Catching up

Last Thursday we celebrated Michael's birthday. When we were having breakfast and I had informed the children that it was Daddy's birthday today, Henry asked Michael what his theme was going to be. "You know, do you want knights, or pirates, or Star Wars...?" Michael answered that he wanted his theme to be Happy Family Day. Henry thought a moment. "Okay! We can make a cake and put big smiley faces all over it, and then we can get strawberries and make a face with a big smile, and then..."

It *was* Happy Family Day, too. We went out to the autumnal garden plot, then came home and had a Three-Pie Dinner: chicken pot pie, apple pie, and pumpkin pie.
The next morning I was off at 5 am for Chicago. I'd been anticipating this event for a year: a symposium in honor of my graduate school advisor, a chance to see old colleagues and to speak at the Art Institute, and to see some dear friends who live in the area. It was a wonderful, moving, emotional weekend. I spent Friday at the beautiful North Shore home of my college roommate, Cynthia. It was so great to reconnect with this special, special person in my life, and to see her beautiful family. Here's our elegant lunch table.

And her darling son, Sam, making a bubbling cauldron at 7:30 am.

The symposium was great. Academia is a kind of family-- your advisor is your academic mother or father, and her advisor is your kind of grandfather; you are affiliated with them and influenced by them, you bear their unmistakeable traces and yet you rebel against them. The other students are like your siblings-- your rivals for Mom's affection and attention. And just like in a real family, when you grow up you realize that that bond, however fraught, is unique and irreplaceable. So this weekend I reconnected with my academic "siblings" on an adult level, one of enjoyment rather than rivalry. We marveled at how much we had in common in our research questions, and made promises to keep in touch and work together on future projects. And of course I reflected on my journey since I left Chicago 13 years ago. Some of my "siblings" are in bigger, flashier jobs than me, but I felt really happy, lucky, and blessed all the way around with the way things have worked out. I'm so fortunate to be able to research and teach art history for a living, and still to have time to do all the other things I like to do. And then I couldn't wait to get home on Sunday evening!