Nom de Plume

Once again, it’s that time of year. Find the first entry of every month and post an excerpt. Tag, you’re it — consider yourself memed!

January:
Of COURSE I ignored rain warnings and left a day later than I should have. I-5 was closed between Yreka and somewhere in Oregon, and traffic was diverted through Route 97. Which goes over the mountains and into the woods and deep into a penetrating freeze.

February:
How does one broach the subject of e-mail forwards with very nice, sweet relatives and acquaintances of a certain age for whom e-mail is the best thing since sliced bread?

March:
From 1981 to 1983, we lived in Nigeria. Embassy housing put us in a three-unit complex, each of the identical apartments stacked on top of each other in a compound with a huge magnolia tree and a guard who spent most of his time napping under it. We lived in the middle unit; Nuel lived on the top floor and Laura lived on the bottom. Nuel just visited my mother in North Carolina, and strangely enough, Laura just retired to Bellingham and spent a long weekend with us.

April:
There is, of course, nothing quite so tiresome as someone explaining why she hasn’t been posting more regularly — so I won’t bother, except to say that it’s been a crazy week with no end in sight. But spring is really here!

May:
Pathetic! That’s what this is. I have stacks and stacks to write reviews, great visit with Pammy, lots of e-mails from my insane mother to share, and unfortunately, lots and lots of work to keep me from updating. One day I will return!

June:
It’s pouring, just a solid sheet of rain. The skylight over my desk is leaking once again, even though Steve has attempted to fix it three or four times.

July:
The anti-net neutrality Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) offers his own version of version of how the Internet works. Scary, huh?

August:
Steve is taking a two month sabbatical from work, and is dedicating himself to projects around the house. The problem is that he’s much more excited about destroying than rebuilding.

September:
“Can you think of a reason to come back to Long Beach?� asked Steve. We were hurtling down the 28-mile long peninsula back to the mainland.

“No.�

October:
Saturday night, Steve and I went to La Medusa for dinner — a restaurant in Columbia City that we’ve been meaning to try out for a long time. Every time we’ve gone in there on a whim, they’ve laughed when we say, “A reservation? No, we don’t have one.� So I finally made a reservation. It was worth it. We even splurged on dessert. We left fat and happy. On the way home, we passed our local Safeway and wondered why the street lights were out.

November:
I was probably a little hasty in creating an entire category dedicated to soapmaking. A better category probably would have been “passing fancies.� Or better yet, “passing fancies on which I spend tons of money and then get bored.�

December:
It’s been a loooonng week. S and I have decided to take up cross country skiing. First jaunt tomorrow.