Looking back on 06, Part One

I guess you noticed despite my best intentions, I didn't make it back this morning. The schedule changed at the last minute and once again, I've spent the afternoon wrapped up in politics. But here I am now and I'm wondering what to blog about. Nothing particularly interesting has happened to me in the last few days. At least nothing I can talk about since I spent a lot of time with my family.

I suppose I could do my year end review. This marks the beginning of the my third year in the south. I'm only just sort of getting used to it. A lot of that has to do with moving from a downtown apartment to this little house in the country. It's not just that the people are different. It's that there are so few of them I interact with on any regular basis besides. It's been a very solitary existence. Not that I mind so much. There's some part of me that loves being a hermit, or as I like to think of it, an old maid.

Needless to say, no one saw my underwear this year -- again. I'm losing track on that score. I think it's been four years since I've had sex now, but it could be only three. But before you think I'm a loser, it's been by choice. I've had a couple of offers but I'm just not into the casual thing. I can't deny I miss having a lover though. Preferably a long distance one.

I suppose at this point, regular readers are thinking, well what about John? We're still friends, I think, but I haven't seen him in weeks. We talk on the phone but he got tired of waiting for me and has been hanging out with other women. Which is good thing. We weren't really suited for each other romantically. Our quirks didn't balance out well and at our age you can't expect people to change.

I knew it wasn't going to work the first time he told me he was going to have to get me away from the computer. I've had a lot of failed relationships and one thing I figured out is, it never works if the other person wants to change something so fundamental about you. Not to mention, he wakes up at 6:00 in the morning relentlessly cheery and wants to call me up and talk.

I have this rule about not being called before noon on my days off. I am not a morning person. Unless you have a hot air balloon waiting outside, I don't want to deal with cheery conversation until I wake up. Which takes a while. Maybe I should write a book. One hundred reasons that it won't work out. Reason #1 - Morning people and night owls do not make a good combination.

But outside of the dearth of human companionship, I'm liking the south better as time as goes on. The weather is easy to love. I like going out on the porch in the morning in an unzipped jacket and not freezing my lungs out in ten seconds or less. My bones don't ache like they did up north in the winter. I don't get driving anxiety about slick roads. It's going to be warm enough to go out without a jacket tomorrow. The pansies live all winter long. What's not to like?

The summer is not as good. It's bloody hot and the bugs are ferocious but that's only in the bright hours of the day. But I've become less freaked by the bugs and the evenings are still pleasant enough for the most part, except for the really smoggy days when the wind dies. The locals call it humid. They don't know from humid until they've spent an August in New England. It's really just the exhaust from a million cars on the highway hanging in the air.

Anyway, some part of me misses the snow, but not enough to move back and live in it full time. I realized this year, that when I leave this place, I won't be heading north.