The Other Side of the Ocean

In the doorway of a Synagogue

New OCEAN readers take note!

Hey, new readers! If you want a quick summary of ~~two~~ ~~three~~ ~~four~~ ~~five~~ ~~six~~ ~~seven~~ ~~eight~~ nine years of blogging, read this:

It’s 2004. My two daughters are away at college (younger one) and law school (older one). Wow. Suddenly I have time to write! Not big stuff. Little stuff. Bloggy stuff. And so I start writing Ocean. I test styles, I add photos. Things evolve.

Over the years I tell you just a little about my past life. You’ll have figured out that I was born in Poland, but due to my dad’s diplomatic career, I spent some childhood years in New York. Eventually I moved to the States as a young adult. I married, had kids, went to Law School. I teach there now and have been on the faculty at UW Law for ... close to two dozen years.

Meantime, my marriage breaks up (gently, very gently), my daughters graduate from law schools (both of them!), life moves forward.

I meet Ed. On line, then in person. Ed is his own guy. Ed is Ed. One date and we are together. I’m done with suburbs: I live downtown. First an apartment loft, then a condo. Ed is indifferent to the apartment and hostile to the condo. Ed likes his sheep shed. (Did I tell you he lives in a buffed up sheep shed on his property?) He travels to see me daily, but never tires of calling my brilliantly clever living arrangement – a dump. (Ed: if I wanted to live in buildings like this, I would have stayed in New York.)

Five and a half years after meeting Ed, I pack up my dwindling belongings and move to the farmhouse on his land (just south of Madison).

We renovate it. Ohhhh, the farmhouse needs it! A hundred years of issues. But Ed has skills and he has time. Between him and a couple of construction types, the place is patched, mended, finished and (in April of 2011) I move in.

Alright. That’s the chronology. Here’s what else you might want to know about us: Ed and I have nothing in common. Most of the time, we say this with a laugh.

Here’s something else: one fourth of my heart is in Europe and one eighth in travel of any kind. So even though I love Madison, when I’m not teaching, I am very often on the road. Away. Typically, Ed tags along. I have been known to call him my occasional travel companion. It sounds a lot better than boyfriend, it’s more accurate than husband, though another possibility would be landlord. Or honey pot.

Anything else? My father lives in Poland, my sister lives in Sweden, my mother lives in Berkeley. One daughter lives in Chicago, the other teaches right here at UW in Madison.

That’s it! Anything else you’ll have to pick up by reading along. No need to go back in time, unless you want to...

The Other Side of the Ocean

Sunday, September 26, 2004

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