Welcome!

Hello! This is the Little Yellow Blog, and it shall be the catchall for my leftover thoughts. My fiance, Joe, and I currently live in Grand Rapids, Michigan. For those who don't know (...who does?) it is the second-largest city in Michigan, based around the furniture and now the medical industries and located smack dab on top of the Grand River. We both attend college in nearby Allendale, Michigan (probably #341679865 on the Michigan's big cities list). Grand Rapids is about 200 times the size of our home area, and 1/14 the size of our next hometown: Chicago. You heard it here first. Come January, we're packing up and hitting the road on out to the Windy City. I laugh at a lot of people who think Chicago is some big deal. I grew up within its reaches - my hometown is about an hour's drive into the heart of the city (I call my home area the armpit of Michigan because it's right up tight to the Indiana border and also pressed up against Lake Michigan). The rich Chicagoans who own second homes in our small town invade every summer between Memorial Day and Labor Day. I am very familiar with the city and its people and I often forget it's the third largest city in the country. I guess that makes it pretty cool.

Grand Rapids is a pretty city, with lots of big buildings and of course the signature concrete Flemish knot of highway that tells drivers, "Hey, you're in a bigger city than you were before." The traffic is terrible, the residents are questionable, there are awesome foodie hotspots around town, but there aren't a lot of opportunities left in Grand Rapids (or Michigan) for budding college-grads. So, we go to Chicago. In a long debate over where to go after graduation, Chicago won out over Los Angeles. There are millions of reasons, but the best is that Chicago is almost home to us, and we can get the benefit of a big city (we're ditching our cars in January - woo!) and also have our wee hometown be accessible (an hour-and-a-half long train ride, and we're home).

A friend of ours recently lost his job (see: Michigan economy = terrible) and when I pitched him the idea of Joe and me going to Chicago after graduation, I could see his eyes light up... I knew I'd just found us a roommate. We've been planning extensively and in January, it's so long for now Michigan.

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This blog is basically going to capture the thoughts and activities that take us over for the next while. I'll report back with interesting happenings, great bars, new music, favorite cocktails, the hassles of packing and moving, and all sorts of other whatnot. I hope you stay tuned!

-Jayme