call from dad...

i swear that the single worst location on the planet from which to make a cell phone call is inside my dad's house. maybe the walls are made of lead? maybe the house is precisely positioned at some awkward, star-crossed vortex of cellular confusion? whatever the reason, holding a normal conversation there while on a cell phone is next to impossible. but, since cell phone minutes are way cheaper than long distance, when my dad calls, he does so from his celly. like he did tonight.

i almost didn't answer (three cheers for caller ID!) not because i didn't want to talk to my dad (i think new year's day was the last time he and i had talked, so we were about due for a chat), but because he called at 11:00 and that seemed a little late for father-daughter phone time.

...but then i had that what-if moment that inevitably occurs with late night phone calls from family -- the chance that there's bad news waiting on the other end of the line... so i held my breath and answered the phone.

no bad news. none at all. dad just wanted to make sure that he had my correct mailing address so he could send me the sneakers my step-mom had bought-but-needed-to-return-because-they-were-the-wrong-size for me for xmas.

i'm not sure what it says about me that my own father doesn't have my address. does it mean that living in eight different places in seven years makes me a non-committal space cadet*? or perhaps it means that my dad is an old man who no longer has the energy to keep track of minor details like the whereabouts of his adult children...

anyway, the conversation was predicably full of static and interference. all i could hear with any consistency was the sound of the television in the background. there was a lot of "what did you say?" and "dad, you there?" and "emily?" going on... grrrrrrr... so goddamn frustrating! somebody's got to get that man a better long distance plan on the ol' land line!

but one good thing that came out of the conversation (aside from the brief talk with my dad, whom i really do love very much), was that dad told me that they had gotten the current issue of the notre dame magazine (one of the publications that ND sends out to alumni and parents of alums; although, i think if you don't give them any money they stop sending it to you because i haven't gotten it in a while), and there was a brief piece in it from my favorite professor.

so my real purpose in putting up this post is to link to valerie's little article. this woman is seriously one of the most brilliant women i've ever known. this is a good excuse for me to get in touch with her, because it's been about a year and a half since we've talked. she's one of my heroes, one of my role models. she was a great professor and mentor to me in college, and has been a dear friend in the years since. i'm happy to show her off a bit.

enjoy!

*just for kicks, lemme see if i can remember -- no cheating allowed -- all the post-college addresses that i have called home... i'm only listing street names. in my mind, putting up the complete addresses would be like me standing naked in the middle of the law school lounge with my social security number written in sharpie across my belly. and nobody wants that. so here you go -- all the streets on which i've lived, house numbers and cities omitted, and in no particular order: fawn street; arnold street; morewood ave; locust street; s. fairmount street; fawn street (again); woodstock ave; commonwealth ave.