Re: edit .emacs and then ....

> 2) close and reopen and still have all the same buffers available so I don't 
> have to open easch manually.

Although you can evaluate the lisp as Ryan says, if you are still interested in doing this, for any reason,
take a look at desktop. 

http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/DeskTop

Karen