One Year ago today...

I called Pygmy on the phone... she inquired where I was on my journey across the middle of the United States. I replied "I'm on Snoqualmi Pass -I just past a sign that said 'Entering King County' and it just started raining..." How ironic.

I spend Turkey Turkey Day with Pyg's husband's family who are like my family. It was a great anniversary for me. Last year, I stretched my legs out of my car filled with most of my belongings and took a deep breath of air, getting ready to start a new leg of my own adventure.

It's been a great year - minus this last week of complete frustration with both derby tryouts and a potential boost for my writing career (what?) that didn't work out which has left me wondering What Next?

A great year... I made a bunch of new friends from skating, the Seattle Film Festival, and work in a new city that charms me with its passive-aggressive attitude, growing city struggles, and multitude of Michiganders (not a duck). I found a new "hobby" in roller derby that I enjoy like no other sporting endeavor in my life. I rediscovered my love the mountains that I had forgotten about since I was a kid - reconnecting with the "wild wild west." I learned to be alone again. I decided that camping was the one of the best things to do with friends. I have finally found "my bar" and I have gotten use to the rain.

I still miss my friends back in Cleveland - the ones with whom I did all things creative like art openings, samba and knitting and the ones I shared stories with at the Old Angle - and the snowy winters. I miss the warmth of the people and the city that struggles and struggles. (I miss the fights - though I'm getting use to having different ones.) I miss all my peanuts - the two sets of twin girls in my life. I miss Thanksgiving at Jill's.

The list of the things that I both love and would love to have with me are long - which is why Thanksgiving is such a good holiday to be grateful for all of those things.