I began this blog in 2005, believing that my time in Chicago and Evanston had passed. I'd lived in Washington DC for two years, and began blogging while working at NYU's Ehrman Medical Library.
The blog documented life in New York and my political leanings in its early years, then the transition to the Bay Area, then the divorce. For a while I posted lots of movie reviews and now I am obsessed with baseball. Never once did I think that a return to Evanston was happening.
But happen it will, and we are looking forward to it! Pi Wen and I both lived in Evanston even though we met in San Francisco. Last year we had a three day weekend in the old hometown that planted the seed of returning. It seemed impractical then, it feels exciting and wonderful now.
I've loved my seven years in the Bay Area--including two stints in Berkeley, a year in San Francisco, and now almost four years in Oakland. We have great friends, fabulous food, beautiful weather, and an endless supply of things to do.
But neither Pi Wen and I are from here or of here. I see the blur of tattoos in Oakland, or smell the aroma of crazy tech money in SF, and know that the Bay Area will never be home deep down in my bones.
My college years in "Chicagoland" were formative, foundational. I learned to love public transit, and found the wherewithal to challenge and critique the settled notions I'd grown up believing. In those years I earned a bachelors degree as well as my masters in library and information science. I walked everywhere, became a coffee fiend, and got married. That marriage did not last but it helped make me who I am today. For that I am grateful.
It's time to go back to where all this happened. Today I heard the Beatles tune, "Get Back." As in "get back to where you once belonged." Felt right.
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