Our Family's 2007 Top Ten List

Today, I have a guest blogger, my wife Katie.

After we made our 2007 Top Ten List (as suggested by "The Love List" by Drs. Les and Leslie Parrot), Bill asked me to post it on his blog because I type faster than him- I refused. Then he said he wanted me to his guest blogger, which I thought was kind of cute, so I agreed. Here it is (in no particular order):

1. Exercise: Bill began running with Ryan Steingard in Humboldt Park and lost 20 lbs. and I began walking the neighborhood while pushing Liam's stroller and listening to podcasts.
2. Liam's many FIRSTS: crawling, walking, talking and our favorite- sleeping through the night (thanks to "The Sleep Easy Solution")
3. Block involvement (getting a mural painted on HOBO, consistent block club meetings with Bill as the president, deeper relationships with some neighbors and Bill's fight for the historic preservation of Ferndell's)
4. Nights away from home with and without Liam (hotel in Schaumburg, Galena)
5. Turning 30 (taking a skyline flight and having a celebrity surprise party for Bill and spending time at my Uncle Jim's cabin near Madison for mine)
6. Sharing parenting with the Runyans.
7. Going on dates- having babysitters!
8. The balance I have found between being a mom and having a life (and job) outside of the house.
9. Christmas with the Sullivan family- sharing our highs and lows from the year- healing.
10. Peace and calm in the Smiljanich family

True Value: People

Last month, I went to the True Value on Higgins and Nottingham. I went there as usual when I go to Higgins. I go there for lint traps, lawn care products, a window screen fixed, drop off the snowblower for repair, or for just a single screw. I never considered going to ACE or the Home Depot. They always had the little stuff I needed.

The same guys and gals have been working there for years. You always could tell they enjoyed what they were doing and they were always helpful. This was the type of place where you would always see regulars; they were the ones leaning on the merchandise, coffee in hand, and shooting the breeze with the employees about family, local politics, and the new Black and Decker leaf blowers. At Schultz True Value, customers didn't just come in to shop, they came back because of the relationships they had with the employees.

Today was different though, today was like the feeling of your girlfirend breaking up by having her friend tell you over the phone. Total surprise, no way to change what just happened, no way to appeal to the person you trusted and came to love. Today, the big purple and orange sign said it all, Total Liquidation.

I came in and most of the shelves were bare, all the employees were smiling, but you could tell there was something going on underneath it all. I asked one of the old guys behind the counter how he felt about the store closing. He said he had been told by a customer first that the store was closing. I said that I was sad to see the store go, that I could get everything I needed for Higgins just a hop, skip, and a jump away. I said I'd miss the store. He replied that he was really grateful for my words. And that was it.

The owners bought the store 3 years ago and decided they'd make more money by off property. Little did they know that by selling the property that relationships and livelihoods would be changed forever. RIP little hardware store, because you knew that making money was not as important as the true value of building relationships and a community of satisfied customers.


Check out these comments from other happy customers:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/schultz-true-value-chicago

Forclosures? Fo' sho'

Foreclosures have been hitting our community very hard lately. Recent statistics show that just for the 1st half of this year there were a 52.6 foreclosure starts per square mile in our nieghborhood. If you think that is bad, we're just suffering only half as much as residents in West Englewood where there were on average, 111 foreclosure starts per square mile the first half of this year. This has become the American Nightmare for residents in Chicago and across our nation.

http://savetheamericandream.wordpress.com/

http://www.ntic-us.org/documents/FirstHalf2007Report.pdf

Parking in Chicago

On Friday, Kate picked me up from school after driving 5 hours in her car. She was driving in to the city while everyone else was driving out of the city. We made our way downtown to Reza's for Persian food and then to AMC River East to see the movie Juno. The great thing about parking downtown on the Friday before Christmas is that everyone has left out of town so, parking close to your destination is easy and free.
A true Chicagoan never pays for parking. Even when its the holidays, no self respecting Chicagoan should have to pay for parking, on the street or in a parking garage, in their own city. Paying for parking is reserved for someone from Schuamburg or a tourist from Indiana.
Additonally, how do you tell a tourist from a Chicagoan? A tourist or a suburbanite for that matter, has a clean windshield. What, you say? A windshield with at least 4 years worth of city stickers on the right side is a tell tale sign of a True Chicagoan.

My Block

This is the street where I live. More pictures and descriptions to come. Thanks 

Chicagoisms

I thought I might highlight some true Chicagoisms for my first post.
Check dis out:
http://members.aol.com/mistamoose/vocab.html
http://www.gapersblock.com/fuel/archives/chicagoisms/
http://www.suntimes.com/chicago/chicagopedia/index.html