#4:

My move to Chicago in mid-1999 recapitulated this argument in an amusing, if slightly self-image-bruising, way, reminding me that despite my insistence on seeing myself as the first, I'm not my only audience:

Me in the First Year: At last I'm at home, living once again in a city where style really matters! So many stores! so many cool outfits to look at on the street! whole neighborhoods full of people who understand my shoes!

Me in the Second Year: God, I'm dowdy. I spend all these years developing this elaborate style and sure, in a university town filled with Birkenstocks I looked kind of cute, but here I'm clearly outclassed. Middle-aged. Me in the Third Year: Hey, there's a cool store. Hmmm, I could put this together with that and….