News you probably can't use

So, I don't know how anyone's going to take this--I don't know how I'm taking it, really--but my parents finally did the deed and bought a lot here in Chicago, in the same town as my aunt, within walking distance of her house. So they're moving. It's been decided. Of course, it'll take time for Alicia to get through high school (she's got two more years left, remember) and to build the house, and I don't exactly know what their plans are in that arena, but start the countdown clock because the Jarzabs are moving back to the Midwest. So I think it stands to reason that before they do so we have to stage one glorious reunion in Dub-town where EVERYBODY COMES and NOBODY PUSSES OUT so that we can be irresponsible and ridiculous and revisit our old haunts and play car tag and remember what it was like to be eighteen again.

I'm in sort of a strange mood--halfway between sadness and joy at the coming possibilities, none of which has much to do with this news of my parents' but instead kind of has more to do with loneliness and missing you guys and wanting things and being afraid but also looking forward to the things that must await me in the future--but I just want to say that I'm so lucky I met you all. I love you so much, I don't even know how to properly put it into words. Bri, Kim . . . well, you know, don't you? I remember Ms. Neely's fourth period AP English class around Thanksgiving, and we had to go around the room and say what we were thankful for, and you know usually I have kind of a hard time coming up with something that won't be too cheesy but also won't be too personal, but I remember so clearly that day knowing just what to say: that I was thankful for my new friends, that moving my senior year could have been torture, that I could have been lonely and isolated and depressed my last year in high school but instead I met this group of people who turned out to be the best friends I have ever, EVER had and possibly ever will. And the best thing is that these friends introduced me to new friends, and with one glaring exception those people became some of my favorite, most trusted siblings-from-other-parents in the whole world.

I'm still thankful, every day, that this happened. I know I give California short shrift, but it is a place I am constantly nostalgic for, not least because you have turned it into a world of memories and magic. I am so grateful to you and for you, and I know that we'll all be family forever. Of all things, that is one fact of which I am completely convinced.