voice snatchers

I've got a nasty cold, the kind of which if I were living in England in 1789, would probably not have quite killed me, but certainly would have secured me Mr. Bingley's favors and affections. (Though probably not those of his sisters.)

I have lost my voice. It's difficult to parent without a voice and it would make me much more hands on, if I had enough energy. But as it is, I am left to ignore phone calls from mortgage brokers offering to help get us into a house that I really like, but really see no way to afford, because I can't say yea, nay, or anything in between!

It's really too bad, then, in my current state, that I plowed through Harry Potter in two days (one of those days included a family reunion that did require some mingling...are you impressed?) and that kept me pretty well non-communicative as well (except for the occassional uttered name ... I plan to make a list of names I said with exclamation points in the order they came and those of you who have read the book can probably figure out what part of the book I'm refering to...). Meaning, I could use a good Harry Potter book to help keep me down and resting. But I'll figure something out.

"we're out of town!"

That's what my daughter said as our plane landed in Salt Lake City almost two weeks ago. And she was right.

Taking off from LaGuardia I hoped to have at least a glance of the city below. The weeks before filled with packing and the like left hardly any time to say goodbye to my sweet residential village, much less the cosmopolitain city just a few miles South. At first I thought that I was sitting on the wrong side but as we took off, the plane curved around and suddenly the city appeared like a map laid out with little pop-up buildings sprouting from midtown and the financial district. Central Park was the perfect rectangle below me and as we flew away, the island of Manhattan getting smaller and smaller, I must admit, I cried.

It's true, there are a lot of things about New York I wasn't overly fond of, and had we stayed that wouldn't have changed. But there is something about leaving a chapter in your life that is a little sad. Farewell to favorite parks, favorite trees, favorite little roads to drive on. We landed in SLC after a relatively uneventful flight (and with four small children, that's saying something) and that part of our lives was over. Almost like we had never been away, and had never lived in New York.

Except for the fact that when I went to Costo it was huge and populated with an unexciting percentage of peoples and ethnicities of little variance, all of whom seemed to like to dress the same. And my kids spent an entire day just running around a vast space called a backyard. I don't have to pay for parking. And when I look out at the expansive horizon, it is incredibly expansive, and not cut off by a multitude of trees and buildings so close together there isn't anywhere to look out, just up. This isn't list of good and bad, pros and cons; it's just a list of some things that are different. And so, if I experience a little twinge when I go to pay for groceries, but don't have to pull out my Stop n' Shop card for the discounts, it's not because I am no longer required to pay $1.40 for a can of refried beans.

It's good to be here. But like reading the last chapters of a book you have completely loved, I can't help but want to go back and flip through a few of the pages once more.

whoosh! where does a year go?

It's the thirteenth and a Friday at that, but I consider it a lucky day. One year ago I clicked save and my first ever post was, er, posted on this blog (granted, last year the 13th was a Thursday, but this year it's a Friday so we'll go with that). It was something I'd been thinking about doing. I was a faithful DYM reader, occassionally venturing out beyond into the greater world of bloggers, and particularly "mommy bloggers" (if you don't mind the term) who fascinated me by being so much the same as myself, and so different at the same time.

I've enjoyed the chance to write a bit of randomness here and there. It's good to have a little space in the world that's your own, even if it's just virtual space. I have some nice virtual neighbors who stop by on a regular basis to say hi and that's a lot of fun. I think I have other nice virtual neighbors who frequent here, but they are more of the silent type, which is lovely as well (although I would love to hear from you).

I've heard about bloggy burn out at about the year mark, and I think I very well could be experiencing it, except that really I've managed to pummel most of my creativity into the ground simply by being alive these last few months. It's mommy brain, on top of everything else. But I hope to get the juices flowing again soon, instead of the slow trickle that seems to produce good blogging ideas, but can't get them past the thought process. But at least they're in there somewhere floating around!

I hope to dazzle and astonish you in the next year with my amazing blogging prowess. hee. But I'll settle for being mildly entertaining for the present, while thinking about some new things to blog about, maybe a new blog design, maybe some new subjects, maybe...the options for the future are endless. Mostly I just hope I can say that a good time was had by all.