How to Gain 5lbs in 3 weeks

You might be wondering how such a thing is possible.  Well, I'll tell you - moving.  Yes, folks, plan a cross-country move in a few weeks from job hunting to loading up the Penske, to successfully transitioning your job, and you WILL eat everything in sight.  That's been me.  Oh, and I cancelled my gym membership just a few weeks ago (see the correlation?) - just in time for it to get too nippy outside to run.  Today I had not one lunch, but two.  How does this happen, you might ask?  I'm not really sure.  One minute, I am running errands or busting ass at work and the next, I've got a bag of carrots/rice pudding/burrito/chocolate croissant in my hand.  And I'm not getting very much sleep.  Basically I wake up, eat lots of food, commute to work, eat more food, work really, really hard, commute home (whilst thinking about eating lots of food), open my home to strangers from the internet to sell my furnishings, and then eat some more while doing chores about the house.  Occasionally I sleep and having a bath has been rare, rare, rare.  Do I have a scale to ascertain my weight gain?  Nope.  Perhaps that fact that I nearly bust a zipper today is evidence enough?  Sheesh.

Good news, though.  I did find a radical apartment.  I'm pretty psyched about my little apartment in a luxury highrise (boutique, mind you - we'd still like to know our neighbors) in the Gold Coast neighborhood.  Lots of old trees and lovely shops.  Dive bars to my left and Barney's and Prada to my right.  After working Friday, flying to Chitown Friday night, apartment hunting all Saturday, and heading back to Boston on Sunday, I'm pretty freaking whipped.  Of course, I am up nervously blogging as opposed to sleeping, so I'm doing just great.  My apartment is rad, though, and I am very excited.  It's totally dog friendly (even has its own dog pack attached to the building) and I met many of the lovely local residents, of the two and four-legged variety who affirmed that my decision to live here was a good one.  And Amber went with me during the whole apartment hunt and was a complete gem.  I owe her big time.  So, in celebration, we ate a massive Italian dinner at Carmine's in my new neighborhood.  This place was apparently one of Al Capone's old haunts and is a favorite of old crooners still living.  The jalapeno flank steak was fucking legendary.  Then we walked through Washington Park and did a few passes by my new place before we headed back to Lake Forest, tired as tired can be.  I have some pics attached - as you can see, it's on the 28th floor, so the view is pretty clutch.  And I finally have a (a) dishwasher and (b) washer and dryer in the unit.  No rats.  No mice.  No roaches.  No students.  No stoners.  BLISS.  And the final selling point - when they took me up to the roofdeck, "All I Want" by Toad the Wet Fucking Sprocket was being piped through the speakers.  Amidst a panoramic view of Chicago on a lovely fall day I thought to myself, "yes, this is all I want right now."  And there you have it.  Chicago bound in less than two weeks.  For God Sakes!