I'm back in Brooklyn

A thousand apologies for abandoning my post, but life got in the way. A mountain of student essays to grade. Hours and hours. I couldn't even think of language, I was drunk on language. I saw citations and bibliographies in my sleep. Then a visit to the tax man, then swine flu. It was all too much for a girl to take--- would this subway ride prove my undoing? I sanitized my apartment from top to bottom. I wash my hands constantly. At the gym I wipe down the equipment before and after, several times. I now qualify for membership in the OCD Association, silver status.

When the news settled down, so did I. Fear-mongering at its slickest and prettiest. Press conferences and face masks, hot button states, constant stats. Deserted Mexican streets. A pig farm in Veracruz. Epidemiologists, push the panic button. CDC from Atlanta, somber and self important. Shades of the great influenza virus of 1918. PANdemic. Then, suddenly--- nothing. Just a passing reference. Now I'm OK. I'm not high on panic and end-of-days. I'm back in Brooklyn. It's good to be here.