The Month Of Chicago: June 2023 Recap

And with that 2023 was half over…Wow. My mind still says 2022 sometimes so I’m all out of whack 🙂 . So let’s see what I got up to in June!

I Moved To Chicago!

After visiting in the past and not loving the city as much as others, I gave Chicago a full month to win me over – and it did! I went into full detail about why in the below post if you’re interested:

• Slow Travel Review: Chicago, IL, USA – The Land Of Pizza And Waterways

But the TL;DR is that Chicago has an abundance of clear blue water, beaches and delicious food – all my favorite things 🙂 . It was a wonderful month and marked the first time I lived in one of the top 3 most populous US cities in retirement.

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I Learned Spanish

Activities

This month I finally did something different 🙂 ! In addition to my phone usually being in Spanish and my Mom and I mostly texting in Spanish, I also watched Ted Lasso in Spanish, watched some Spanish FilmTube and enjoyed a Spanish Finance podcast. I also practiced Spanish with my “mother-un-law” who is learning it. I’m back baby!

I also met up with a fellow finance ‘influencer’ and spoke Spanish (their first language) and I didn’t have any trouble!!! I was a little worried that my (much) lighter study schedule this year would make me lose my abilities, but that wasn’t the case 🙂 .

Progress

After doing the above, I noticed these interesting improvements. I watched Across the Spider-Verse, which has Spanish-speaking characters and doesn’t show subtitles for their conversation and I understood all of it – except for one colloquialism. I also went on a tour and the guide started speaking Spanish for a bit and I understood him! Usually my mind needs more time to ‘switch’ languages, but it was seamless in that case.

I Hung Out With People

This month involved some of my usual virtual meetups, such as that weekly Spanish call with my Mom and Weekly Movie Nights where we watched the below. If you’re curious about my ratings of movies, I have a Letterboxd account here.

1. Across the Spider-Verse
2. Air
3. Spin Me Round
4. Warriors of Future
5. Booksmart
6. Army Of Thieves

I also traveled to a Movie Theater to meet a friend in Chicago and see Across the Spider-Verse together, which was awesome since I’m often alone in my lovely, empty weekday matinee screenings – one of my favorite retirement perks 😉 . I also met up for coffee with a reader and lunch with the ‘influencer’ that I mentioned above.

Outside of the finance sphere though, my Mom came to visit me for a week in Chicago and take advantage of the multiple bedrooms we paid for, but obviously didn’t use. We also had a friend come up to visit as well. Maybe paying for additional bedrooms isn’t a bad idea if I can entice people with the free lodging and lovely company to come visit!

I Read 20 Books

This month I read:

1. Running While Black: Finding Freedom in a Sport That Wasn’t Built for Us by Alison Mariella Désir
2. Enemies of the State by Tal Bauer
3. Interlude: First Noel by Tal Bauer
4. Enemy of My Enemy by Tal Bauer
5. Enemy Within by Tal Bauer
6. The Night Of by Tal Bauer
7. Secret Service by Tal Bauer
8. You & Me by Tal Bauer
9. The Rest of the Story by Tal Bauer
10. Gravity by Tal Bauer
11. The Jock by Tal Bauer
12. The Quarterback by Tal Bauer
13. Never Stay Gone by Tal Bauer
14. His First Time by Tal Bauer
15. Hush by Tal Bauer
16. A Time To Rise by Tal Bauer
17. How To Say I Do by Tal Bauer
18. Pucking Around by Sarah Blue
19. That One Night by Emily Rath
20. One Pucked Up Pack by Emily Rath

Sooo I went on a bit of a binge 🙂 . I read a book by Tal Bauer for the first time and was instantly obsessed and then…accidentally read everything he’s ever written. I wanted more of that world so I read…everything 🙂 . I really enjoy his writing and he had me laughing, crying, cheering and caring about things my cold, dead heart doesn’t usually give a shit about (*cough* sports *cough*).

I’m so happy I’ve found so many new amazing authors this year that inspire me to binge their entire catalog. It’s been a wonderful gift, but is also obviously not helping my goal to read LESS this year so I have MORE time for new video games – my original goal 😉 .

If you’re curious about what I’m reading and my ratings of these books, I have a Goodreads account you can check out here.

I Wrote 4 Posts

In case you missed it, this month I published the below posts:

1. The Month Of Seattle: May 2023 Recap
2. How I Choose And Book My Flights: A Peek Inside A Full-Time Nomad’s Travel Planner
3. Slow Travel Review: Chicago, IL, USA – The Land Of Pizza And Waterways
4. My Favorite Free Apps To Make The Most Of Nature

I was struggling a bit with my posting schedule this month. Trying to explore one of the biggest cities in the US didn’t leave me a lot of time to write (I know, woe is me…).

