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My friend Ruby is on her way down to drive back to New York with me and the cats. ON SUNDAY.

Before I go I want to thank everyone who made my time here so great. (Although I will think of a more fun thank you when I get back to New York.)

First, here are the people at The Special Collections Library at Duke. I spent the most time with them (six days a week!!). I’m going to sound like every other “thank you,” but I swear they really were incredible. There wasn’t anything they wouldn’t do to help, they were fun, they made suggestions about other collections that might help with my research — they even fed me and took me to buy kitty litter for the boys.

Thank you all!

You’ve all been great and fun to work with, and I will miss everyone. I don’t think there’s a single thing you could have done to make my visit better.

Linda McCurdy, Eleanor Mills and Janie Morris from the left.

Linda McCurdy, Eleanor Mills and Janie Morris from the right.

Elizabeth Dunn (amazing cook).

Linda McCurdy (action shot).

Zach Elder (action shot).

I also want to bring back this picture of Zach, which I think captures the real Zach Elder.

Lynn Eaton.

Laura Micham.

And this is me, sitting where I’ve been sitting six days a week, from 9 to 6, for almost two and a half months, going through one of my last boxes.

I completely forgot to bring a camera with me to the Rhine Research Center, now run by J. B. Rhine’s daughter, Dr. Sally Rhine Feather, who also fed me and opened doors for me, lent me books, and otherwise has been as gracious as can be. Lots of people helped me there too, including Dr. Jim Carpenter, Ben Perry (who has been lugging around old film projectors I can barely lift so I can hopefully one day get to see films of the people I will never meet but must bring to life) Deana Cloverfox, Joyce Daniel, Barbara Ensrud (who also fed me and took me shopping!) and Temple Richmond (who did my chart and told me all sorts of things to look forward to). Sally also personally drove me to meet and interview the fabulous Betty MacMahan, who is one of the scientists I will be writing about.

There must be people I’m forgetting. Forgive me. I’ll make it up to you if I have.

Oh! If you’re ever in Durham and need to be here for a while, The Extended Stay Hotel has the best deal, including a daily shuttle that will take you back and forth to Duke, and fabulous drivers: William, Omar, Chris, Danny and Ed. You also get a free membership to Beyond Fitness right down the road, and, if you use this you should definitely sign up for a personal trainer (not free, but very reasonable) and if you do that, ask for Iris Ferrell. In addition to being a good trainer, she’s just a lot of fun. She’ll make you crack up while you’re trying to remember to breath!

Goodbye, everyone. Thank you for taking such good care of me and Buddy and Finnegan.

I love this blog. It’s pictures of baby animals with very funny commentary. It’s not cute. It can get crude, there are typos galore, but spend a couple minutes reading it. You’ll get into it. He–actually I don’t know who the person is, he reads male–anyway, he has his charms.

It’s called “Just a Little Guy.”

Five more days! Until I’m back on Perry Street where I belong. I looked for pictures of my block. This is Perry Street one block East. Much nicer than my block. This is where they shot Carrie’s apartment for Sex and the City. (Their crews where the nicest crews. TV and film crews can be miserable to have around, but theirs were alway polite and fun.)

Here’s Perry Street all the way West. It’s the worst part of Perry Street since these towers went up.

I couldn’t find my block so here’s a shot inside. Kinda cluttery, I know. I do my best. I’m not even a hoarder, I’m a thrower-outer. But you live in one place long enough, things accumulate. (Am I repeating myself? I think I already said the exact same thing here in an earlier post.)

I’ve started a list of things to do when I get back:

Fix glasses (stepped on my favorite glasses the first week here).
Home Spa Day (I need some sprucing up).
Backup iBook (forgot to bring a back up device for one of my computers).
Healthy snacks (been od’ing on Smarties here, my comfort food).
Buy weights (I got into working out!).
Look into gyms (see above).
Go to Lush store (Bath Bombs!!).
Hair cut (need desparately).
Go to Met, Moma, hit the Chelsea galleries (not something I do a lot when I’m actually there, but I feel the need).
Laundry and dry cleaning (needs no explanation).
Walk to Battery Park bench (I have a favorite spot to sit downtown).
Take cats for dental work (poor things).

Okay, they sleep while I watch the Oscars.