>It’s Christmas day, and I feel like I have been celebrating for six weeks already. Our family is a little more disjointed than ever, and that requires a lot of maneuvering of schedules and locations to create all the pieces so that the puzzle can at least fit together figuratively. As soon as the bell rang on Friday December 17th, I quickly worked together with my teaching assistant to tidy up the room to some degree, and I dashed to the car to drive to the Dallas airport. That day, I flew to Oakland, where some friends of mine picked me up and drove me to their place in the North Bay area of San Francisco. They live in Tiburón, a quaint little peninsula. I used to work with them in Nashville, and I cared for their little boy, who is a total delight, thanks to some well-intentioned training and caregiving on the part of his parents. We spent several days catching up, visiting, eating great food and drinking great wine. We went to Sonoma one day to look around and pulled over to enjoy a beautiful garden art installation, we visited one of the oldest missions in California, ate a fabulous lunch at The Girl And The Fig just off the city square, and then we took the scenic route home through the Napa Valley. Just lovely. After my California visit, I then accepted an invitation to visit a friend I met this summer in Mexico, at his home in Chicago. There were more travel adventures involved in that leg of the trip, but he waited patiently for me and my bag, which arrived even later. We ran errands together on Tuesday, then finished the day off with a great Italian meal at Francesco’s Fiore and by tasting some wine at a great wine store called The Cork on our way home. We spent hours talking and enjoying our wine, listening to music. I won a sizeable bet over a disagreement about U2’s recent musical releases. I was reminded how much I love Sarah McLachlan and how you should never continue the conversation past the point of exhaustion, no matter how interesting you both are to each other. I have almost finished packing up for my departure to Mexico tomorrow. I am truly tired, and I hope that I am able to get some rest on the bus and hopefully not have to drive too terribly much. Driving is not my friend. Sleeping is.

I hope each of you have had a blessed holiday, and I pledge to keep in better touch with all my friends, from all over the world, and from every part of my past in 2005. Love, Me.