Longer Days, Halleluja!

M looks at his laptop and tells me that the rest of the country is experiencing a run-up to a chilly white Christmas. Meanwhile, it's an unusually gorgeous day here. After mornings stuffed with fog, the last few have been crystal clear, blue, dry air, warm-ish even. More like July at Christmas.

Wish I could enjoy it more. I of course recognize the essential role mucus plays in my life, but does it have to be such a diva these last few days? I'm stuffy, achey, haven't been sleeping well. Not the Christmas hostess image I want to project to my family, but I have no choice. I'm glad I have the time to loll about and let my cold run its course, what with the office closed. I do feel bad that I can't help M more with the bathroom. But not too bad.

We've (that would be the royal we) had a few setbacks with the bathroom project. The floor wasn't in bad shape after all, but it wasn't level, and the walls aren't plumb, making shower insertion a bit tricky. He had to use a product called, magically enough, "instant floor leveller" which apparently lived up to its name and created a nice seal to boot. He didn't realize the walls weren't flat until after he had put up new drywall, so he had to pull it off and coax the studs into plumb with shims and a plane. Advice from friends and neighbors was invaluable. M's now taping and mudding the seams--we may get to prime behind the shower today. I think once this part is done, the hurdles won't be so high. Well, there is the floor tile to get through.

Now the long nights start to become shorter again, hallelujah! And the new year is coming. Time to reflect a bit on the past and indulge the illusion that I can plan the future. Well, nothing wrong with goals...I try to keep a little scrapbook with me to make notes about activities and keep ticket stubs, photos etc. as I go--I really regret not writing down more about life when I lived in NYC. (Yeah, I wait til I become the boring 'burbanite before chronicling my every move--good going, self.) I haven't kept up with the scrapbook aside from throwing things into a pile, but one item on my to-do list this vacation is to put it all together with a few pithy comments before throwing it into the "2004" plastic shoebox in my hall closet. That'll serve for the reflection.

(Now that I've entered the blogosphere, what will I do for a scrapbook next year? How will I incorporate other mementos, souvenirs, and text that I don't want on line? Gotta make a plan on that.)

M and I did have a little talk on the future recently, though the more distant future. It reminded me a bit about when we first started dating, and the world truly felt like our own lustrous, pearl-bedecked oyster. I think that was one thing that made me fall in love with him--he can really dream big. I, true to my Virgo nature, was sure to try to bring him down to earth--I wonder how he put up with me sometimes--I'm pretty good at keeping my mouth shut now. But, I kept my mouth shut (sorta) when he talked about law school, thinking that would never happen in a million years, and look where that got me--engaged to a law student, sigh.

Anyway...we talked about how I still really long to live in very urban setting again. He doesn't, but is not locked into being a DA in Sonoma County, either. So he's thinking about maybe looking at being an attorney at the appellate level in SF, which might be nice for a time. Well, that's at least four years and a bar exam away.

While we're on the subject of locational longings, my other fantasy is to live in a very rural setting where I raise old-fashioned farm breeds that are dying out--why the opposite from citygirl, I wonder? Could it be that I think that anything besides this middle ground where I find myself now is better? I also have a secret wish that M's journalism background will merge with his law studies and he'll replace Nina Totenberg when she retires and I'll ghostwrite a law and culture column for him in some prestigious mag. Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?