemed very different than voting in Cook County. We’re used to long lines, indifferent election officials, red tape and bureaucracy, and being in the democratic majority. Here in our new suburb, we’re in the minority – our town is very republican – which is true of most of Illinois outside of Chicago.

The first, and most important, key to voting was finding our voter registration cards. After much looking, blaming each other, and retracing our steps, we found them. We read up on the Tax Referendums facing our town, learned about who was running locally, and made our plan to vote early today.

We voted in a small elementary school just down the street from us, at around 6:50 AM this morning.

The magic of voting took place in a very narrow multi-purpose room, with desks stacked against a wall, and tiny collapsible voting booths erected in a line. I think the election officials were surprised we asked for a democratic ballot. I don’t think they see many democrats in these here parts. I tried to share with them that it was our first time voting in our new town, and that we were new around here, but they were all business and uninterested in my story. And a little annoyed that I tried to be social with them.

We both voted, and were not challenged by any officials and didn’t even need to show our newly found voter ID cards or personal IDs. We didn’t even have to wait in line. I was hoping for a more scandalous story, but that’s really all that happened. Oh, and it was cold and wet. And early. And I’m sick, so I cough a lot. And we got our “I Voted Today” stickers, and I wore my sticker proudly to my client meeting, all day.

I voted for Obama.

Winter has set in for sure in Chicago-land. Coming this weekend is a deep freeze unlike any we’ve seen so far this winter. It will be so cold the squirrels will freeze to the trees. So cold that any exposed skin will feel like it’s going to crack off if you’re outside. So cold that without long underwear, you’ll be miserable. So cold that my friend cancelled a party this weekend, because no one likes to go outside in this kind of weather.
It’s the wind chill that will get ya. This is the time of year that I long for a fireplace, or at least a puppy to keep my feet warm. Robert – what about a puppy?

But then I think of my Canadian relatives, in the plains of Canada, who deal with this kind of weather often, and huge amounts of snow, not these wussy 5 or 6 inches of snow that we’ve been getting this year. And then I pretend I’m in Canada instead of just outside of Chicago, and then the cold is easier to bear.

Speaking of bears – we even saw two bears when we were up near Calgary at my Aunt and Uncle’s house – one was a baby bear, alone in the woods.

I like bears.  Maybe we should get a bear instead of a puppy.

It’s winter here in the Chicagoland region. Officially winter because now we have snow – we got about 5″ of snow the other day, with another 4″ expected tonight, if the weatherpeople aren’t lying.

Here’s our little tiny garage covered in snow:

Notice the shoveled paths, courtesy of early-morning Robert. It makes me cold just looking at it.

Ok – the holiday competition for decorations has officially begun in our neighborhood.

Our neighbors have a huge inflatable snowman, along with a happy inflatable santa riding a motorcycle, and a lot of pretty holiday lights around the eaves and doorway of their house. And it’s not even December 1 yet!

I wish we had power outdoors, ’cause we would totally win the imaginary competition if we did.

Over the Thanskgiving holiday, we reflected on a couple more reasons of why we love living in the suburbs.

So, here’s part two of our list.

1. The Top Ten Library! I go to the library at least every two weeks, and come home with a stack of books. I love it, especially because now it’s winter, perfect reading time.

2. Living close to the grocery store. While making pies before the thanksgiving holiday, we realized we were out of lemons, (for the apple pie) and it was just a quick trip to get more.

3. It’s a shorter drive to relatives houses, by us living 30 minutes outside of the city instead of in the heart of the loop-de-loop.

4. Not one, but TWO IKEAS within a short driving distance.

5. Competing with the neighbors on who has the best holiday decorations. Game on, man – it’s our first year and we’re doing it up big.

6. Squirrels. Really, we love the squirrels. We’re a little worried about how they will stay warm during the cold Chicago winter, but they seem to have it worked out by getting fat and storing nuts.

We’re happy with this first thanksgiving in our new house (even though we weren’t here). It will be exciting to have the upcoming holidays here!