My Partner has encouraged me to take a few weeks off the blog in the past and I resisted because I like this cadence and I thought if I skipped a week, I would get out of practice.

Well, my suspicion was correct: My Partner wrote a post for me about his charitable giving and the week after, I had a very hard time getting my next post written on time. The rhythm was broken! It was good to have confirmation that the regular cadence helps me through and gives me more motivation to keep it up. Now I just need to find a good daily time in my schedule to write 🙂 !

Outside of my struggles, I had some fun offers in the blog’s inbox this month:

• A company reached out to invite me to influencer events in Chicago, which I contemplated for a while, but decided not to join. It was cool to be invited, but I don’t like the idea of anyone telling me what to post on my social media
• A website wanted to feature me in a list of “Top 20 Mommy Bloggers of 2023“…I can think of one problem with that…
• A different site wanted to include me on a list of “Top 20 Personal Finance Blogs of 2023,” but didn’t provide the website name…sus. No thanks!
• A company promoting “Alternative education” reached out to work with me, which was another no thx. I’m all about Montessori and the like, but that doesn’t seem to be what they’re talking about 🙂
• Redfin reached out asking to feature me in an article to provide tips on a city…that I’ve never been to or written about so that was an obvious pass
• Credit Sesame asked me to join their affiliate program, but I use a free alternative (Credit Karma) so unless that changes for some reason it’s a no

Physical

Sleep

Sleep was pretty good this month. My allergies were acting up a bit in a new city and that made it hard to sleep for a few days, but I figured it out. I’m also back on my afternoon nap schedule, which is awesome.

Food

While in Chicago, I ate everything in sight and started feeling really sluggish. It was worth it for the food, but my body seemed to crave a more balanced diet. So now I’m back on keto and calorie counting and it feels awesome. One new thing this month was that I started eating back exercise calories, which is working well so far. 

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Exercise

I planned on keeping my running schedule in Chicago, but instead found myself walking all over the place and as a result, being too tired to run on top of it. I think our record was 10 miles in a day. Phew! However, now that I’m back on the east coast, I’m planning to make up for it by running as many days as possible.

Mental

Learning

So it’s time for my favorite segment: Fun Facts Nobody Asked For! Here’s what I learned and explored this month:

Chicago, Illinois

In addition to seeing lovely architecture from a unique perspective, the below boat tour taught me so much about Chicago! All of the below was learned on that tour.

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• Chicago has the 2nd most moveable bridges after Amsterdam – I didn’t know Chicago had any…my bad!
• The St. Regis is the tallest building designed by a woman (Jeanne Gang) and it’s the 3rd tallest building in Chicago!
• Chicago is on Lake Michigan and Lake Michigan is the largest lake in the world that’s in one country, at 22,404 square miles! There are also 17 miles of walking and biking paths along the lake up and down Chicago’s coast
• There are over 20 beaches in Chicago along Lake Michigan – and I can confirm as a beach aficionado, that they’re gorgeous 🙂
• The Sears Tower is now called the Willis Tower after the Willis insurance company that now pays a million dollars a year to put their name on it…apparently in vain since most people, including Chicagoans, still call it the Sears – Oops 🙂
• The Sears Tower was the tallest building in the world for 24 years and today the Burj Khalifa holds that honor and it just happens to be twice the height of the Sears Tower – WOWZA. The first time I saw the Burj, my jaw dropped. It didn’t look real 🙂 . However, a Chicago architect (Adrian Smith) built the Burj so it’s doubly part of Chicago history 😉
• Not to be a complete Sears Tower fangirl, but it apparently has a glass ledge at the top that you can stand on and look down onto the city and it’s been climbed twice – once by a person in a Spiderman costume with suction cups, and once “free” soloed – they both survived
• On July 1st and 2nd this year, Chicago hosted the first Nascar street race. They shut down a few city streets and had Nascar drivers roar down them at 200 mph. That’s wild 🙂
• Since the 1960s, Chicago has dyed the Chicago River that goes through downtown, green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day

Astronomy

This month was the Strawberry Moon and even though the name is referencing the Native American strawberry harvest and now the appearance of the moon, I saw it when I was coming out of a wedding and it was HUGE and bright orange. I was freaking out 🙂 . It’s great that even in one of the country’s biggest cities, I can see some celestial beauty.

Flora

I visited the Griffin Park Conservatory and saw too many beautiful plants to name:

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Fauna

This month was understandably light on animal sightings being in the middle of a hugely populous city, but I did see: Chipmunks, Golden Red Carp, and Koi.

