“Hunting in the Viagra Triangle”

Talk about pulling out a map, closing your eyes and placing your finger on a random city because that is basically what we did! Neither of us have spent much time in Chicago; in fact, the last time Dana was there she was four years old and her only memory is playing laser tag with her brother and sister in her families high rise condo. The last time Erika graced her presence to the windy city was for a drunken 48 hour last minute New Years Eve trip in college. So basically her only memory is of the Hyatt hotel where she spent the party and the entire next day recovering from the resulting hangover. So when we booked our tickets to go to Chicago to find an apartment it literally was the blind leading the blind!

We flew out on March 18th from Phoenix Sky Harbor airport, it was sunny and a perfect 75 degrees. We had both Kathy and Jennifer aka “the moms” meeting us out there to provide us with wisdom, moral & financial support. We got off the plane at O’Hare and were told it was very easy to take the L straight to our hotel. But nothing is quite “easy” with us…as we went to grab our luggage from the carousel we ran into our first “D & E Moment”
Definition of a “D & E Moment”: When Dana & Erika (both very intelligent young women) become subject to a blonde moment. Occurs frequently and usually results in laughter.
Basically we saw two screens above the baggage claim carousel that had flights from Phoenix to Chicago, we stood there like dears in headlights trying to figure out which carousel was ours. We were in a full on debate when we noticed an older man staring at us who was obviously eavesdropping on our convo- after a few confused minutes we realized that it was one big carousel with two large screens that were mostly likely meant to help travelers find their luggage, but in our case made us very confused. That was the first sign that should have indicated we might be in over our heads.

We were informed that it was extremely easy to take the L (the L is the Chicago train system) from the airport to the Westin on Michigan Avenue. So we got our tickets & hoped on the blue line feeling confidant. Two hours later after changing trains, lugging our oversized suitcases up and down 2 flights of stairs and a 4-block walk to the Westin down Michigan Avenue we finally made it.

The next day we met our realtor and for the purpose of this blog we will name her “Gladys”. Gladys was a 62-year-old realtor who was referred to us by a family friend and we quickly came to realize that her only intention for us was to be her new neighbor and new BFF. To paint you a picture the first day of apartment hunting consisted of four hours of walking around and only seeing 4 places. Needless to say it was a frustrating first day! We were quickly saved by one of our friends, Mike, who took us around the city and showed us where all the “cool” people live. He laid out very strict requirements to be cool in the city …1) location and 2.) Pool- if you have a pool you are cool!

We showed Mike the building and area that Gladys was pushing for us to live and his exact words to us were “absolutely not”. You may be wondering why…well we did too and he informed us that this is the area that was referred to as the “Viagra triangle”. Obvi this was not where the cool people live.

We decided to give Gladys one more shot and requested she show us apartments in the areas where the “cool” people were. Well that weekend it snowed in Chicago and Gladys decided she did not want to get out of the car and show us the apartments. So instead she had us unlock lock boxes and carry around her card so that we could pretend to be her. Her exact words to us by the end of the day was “I am done…just done”

Now I know “the moms” and us can be a lot to handle…some may say high maintenance, but we really tried to be on our best behavior. I mean we only had 3 days to find a place and were under the impression it was her job to help us!!

After that day we decided we were done with Gladys and we were forced to take matters into our own hands. After calls to other realtors and countless hours of costly Internet use at the hotel we found an apartment Monday morning 4 hours before our flight back to Phoenix!

We are very excited about our 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, washer and dryer in unit, with door man, parking spot, gym and last but not least a POOL! We are totally cool people! Picture to come!!

XOXO
D & E