1.) Team Apartment

So of course the next thing on the list is my home, because it is where I do most of my sleeping/eating/socializing. I'm not going to spare anyone of anything in this description, because this is how I see it, uncensored. 

First, the place. There was much deliberation over where Team Apartment would be headquartered. It had to be large and inexpensive. So what did we get? Well, after searching high and low, mom and dad, aka Kate and Jack, found a place they were in love with. (Read: Kate really liked, and whatever Kate likes, Jack will invariably lie about liking.) So we trooped out to see it, with newly added member Tim in tow. Tim didn't really live in Seton, so initially we didn't really know what to make of him. He used to have long hair. 

Anyways. The place was off the Argyle stop on the Red Line, which anyone who has been to or lived in Chicago will tell you is the main artery of the elevated train lines. It is also, ironically, the only line that goes underground. So we alight at Argyle only to find ourselves in Northside Chinatown. To be politically correct, it should be called Little Vietnam. The neighborhood initially branded itself as a smelly, ethnic, crazy place. I remember distinctly thinking you have gotta be shitting me. So we walk to the light, cross, and take a right, passing an ominously plain white block of a building. It was ugly. 

The street we turned down was charming, although it conveyed none of the spanish flair its name implied. It was basically made up of townhouse after townhouse, which was fine by me because I love townhomes. Aside from their devastating lack of light, airy windows on the sides, they are wonderful. Growing up in the metro Detroit suburbs, these were the kinds of homes you imagined living in when imagining you lived in the "city" - the kind of houses you saw on Hey Arnold, the kind of houses that bespoke of a certain urban savvy that carried right over from your lifestyle into your architecture. 

We arrived, after walking what seemed to be an eternity, in front of a charming greystone house, although the landscaping left much to be desired. Upon entering and getting the tour, I liked it much more than I had thought I would. Besides, it was tolerable, and I didn't really want to look for houses anymore, as it was a tiresome, adult activity that had no place in my high-flying lifestyle.