03 February 2006 Friday

Happy Year of Clifford; happy to be home

home. tired. happy to be here. a bit stressed. grumpy tummy. not really sure what it’s grumpy about, but i’m trying to be nice to it anyway. mountain of email and matters from absence to address. i’m awake, but can totally see myself back in bed any minute, at the same time. beautiful weather to come home to you yesterday. seems to have rained overnight/this morning. home view is very nice. much to unpack, clean, organize. laundry! computer files to rintegrate and fix.

lost the pretty purple orchid to the airport, but kept my cattleya. and the little money leaf appears to still be growing, despite ridiculously unfriendly and crushed conditions in my backpack for the past two weeks.

came home to a broken cell phone charger yesterday, with a low battery on the phone making me quite nervous. been ammended already, which is really good because i was surprisingly distressed about it.

been a few days already of the new Chinese Year: the year of the Fire Dog, also known as the Red Dog. Henceforth (actually a few weeks running now), I shall be referring to this year as The Year of Clifford. mixed reviews on whether this is supposed to be a good year for me. apparently it’s supposed to be a pretty tough and challenging and frustrating year… but that doesn’t mean i can’t have things turn out alright. and it’s sposed to be a similarly uncomfortable year for Dogs too, which I find quite ironic.

wonderful wonderful to seem family and cousins again. the older we get the harder it gets it some ways. we have our own lives.. responsibilities.. issues.. interests.. hearts in different places. but also the potential for deeper relationships than we were capable whe were small. however, the two youngest of the family—currently 6 years old) currently share what’s prolly the cutests friendship i’ve seen in the family ever. i hope to always see them hug each other like that, and talk about each other with such certainty and trust and love. and i hope the rest of us always remember each other and reach each other past our grandparents and parents.. connections and committments are up to ourselves, increasingly. we’ll decide whether we want to remain close to each other or not. i hope we choose to.

coming home continues