Whirlwind Tour 

It's been an eventful past 2 months, even if it hasn't involved old cathedrals and great art and I haven't had  a spare moment to post.  So here's a reflection on the whole and the end of 2007. . . .

Now that I'm in LA, Miami seems a world away.  People like Lea, Yeshi, Izzy, might as well live in Oz.   The life that became such a familiar, well-worn (and well-loved) grind is so faded in my memory that I barely miss it.  It was an amazing two seasons for my office.  I really came into my own as a director.  I ran a record breaking, movement building, campaign winning office and didn't run myself into the ground.  

Then I left it all behind.  Europe, which was the opposite of well-worn to me, is actually a world away.  It was definitely the trip of a lifetime.  I probably stressed myself out during the trip a bit much, but in the end the memories of the sunrise on the Charles Bridge, the drive across the Romantischer Road, the dances in Budapest, the nightlife in Barcelona all still set off the happy receptors in my brain.  And now I feel better knowing that there will always be another trip, another vacation, another time to travel.  

My homecoming was also sweet.  Living at home wasn't the experience I thought it would be.  I reconnected with old friends and spent lots of quality time with the family.  My mom, who once forbade me from ever moving home again after her sister's kid moved back in with his wife at the age of 30, cried when I left.  

I also loved Philadelphia.  That city is fantastic and I would never mind living there.  And I turned that damn canvass office around--they're all over the top 5 lists and the canvassers still call and text me all the time.  I really was sad to leave.

Aspen was a trip as usual.  Craziness definitely ensued.  I wore my silk red dress to gala night, got lots of complements and promptly blacked out and had to have my old Massachusetts boss pay for my cab 5 blocks home.  I did a lot of hot tubbing and drank hot toddies.  I stayed up all night the last night talking philosophy and canvassing with a dude from Arizona and drank a bottle of champagne.  I went dancing with the head of the entire organization.  I made it home in one piece.

The drive out west was fantastic.  It was a whole part of the country I never had seen before--Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona.  Even, California for that matter.   New Mexico was breath-taking.  The music and civil rights history in Arkansas and Tennessee was cool.  The mountain drive in Arizona was scary and beautiful.  

And now LA.  I spent my New Years Eve at work.  I cooked a mediocre risotto and rang in the new year at a small soiree--Nando, Drew, Alejandro and myself.  We drank our bottle of Cava from Barcelona and watched the ball drop.  My heart sank a little as I realized that everything I was watching on the television had actually happened 3 hours earlier.  Los Angeles is really a surreal place and the time difference is only the beginning I'm learning.