she has arrived

I have finally arrived in midwest city usa, which will be my new home, place of employment and site of fresh adventures for some years. I will also have officially lived in each quadrant of the US since I grew up on the west coast (San Francisco 4-eva!) and have lived in the South (GA and TX) and on the east coast (in DC and NY).

After the movers moved all my stuff, I drove the rest of my random things out in my Golf. I had never driven across Pennsylvania before so that was interesting and quite beautiful. Aside from a two minute downpour, the weather was perfect (thankfully I avoided all the areas in the northeast that were flooding). A wide range of music mixes and my new favorite CD, Roy Davis's "Chicago Forever," provided the soundtrack to my journey into unexplored landscape.

When I first entered the midwest, the site of strip mall after strip mall after strip mall almost sent me into a panic. Where's the skyline? The ornate architecture? The bridges? But the Great Lakes region has a lot to offer aesthetically I'm told. I love to hike and be near water so I'm looking forward to some expeditions before the dead of winter sets in.

Most importantly, I'm committed to the choice I made: job over place. I don't blog a great deal about academia because for the most part this blog is my space to write away from work. To sound off about stuff like Star Jones leaving The View or even more serious matters that I'm thinking about, like hurricane Katrina, that have little to do with my day to day worklife. But I have been preoccupied with my academic life recently so I'll say this: choosing was difficult. I had the opportunity to work at a lesser university in my city of choice (NY) or a much better (research 1) in a place I thought I'd never live (the midwest). So I chose job over place and I'm committed to that choice and all that it will mean in terms of my career advancement. But leaving NY was hard. REALLY hard. I'm still mourning and will be for some time, but I'm also 100% -- jumping in with both feet -- invested in my job and this new turn in my life. So here I go. I can guarantee if there's excitement to be had here, I'll find it (and write about it of course) so stay tuned.