Category archive for ‘Backstory’ 
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Fourteen Christmases and a Chanukiyah
Living Jewishly obviously means spending the period from Thanksgiving Day to New Year’s Eve with a different emphasis. This year, I’ll leave my well-known tree fetish behind. But as I ponder all the adult Christmases I’ve kept, I’m realizing I won’t miss that holiday’s sense of joy and wonder…because I’m increasingly finding those feelings to be an everyday part of my new journey.
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Stoop-Sitting for Singles
I’m one of the Interweb’s charter bloggers. In 1999 I began scribing the Brooklyn local site for About.com. For most of the following three years, I wrote weekly articles about life in the “Mother Borough.” I used to have an archive of all my old content, but a hard drive crash in the early 2000s put an end to that. Or so I thought.
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Turning and the Teruah of Time
In the grand scheme of things, September 11th is just a day. Yet a day can capture eternity. The days since my 40th birthday have been among the most amazing of my life. I’m finally honoring the past to move forward. And I can’t think of a better time to mark the turning point in my journey.
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Things That Are Older Than I Am
I knew this heinous day would eventually come. Oh well. The one good thing about turning 40 today? At least I’m not the oldest thing on the planet. These things are.
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Happy Anniversary: Five Years of Chicago Carless
Happy Birthday to Chicago Carless! My little blog that could is now officially five years old. Here’s a look at why I created it and where we’ve been together in the past 12 months. And thank you for being here to read it.
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“Do you want to meet your dolphins now?”
What do you do when you realize the company you applied to isn’t the company you want to work for anymore? Especially when they have no idea anyone would ever turn them down?
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The Homing Pigeon of State Street
Two months ago I moved out of Marina City to head for a quieter life beyond downtown. But there’s something to be said for living at the center of it all. I’m learning the grass isn’t any greener outside the Loop–and the roaches sure do put up a fight.
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30 to Forty
In 30 days, I’ll be forty. As the final countdown begins, it’s time to say good-bye to all the things I thought I’d be before August 2010. And wonder where the hell my flying DeLorean is.
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Moving on from Marina City
I am no longer a resident of Marina City. At the verge of 40, my life goals when I moved downtown five years ago just don’t match up with who I want to be in the next chapter of my life. So I’ve given up my high-rise home in order to get my feet back on the ground. In every way possible.
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Why I’m Here: My 9/11 Story Told for the StoryCorps September 11th Initiative (Audio)
On May 21st, I was blessed with the unexpected opportunity to be interviewed by the nonprofit oral-history project, StoryCorps. I visited their mobile recording studio, temporarily parked in Pilsen…and told my 9/11 story for the national September 11th Initiative. From StoryCorps, here is my recorded remembrance of the day that changed my life and, ultimately, brought me to Chicago.
