Reader, I finished it.

The thesitation, I mean. I am to be a Master of the Art of doing things to academic prose that should never be done. The space between degrees, the experience of high-speed thesis-writing, my unkillable love for old books, recusant ladies, the British Library, and my blessing of a supervisor to be (or not to be) blogged, later. Perhaps.

In other scattershot news:

- I have returned to the Home side of the Atlantic, for good (ish). Strange feelings on this to be blogged or not blogged, as we progress.

- Michael Chabon has my heart, will always have it, ever has had it. If you, like me, are an established fanperson of America’s greatest living prose adventurer, and have not yet mainlined Maps and Legends, by all means, do so. If you have not yet tasted the joys of Chabon fanpersondom, well, what the hell are you waiting for? Review of these beautiful essays, perhaps, to come.

- A new (to me) iteration of the laypeople-don’t-get-academics experience: here in New Eden, where I reside temporarily as I prepare to move to the City of Abundant Fraternal Devotion, I daily encounter folks who have known me a long while, but with whom I am only intermittently in touch. Inevitably, they ask, “so what are you up to now?” Evidently, “Well, I just finished one advanced degree in something you have never considered and am about to start another, in the same obscure-to-you area, which will take five or six years at best and will not provide me with anything like what you consider a reasonable salary until I’m into my thirties” strikes strange chords in New Eden hearts – chords which produce a thousand-yard-stare or, at best, a concerned head-tilt. Hmm.

- The blog? I don’t know. I consider quitting entirely, taking Kathleen Hanna’s excellent advice. (GET OFF THE INTERNET.) I consider moving to a new space, letting my bloggy persona grow up with my life persona. I consider staying here and moving in new directions. Newness, in any case, calls to me. We’ll see.

For now, reader, simply: greetings. Don’t give up on me just yet, much as my absence may have deserved it.