Finale

It's an interesting coincidence that the finale of ER coincides with Wes's last shift in the NMH emergency room. He'll spend the next three months working shifts in Evanston, at Cook County, where ER is fictitiously set, and at a hospital in Glenbrook, a suburb of Chicago. The day is bittersweet. Wes is well-liked at his workplace and has grown close to many of the attendings that work in that emergency department. He's learned his trade there, became a "real" doctor. He's forged friendship with his classmates, with whom we've shared wedding, the births of babies, and too many work stories to count. On Wednesday morning, he gave his final presentation at conference, his senior project, of sorts. Today he worked his final shift and cleaned out his locker.

We are ready to leave Chicago -- the very often awful weather, the high cost of living, the cramped apartments with no backyard. But Chicago has been our home, a true home, for the last four years. We've moved once while here, so it's not so much the space we inhabit daily as the the city itself that feels like home. We know the streets, the El stops, the restaurants and stores. We give directions to people standing in the park, maps flapping in the wind and quizzical looks on their faces. We have a preference for Midway over O'Hare, Giordano's over Gino's. We are, if only temporarily, Chicagoans. This is where we started our married life, where we brought home our first baby. It is where Wes started his career, and I cemented mine. This is where we, in many respects, became grown ups.

Wes's last day is simply the first in a series of lasts. It will be followed by the last time we fly out of Chicago, Ollie's last day with his sitter, our last days of work, the last time we walk along the lakefront. With any luck, we've seen our last Chicago snow (though probably not).

So even though we haven't watched the show in years, Wes and I will tune in tonight to see the finale. It is in a way a swan song for us and our time here, too.