First List and Photo

Ellis Anderson and Emily Ensminger

Above: First List, 2010; First Photo, 2007

The list was made in preparation for our move from Chicago to NC. Reviewing our practical plans and dreams, its funny to see what we said and wanted then, what, six years later, is still relevant and what has yet to be accomplished. Time warps when you’ve been together as long as we have with no end in sight. The LTR simultaneously dribbles on at the speed of sap and also flashes past. When friends look to me for relationship advice I always suggest that LTR’s aren’t linear - they should be handled like new relationships every 6 months. We never know what’s around the corner because the relationship regularly renews itself and we find new reasons to be with each other.

Photo taken by Marjorie Bailey on a Chicago bus en route to an experimental performance above the Friendship Chinese Restaurant - research indicates it may have been Elastic Arts. The venues interior was painted orange with a small stage. It neighbored a Polish grocery that sold spiral poppyseed cakes and a dentist office with a giant toothy marquee. Unknowingly, I was in the presence of one LTR ending and another beginning.