ChiKat

Last night, I heard yelling in the alley, followed by the loud and distinctive sound of a slap. I looked out the window and saw a man shaking a woman while yelling at her. I was home alone. I called 911 and told them a man was hitting a woman in the alley. I gave them the address of the building they were standing behind. While I was on the phone, the man struck her again. She was crying, but she wasn't running away or yelling for help. I assume it was a domestic dispute. I don't want to be the nosy neighbor, but I think calling the police is the right thing to do when someone is getting hit.

I did not go outside and ask if everything was ok. I didn't walk my giant dog over there to find out if the woman needed help. That woman will never know that I was watching, hoping that she would be ok. That I called for help for her. I didn't feel safe going out there and getting involved. Even if he started beating on her, I don't think I would have gone out there. I put my own safety (and my sleeping son's safety) ahead of hers.

I want to believe that I am the type of person who would help a person in need. But when the times comes, you think of a million reasons why you should just stay quiet and hope the police arrive. You think that perhaps you will make the situation worse, that perhaps the man will turn on you and hurt you, that perhaps he has a knife or a gun and you will be risking your own life for a stranger's.

And then you realize you are not the type of person to risk your own life for a stranger's. Not today, anyway.

The man yelled at her for about 30 more minutes, pushing her on occasion, but no longer slapping her. Then he got in his car and drove away, while she sobbed in the parking lot before returning to her building. The police never came.

My husband and I love taking walks in the summer, late at night, when the neighborhood is sleeping and everything is serene.

With a one-year-old who goes to sleep each night around 8 PM, late night strolls now take place around…4 PM. It's not quite the same thing.

As a compromise, I decided to create a peaceful haven on our balcony, so we could be outside during the summer nights while the boy slept in his crib. I found a tiny table and two chairs. I bought planters and planted beautiful flowers. It's really a nice space.

Today I looked out the window and saw two squirrels racing through the petunias…then start rigorously mating.

So I've made a nice, romantic escape…for squirrels.

We had a security specialist come look at our building. He suggested we reinforce the front door and upgrade the locks. He provided a reasonable estimate. I sent that estimate to our association.

Besides the owner's whose unit was broken into, no one has responded.

I hate this building. I hate the lack of involvement from everyone else. I want to tell my husband, "Let's upgrade the locks so we don't have a repeat break-in" and not have to wait weeks while a consensus is reached. I am so tired, tired, tired of condo living.

And you're probably sick of hearing about me being tired of condo living. But you'll have to listen for a while longer, because we've decided to stay here another year. It was a tough decision. I have had it with condo life, but my husband doesn't feel comfortable moving until he has a better sense of where his career is going. Next year, he should have a better idea of that.

In addition, next October they announce if Chicago gets the Olympics. I don't think the Olympics would drastically improve the value of our condo, but I do think it would make it a little more marketable. If we're going to stay another year, we might as well wait until the Olympics announcement, just in case Chicago really is selected.

I don't think Chicago will get the nod – I think it will be Tokyo. But wouldn't it be fabulous if we did? I've never been to the Olympics, but if they were here, I would totally go see some of the games. I would probably even try to volunteer.

This is a rambling post – from association complaints, to moving to the Olympics. And now my son is attacking the computer. Time to race matchbox cars instead of working!

I write a post about wanting a backyard, then we have the perfect city day. We went for a walk down to the lake the other day. The weather was perfect. The lake was beautiful. The dog played. The boy toddled.

I love the south lakefront.

The north lakefront is just as beautiful, but it is wall-to-wall people on the bike path and the beaches.

South of 31st Street beach, the wall-to-wall sardine feel disappears and the walking path is wide open. We spent hours just wandering along, enjoying the sunshine, the warm weather and the fabulous lakefront.

I still want a backyard and a nice school for my son, but for now I'm going to savor being this close to this beautiful lake.

We were at my sister-in-laws the other day. At one point the kids and the dogs were getting a bit hyper. Do you know what she did to fix the situation? She opened the back door and let them play outside.

That's what you do when you have a house. You go into your backyard and you play. Because you can.

We are home. The news about the first floor break-ins is very strange.

First, a little background. There are two units on the first floor. Two years ago, a family moved into the rear unit. They fixed up the unit, painted the place, and seemed pretty nice. They claimed they were leasing-to-own. They wouldn't provide the contact information of the owner to the condo association. Whoever owned the unit never paid association dues. After about six months, the family disappeared and the unit remained empty. Not association dues were paid.

