This is Not October

The last time I posted here, I had just wrapped up a craft fair in Boston. Today, I unpacked that missing box. It’s been two months since I’ve written. I had planned to write in October, but this is not October.

Here in California, it’s the last hour of the last day of the year. Outside I hear some preliminary fireworks as folks in the Bay Area get into the spirit of things. My Boston pals have already rung in the new year but did not forget me (it turns out text messages are good for something after all). I’ve just sent an email message to a friend in Australia; he’s practically into the second day of January now and here I am, still catching up with 2007.

Before the year ends, I am posting here to say that I will be back, in 2008, with my sarcastic commentary about all things postal. My news about “the square” will be replaced with explorations of “the village” – I’ve got a new spot from which to experience day-to-day life. I plan to get to “The City” too, and soon. Just a short drive from San Francisco, I have yet to visit all my favorite places. I guess that's what a new year is for: more time.

I think back on my resolutions, about which I wrote here 365 days ago. I resolved to hit some home runs… and I had no idea then how much the playing field would change. The move was at once thrilling (I landed in the Bay Area during an earthquake) and tiring (how does one accumulate that much stuff that it takes weeks to stack, pack, unpack and give away most of it?) and sad. I left behind so much in Boston.

Sometimes, it takes leaving a place to realize how much a part of it we are. That happened, for me, during my years in Boston – I realized that I am a California girl at heart, and family-oriented, to boot! Now that I'm back, I’m hearing my own accent against all these chipper Californians, noting that I appear to always be in a hurry, wondering how these people survive without real coffee, and actually missing the brutal cold.

OK, I might not miss the cold, but I do miss coming in from it.

Here’s wishing you a new year of soft, happy landings… and always, the sheer joy of coming in from the cold.

Until next time,

Conna