What It’s Like to Live in...The Chicago 'Burbs

Guess what! One of the SparkLife editors is from Chicago, just like sleepdeprived101! And ALL of the SparkLife eds are sleep-deprived! —SparkLife eds

The Chi-town suburbs are definitely the best place to grow up. We have jet packs, flying cars, Oompa Loompas and jellybean trees. OK….we don’t have jellybean trees. But it’s still pretty awesome. Like my idol Hannah Montana (ha, not) says, “It’s the best of both worlds.” We have the mundane developments where all the houses look the same, and when we get bored, we're 40 minutes away from the hipsters, rock concerts, and drama of the city.

I’m surrounded by the usual suburban houses, cars, Hallmark stores, and 7-11s, but there are a couple of things that make my 'burbs special:

SMOS (Strip Malls on Steroids)
Almost every afternoon, I drive past an SMOS with a beauty supply store, a pizza place, and Blockbuster all in one. This is the dream trifecta...if you’re a makeup artist who likes to watch heartbreaking chick flicks and eat veggie pizza on Friday nights. Because Chicago is so diverse, there are amazing little Greek and Middle Eastern restaurants in these strip malls, which makes that Burger King seem like a nerdy 40-year-old ex-band geek.

The El
This is also known as the train, the metro, and the subway. It’s cutely divided into happy colors (such as the red line and the brown line). The El will take you almost anywhere; for $2.50, you can be a world traveler (kinda). The train is completely entertaining and often filled with kleptomaniacs, people who talk to themselves, and the occasional struggling musician. This sounds scary, but really it's like watching reruns of “The Office.” Just don’t get on the pink line—it sounds like it’ll take you to lollipop and sugarplum land, but really you’ll be entering shady town.

Downtown
The heart of the city. When I’m not reading depressing assignments in this monster also known as the “Blue Norton,” I go downtown to actually insert some fun into my life. Downtown Chicago is what tourists with multi-colored backpacks come to see. It has restaurants, theaters, ridiculously expensive parking garages, and clothing stores where sweaters costs more then your car. It’s awesome, and even though I’ve lived here almost all my life, there’s still a bunch of things I’ve never seen. Two places are the absolute coolest: the second floor of the Borders bookstore (because from there, you can see the Joffrey Ballet company rehearsing), and this little Italian café right across from Millennium Park that has the best paninis in the world. We also have a bunch of museums, which are handy for that occasional field trip. PLUS, Oprah lives here.

Cubs vs. Sox Rivalry
We’re so cool that we have two baseball teams to our name as opposed to just one. The Cubs are for the North side, and the Sox are designated for the South side. During the cross-town classic, you’ll see fat men with beer bellies yelling at plasma screen TVs all over this town. If you need to decide who your true friends are, just ask them what team they root for. We all know that a panda-hugging Cubs fan can’t be friends with a rough-and-tough Sox fanatic. That's fine, because I don't want to be friends with those losers, anyway....usually.

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