Our management company kept investigating and finally found contact information for the owner. The owner was clearly in financial trouble, but promised to pay the association dues. A couple months ago, a young couple moved into the unit. They have no furniture and are rarely home, but they seem like nice people.

The promised association dues have never arrived.

While we were gone, burglars came to the first floor and tried to break-in via the fire escape. When that didn't work, they pried open the first floor.

The people on the third floor witnessed this and called the police.

The burglars got into the building, used a sledge hammer and a chisel to break into the first floor front unit. They walked past laptops, DVD players and televisions. They went all the way to the back on the condo and tore apart the bedroom. They stole a small safe and some jewelry, neither of which were worth that much.

Then they went back into the building, broke into the rear unit that is home to the non-due-paying people. Then they left.

20 minutes later the police arrived.

Apparently, a burlarly in progress isn't high on their agenda. The third floor tenants saw the whole thing, and gave the police a description of the burglars, including the fact that one of them was wearing a blue hat.

The police did not bother to pick up the blue hat that was left on the front lawn until it was pointed out to them.

The police did point out that the people in the rear unit, despite have their door busted open, never filed a police report. The police believe that the burglars were looking for something that was in the rear unit. They went into the front unit by mistake, took the safe and jewelry box, then when they didn't find what they were looking for, broke into the rear unit, found what they wanted and left.

Ugh. I have no idea how to make this better. How to make this safer. We can't demand that the people in the rear unit move out, because we have no proof that they are doing anything illegal. But the whole situation does seem very strange.

The management company is pursuing legal action to try to get the $6,000+ overdue fees from the owners.

Meanwhile, I'm thankful I have a 110-pound dog.

We just found out that the people who live on the first floor of our building were broken into. We have no idea if our condo is OK. Normally, we would ask our neighbors, we feel a little inappropriate saying, "sorry your place was trashed and you're staying with family…could you drive back into the city and check on our place?"

After the health scare and now the news about the condo, I wouldn't call this the most relaxing vacation ever…

We drove past the dream house – it is in much better condition that we thought. It has an eviction notice on the door, which makes us suspect that the bank owns the property and wants to get rid of it, which explains the low price. I'm sure it still needs work, but it needs much less work than we were expecting.

It is two houses from the Eisenhower…which means that the traffic noise is INSANELY loud. There is a constant roar.

I grew up a block from I-55, so the noise didn't faze me, but within five minutes my husband was twitchy. I really think, despite being a city boy his entire life, my husband really belongs in the country with no neighbors for 100 miles. I'm sure he would take that as a compliment.

I know this makes me sounds like a total patsy, but the eviction notice made me sad. I felt that by thinking about buying the home (for such a great price!), I was taking advantage of someone else's misfortune.

All in all, the dream house wasn't totally perfect, but we are going to see if we can set up an appointment to view the place. I still don't think it will be available by the time we sell our place, but it has been on the market for awhile, so maybe there really is a chance that we can own this home.

90% of me is convinced it's not going to work out because selling our condo will take awhile. 5% of me is convinced that my husband will go insane from the traffic noise so the dream house really isn't a good fit for us. The final 5% thinks we will LIVE THERE FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES. No pressure or anything.

Remember when I said there was a house in Oak Park that I loved? This is what it looks like:


It's not perfect. It needs work. And by the time we sell our condo, I doubt it will still be on the market (in my neighborhood, condos rarely sell in fewer than six months).

But still, when I'm having a bad day, I open up the real estate listings, check out that picture, and I'm filled with hope. I love the lines of the house, the symmetry. I love the potential.

The rooms are a terrible size, I've never been inside the home, it needs a ton of work. Did I mention how much work it needed?

But still, I have an irrational love for that house.

It has taken WEEKS for our alley to be paved. They totally over-hauled the entire alley. At the end of the alley, there is now a stamp carved into the pavement designating the alley as a City of Chicago Green Alley.

I had no idea what this meant, but it turns out we have a FANCY alley! The grading, pitch and material of the alley all help facilitate drainage into the ground rather than the sewer system. In addition, the alley is made from recycled materials. The handbook even shows pretty plants along the alley, but I don't think we are getting *that* nice of an alley.

I'll just be happy if they actually finish the alley. The entire alley is paved, but the connecting ramp from our lot to the alley is just a gaping hole that my little VW Golf cannot traverse. So I've been parking on the street along with everyone else from the alley for the past two weeks.

Having the alley closed to parking has meant there is hardly any parking on the street these days. Yet the nearby University insists that the new 800+ bed dorm isn't going to impact street parking at all. Give me a break.