anew

Hey there. I'm back. The past month has been a blur of busy-ness and good-byes. Not a bad time, but definitely some ups and downs.

It's New Year's Day and we spent it with Mr.'s parents at his brother and sister-in-law's house. Very fun day. Lots of food, lots of football.

Question: in this part of the US, it's customary to eat pork and sauerkraut on New Year's Day. Anyone else heard of that?

We're staying with Mr.'s parents. The cat is with us. She did OK throughout the 36-hour-long trip. Only freaked out once. She is adjusting well to her new surroundings. She has really bonded more closely with Mr. and me through the process, since we represent the Familiar and the Safe. It has been bittersweet, because I know we're going to need to leaver her when we start traveling around the country.

We have just a week and a half to go before we travel to my parents' home, about a two-day drive away. For the next seven months or so we'll be moving around a lot, so it seems wisest to leave the kitty with family here, so that she'll have a stable home.

Mr.'s mom has this maddening tendency to voice aloud the struggles and fears that I try my best to keep buried down deep. She has observed our interaction with the kitty, how close she is with us and how much security we provide. Yesterday we were away for a few hours and she saw that as soon as we came back into the house the cat came running. Her comment was, "How do you think she's going to do when you leave her and don't come back?" Oh sure. Just take my heart out and stomp on it why don't you? Fortunately, she was talking with Mr, and I overheard the conversation from another room. If she had been talking with me, I don't know how I would have responded. It made tears come to my eyes.

We've taken some big steps in the last week or so that we've been back in the US. Got a phone, signed a lease for a condo (just for 6 weeks), bought a car. It takes a lot to restart life in a different country.

But I'm enjoying some of the familiar, convenient things about "home". I decided at the last minute to make a fruit pizza (see photo) for our family get-together. Went to the store, which was open on the holiday, and found all the ingredients I needed, including instant cookie dough, and berries which should be out of season. Amazing. Ahhhh.

I am going to resume my daily photo taking. I'm not quite half-way to my 1000 photo goal. I am not sure about the future of this blog, though. I am going to start another and I'm going to aggressively promote it to other readers. It's a specific audience I'm trying to reach, and my subject matter will be a little more constrained. But I don't know if I should keep this blog going, in case I want space to be more "real" and "honest" or if I should roll it into the new blog. In any case, I won't be writing in this one every day like before.

But I wanted to let you all know I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, although I flew half-way around it, and wish you a really great 2013. :-)