Déjà vu.

In the afternoon of Wednesday, November 24, the six Primms squished into either the van or the car to begin a longer-than-planned journey up to Chicago. We had originally wanted to leave Tuesday evening, but if you truly know our family, it would come of no surprise to you that we didn’t leave until almost a day later ;). We did have excusable circumstances, though—one being the absolute necessity to bring our beautiful antique French mirror that we had found a just over a week prior at an estate sale. This proved a difficult task seeing that the mirror is 4’ tall and 5’ wide and couldn’t easily fit into the van with the many other items all crammed together. Mom’s brilliant solution: tie it to the top of the van. Of course, we were quite concerned about it the entire trip, but it made it safely into our apartment with just a little bit of water damage that leaked under the tarp.

We didn’t pull into Chicago until about 10:30am Thanksgiving day due to stopping to rest along the way.  As I was driving into the city and the beautiful architecture came into sight, a comforting feeling came over me. This is a place I know, and I don’t have to start completely over.  As soon as we pulled next to our new apartment, some of us headed over to our friend Austin’s house to prepare the Thanksgiving dinner, since he so graciously offered his kitchen due to our gas not being turned on yet. The other family members began to carry in furniture. The meal was wonderful, and we soon returned to carrying everything in.

The next day, our family took off to Flint, Michigan to clean out the storage unit which held furniture from my grandmother’s home that we stored after she passed away. A trip to Michigan wouldn’t be complete without a stop in Frankenmuth, MI, though! Frankenmuth is a little German town, and our favorite places there are the Bavarian Inn Restaurant (especially the buttered noodles!) and Bronners, which is the world’s largest Christmas store. The Bavarian Inn was our first destination. Snow was flurrying as we drove into the town, which was the perfect setting for the gorgeous Christmas light display. The food was delicious, as always. We soon went to a hotel to return again in the morning to Bronners. Next stop: the storage unit. We crammed the van full of furniture to take back to the apartment. Yep, we even tied a few things to the top—which caused for many stops along the way back to make sure it was secure/stop the tarp from flapping wildly.

It was an odd feeling being in Michigan. It was the first time that I had been there without Dad, so there was a down feeling, but yet there was a bit of comfort that I feel each time I am in Michigan or even just the Midwest. We spent so much time there growing up--visiting our grandparents, friends, other relatives –plus the fact that we were born there.  While driving, Rebecca and I remarked on how we were Midwesterners that grew up in the south…interesting combination for sure.

We all drove back to Chicago, unloaded more furniture, and a few hours later after everyone got a tiny bit of rest, Mom, Matthew, Victor, and Jonathan left to go back to North Carolina. They all were so kind in sacrificing their Thanksgiving break for us. They endured much work and stress just to help us!

Upon returning to Chicago, we were able to see “It’s a Wonderful Life: Live at the Biograph” (amazing cast/production!), “Frosty’s Shakes ‘n Dogs” (cute children’s show) –both of which were musical directed by Austin Cook, and “Home” at Court Theatre. My friend Matthew Sitz, the house manager of Court Theatre, was so kind in hooking Rebecca and me up with fantastic seats to see the show. Everything about the production was incredible.

Rebecca took over the decorating aspect of the apartment and it’s looking quite lovely. We have spent many hours in thrift stores finding the right touches. The thrift stores here in Chicago are amazing. HUGE selection, great prices, and if you go to our favorite thrift store chain, Village Discount Outlet, they are organized as well. It’s night and day difference in organization between the Village Discount and the Salvation Army stores here. The Salvation Army stores are one giant headache!

Reuniting with friends here has been wonderful.  I didn’t think I would ever see some of them again when I left Chicago back in June.  Having Rebecca here hanging out with them too has added an even more fun dynamic!

A huge blessing these past two and half weeks here: Already having 2 gigs. Sunday, December 5, I sang in a Christmas concert put on by my friend Kyle at a beautiful church in Lake Bluff, IL. I was shocked at how many people came out for the event. It was a lovely intimate concert, and the audience members were such kind people. The other event that I sang for was a gig that I found on Craigslist! Michael Goodman, singer/guitarist, posted his need for a female singer to sing with him at a private Christmas party. They were to be costumed as traditional carolers and sing throughout the home. I sent e-mailed my information, exchanged a couple more e-mails with him, and he stated that he would like me to sing with him. He later told me that the reasons why he picked me were because he wanted to help me out, because he read my blog and found out that I had just moved here, and my voice was more of the style that he was looking for. He just moved from Kentucky in August, so he is newer to the city as well. He mentioned that the home that we would be singing in was a recently restored $10,000,000 home downtown and the couple was very generous in their payment of musicians from his past experience of working with them. I was EXTREMELY excited. I met him at a costume shop, picked out the costume, and the next day we headed to the home. Six floors of beauty. We were greeted by valet, coat check girls, servers, and the couple—all were very kind. We changed, and sang outside as the guests drifted in, and an hour later we moved inside. I loved being a part of this gorgeous party. The servers were kind in making sure we were taken care of as far as water and hors d’oeuvres.  It was a grand experience. When I checked the envelope to see my payment, I was super thankful, because it covered half of rent. Now I don’t have to freak out as much about not having a job! ;)

The “blizzard” and single digit temperatures these past couple of days has been beautiful to gaze out the window into, but definitely a change from what we “southern” girls are used to! Still not used to the puffy coats and snow boots Chicagoans wear...although I did break down and get some from the thrift store so that I don’t freeze….haha!