2005-01-24 - 8:49 p.m. - something new

I'm still here...it's been just over 40 days since I last wrote..."40" - that's one of my favorite U2 songs...it's also the number of candles on my birthday cake in the very near future.

I remember when my Dad turned 40. My mother threw him a surprise party and he got a lot of gag gifts - the best of which was a gum ball machine. (At least that's what I, at the tender age of 6, thought.)

40....it used to seem so old...even only 10 years ago when I was approaching 30. I was just thinking back to what I've done in the past decade - I've traveled to three more continents, learned how to scuba dive, done genetic research in a lab, bought a house of which I am now the landlord, and am finishing up my 10th year of teaching.

My fortune cookie that I ate this past New Year's eve said that I should try something new....HAHAHAHAHAHAHA - I guess living and working in a foreign country while TRYING to learn the language isn't new enough.

So come August when I've completed my year long stint of living abroad, I'm moving back to my birthplace...it's just where I need to be at this time. I'll continue to rent my house out on the West Coast and hopefully extend my leave of absence there for another year. I don't know if I'll teach or if I'll just do something else for a while. I feel I need to be around to help my mom during the transition period after my Dad's death, especially since my two siblings,(who have already been a great help to her thus far), are quite busy with their own families. I just felt it would be selfish of me to continue my gallivanting around the globe when I could be of service to my family members at home.

Plus, I'll get to spend more time with my four adorable nieces.

And...it was my father's dying wish...that I return home. I don't think I will be able to look at him in the eye in the great beyond if I don't at least make the effort. I plan on giving it a year and letting the cards fall as they may. If Portland calls me back, then there I shall go, and no one can say that I didn't at least try.

For all those reasons, it feels like the right thing to do.

So that, for me, is something new...to return home.

"I will sing, sing a new song...I will sing, sing a new song....How long, to sing this song...." ("40" by U2)

highlights from Los Llanos - 2005-04-08
total eclipse of the heart - 2005-04-08
vacation - two days and counting.... - 2005-03-21
30-something - 2005-03-01
the holding back the the flow of tears - 2005-02-20
">next