Birds

My birding was very fruitful in Chicago! It was so lovely that despite being a huge metropolis, it also has an abundance of green spaces where my feathered friends love to hang out. Here are the ones I saw this month:

Chimney Swift, Blue Grey Gnatcatcher, American Goldfinch, Northern Cardinal, Warbling Vireo, Yellow Warbler, Grey Catbird, Indigo Bunting, Red-Winged Blackbird, Barn Swallow, Mallard Duck, Red Eyed Vireo, Cedar Waxwing, House Wren, Carolina Wren, Orchard Oriole, Cormorant, Baltimore Oriole, Black-Crowded Night Heron

Creativity

I was too busy exploring and hanging with people to be creative this month. Oops! I was too busy living life to write about it I guess, but I’m getting back in the groove now and should have some down time before our next adventure to let that creativity flow.

Emotional

I had a depressive episode this month and was trying to remember the last time I had one. I believe it was all the way back in November, which isn’t a bad run! Once I realized what was happening, I helped combat it with all the sunshine and flowing water around me. My Mom visiting also helped lift my spirits – loved ones are the best 🙂 .

Money

I finally have a change in this section! I actually thought about money this month 🙂 . I think it was a reaction to spending so much money on ride shares. I wasn’t surprised by the number since I had picked the ride shares over public transit, but it did make me pause and actually open my budget and evaluate how I was doing this year.

All of our lodging and travel for 2023 is booked and I’m starting to book 2024, which has artificially inflated the amount of money I’ve spent so far this year and how much I have left to reach my $22,700 spending goal for 2023 (last year I spent $16,930 for comparison) So finally I thought about money 🙂 . It’s been a while old friend.

However, the market decided to remind me that small fluctuations don’t matter (like my ride shares) and increased wildly this month:

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In addition to that, it was time for more dividends to hit my account and make it feel like money was growing on trees:

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Conclusion

And that’s what I got up to in June! Now I’m going to see my family in Upstate NY for a hot second and then head to Montréal, Canada for our first visit when it’s not freezing! I guess I need to brush up on my French 😉 . Until next time!

If you’re interested in the other weekly and monthly retirement updates I’ve written, they’re all here:

Weekly (2020)

1. Early Retirement Week 1: The Freak Out
2. Early Retirement Week 2: The Vacation
3. Early Retirement Week 3: The Whiplash
4. Early Retirement Week 4: The Heartbeat
5. Early Retirement Week 5: The Election
6. Early Retirement Week 6: The Trophy
7. Early Retirement Week 7: The Train
8. Early Retirement Week 8: The Challenge
9. Early Retirement Week 9: The Question
10. Early Retirement Week 10: The Game
11. Early Retirement Week 11: The Recharge
12. Early Retirement Week 12: The Holiday

Monthly (2021)

1. The Month Of Rest: Early Retirement Month 4 (January 2021)
2. The Month Of Birds: Early Retirement Month 5 (February 2021)
3. The Month of Change: Early Retirement Month 6 (March 2021)
4. The Month of Atlanta: Early Retirement Month 7 (April 2021)
5. The Month of Portland, Maine: Early Retirement Month 8 (May 2021)
6. The Month Of New Hampshire: Early Retirement Month 9 (June 2021)
7. The Month Of The Northeast: Early Retirement Month 10 (July 2021)
8. The Month Of New York State: Early Retirement Month 11 (August 2021)
9. The Month Of City Hopping: Early Retirement Month 12 (September 2021)
10. The Month Of The Southwest USA: October 2021 Recap
11. The Month Of Santa Fe: November 2021 Recap
12. The Month Of Family: December 2021 Recap

Monthly (2022)

1. The Month Of Freezing My Balls Off: January 2022 Recap
2. The Month Of Thailand: February 2022 Recap
3. The Month Of Spring(?): March 2022 Recap
4. The Month Of México: April 2022 Recap
5. The Month of Mérida: May 2022 Recap
6. The Month of Seattle: June 2022 Recap
7. The Month of Washington State: July 2022 Recap
8. The Month Of New Hampshire: August 2022 Recap
9. The Month Of Maine: September 2022 Recap
10. The Month Of Acadia: October 2022 Recap
11. The Month Of Argentina: November 2022 Recap
12. The Month Of Holiday Cheer: December 2022 Recap

Monthly (2023)

1. The Month Of Snow: January 2023 Recap
2. The Month Of New Hampshire: February 2023 Recap
3. The Month Of Sea: March 2023 Recap
4. The Month Of California: April 2023 Recap
5. The Month Of Seattle: May 2023 Recap

How was your month?