A letter received in Chicago, Illinois on 3 March 2009

Dear Diana,

It's been a while since I've written. Kinda been busy here of late with the business basically booming and me back in school again. R and I are comfortable and are looking forward to Spring. Winters up here are cold and snowy, but I must say they handle 20 inches of the white stuff better than other places handle 2. The people are really decent, too. It's kinda nice to not be in a blighted place like Detroit, even though Manchester seems to have its moments.

D. disappeared without a trace a few months ago. He told me some stuff that I can't get into here, but I'm fearing the worst. We miss him a lot.

I told you that Guy and A. are here. It seems that after you guys brought me home, G was messed up. After what happened with A, he pretty much lost it. Unfortunately, before he could get proper counseling, he disappeared on a routine business trip to the 'home office'. I wish I could say that I am sad to see him gone, but I can't--he really went over the line in a lot of places. Very long story.

So, otherwise, I am working toward bigger and better things. I tried a semester of NHC and bagged it. I got -really- sick in the late fall, my mother died in December, so it was a hard semester for me. Though I did manage to get an EMT-A class and some other things I wanted, it was just too much make up work at the end. Far better to find other ways to learn.

My art is also improving and expanding. There's a private art school here that has flexible arrangements as far as classes go. I enrolled there and even got one of my pencil pieces in the gallery. I must admit that I find the arrangement more to my liking. Low stress. It lets me have a life and pursue things like physics and computers in my spare hours(what few I actually get). R asked me to do some stuff for his next shareware thing and I must admit that I'm flattered. I don't think I'm really that good.

It's busy and I find myself the den mother again, which is kinda hard to deal with sometimes. After G tried to convince me to leave to go with him and join his group, and after K and A came back, it got busy in the house again. It's crawling with people most of the time. My little library is like Grand Central Station sometimes....

I'm just getting along. I wish you were closer, but I know how the work takes us elsewhere sometimes. I miss you bringing over your muffins and miss being able to talk to you. I need that sometimes now.

Yours truly,
Beatrice

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