hi all. i've been quiet recently; still enjoying all of your writing on this great list.
some news from this corner of brooklyn: courtney and i are moving to chicago on february 1 (oak park, actually, a little neighborhood just west of chicago). he's got a new job there, and will show me all sorts of fun things in the windy city, his hometown. and i will...um, adjust to this great sea change in my life...finish my dissertation, write more fiction (from a prairie perspective?), listen to lots of joni. on a new york note: i'm very conflicted about leaving. patrick, david, debra, tanya and the rest of the NYC gang: thank you for all sorts of fun joni outings here, for a wonderful john kelly night, but most of all: for support and solace during the months since 9/11. i'm both relieved and miserable at the idea of leaving new york while we are still reeling, still rebuilding, still mourning and healing. i'm interested to see what it will be like to contemplate 9/11 from outside new york, and yet i know it will be hard to be in another place. the comfort i find in my melancholy here is that there is no need to explain anything to other new yorkers. there is a sense of going through/having gone through something life altering together. don't mean to sound so sad -- many parts of this big change are exciting and challenging to me. and i will make sure to carry all my born-and-bred-in-brooklyn spirit over to the windy city, and tell them just what i think of the bulls, while wearing my knicks hat! (proudly, after last night's double-OT win!) more later from chi-town, emily
