Tut, tut

Looks like rain. Again.


I try not to complain about the weather in San Francisco. It rarely drops below 55 during the day and almost never tops 75. Sure, we get our summer in September and our winter in July, but generally life here is peachy.

But this rain is really getting out of hand. We had rain on 26 of March's 31 days, and April is on pace for record rainfall. We've had wind. And hail. And thunder. The Giants have rained out back-to-back games for the first time since they moved to San Francisco.

Since deciding to move to Chicago, I've laughed extra hard when Californians gripe about the weather. When I tell them that I'm moving, they almost invariably say, "Oh, but it's so cold there in the winter!"

To which I reply, "That's okay, it's excruciatingly hot in the summer, so it all balances out." It surprises me how few people know that the Midwest gets as hot as it does.

Now, though, I'm relishing the thought of moving to Chicago, for the weather. My cousin informs me it was 75 and sunny today, and she was in her backyard planting flowers. Sounds good to me!

Things are Looking Up

I feel compelled to compose this update about our Chicago visit after re-reading the posting I wrote some weeks ago. That was a low point.

Believe me, when I start to consider private schools for the boys, it's a low point. And this is not meant as a slight to anyone who is or will be sending their kids to private school. There are some wonderful private schools out there. I honestly feel that we all have to set our kids up for success in the environment we believe is going to be best for them, and I do not judge anyone for the way they choose to educate their children; it is a very personal decision. It's just that for me, the whole institution of public school is very central to my belief system. So for me to even spend two weeks thinking about sending the kids to private school is a very big deal.

But anyway, the point is, I didn't need to worry about it. All of my hours of bleary-eyed, late night online research and contacts with Chicago parents have paid off. I felt sure that in Chicago, as in San Francisco, all those nay-sayers who told me that the only way you can live in the city with kids is to cough up dough for private school, were at least partially wrong. The real truth is, the "only way" to do it is to spend a great deal of time and energy finding the right school, because you can't simply park yourself in a big city in America in 2006 and send your child to the neighborhood school and expect that child to get a decent education. I'm sure we can all agree that this is very sad. At the same time, I find it equally sad that so many parents bemoan how awful their city schools are before they even take a look. I have already seen that this is what is going on in Chicago, and I've seen it for years in San Francisco. No, it's not easy, but maybe that's the point. I find that the pay-off on easy things is relatively low most of the time. But this is a topic for another day.

So, if I may step off my soap box for a moment ("No, no!" you shout, "give 'em hell!") I will explain that Baxter will be attending Burley Elementary School, a pre-K - 8 Literature and Writing Magnet school in the West Lakeview neighborhood. As far as I'm concerned, Burley is a dream school: beautifully racially and socio-economically diverse, wonderful art, music and foreign language enrichment classes offered throughout the year, incredible teachers, big bright sunny classrooms each with a wonderful classroom library and big comfy reading area. I felt about Burley the way I felt about Macalester when I was visiting colleges: "I'm done. This is exactly the right place." If it had been a private school, yes, I would've paid. Am I happier because it's a public school? Absolutely.

So by default we chose the West Lakeview neighborhood. As I had feared, it's more chi-chi than we would otherwise choose. We may not even save on rent at all as compared to San Francisco because the neighborhood is more upscale and the business district far more extensive than our lovely little Inner Sunset. It's not exactly a problem that we'll be able to walk to a Whole Foods store, but we'll be paying more for it. On the other hand, we'll enjoy the beautiful tree-lined streets and proximity to everything we need for as long as we live there, and when we're ready to buy a home we'll have the option of moving to a less expensive neighborhood close by and the kids will be able to stay at Burley. We know it's the right choice for us.

We have a rental agent on the lookout for rental units for us; he called today with one already, so this feels promising. There are still so many unknowns, but being able to picture the school and neighborhood have made a tremendous difference. And remembering all the fun we had with our Chicago family sure helps, too.

Life there will certainly be different but we are feeling very good about how it's shaping up.