Once upon a time, I memorized a little poem that I can say when I miss someone who’s gone.  It’s this:

Turn Again to Life
Mary Lee Hall

If I should die and leave you here a while,

be not like others sore undone,

who keep long vigil by the silent dust and weep.

For my sake turn again to life and smile,

nerving thy heart and trembling hand

to do something to comfort other hearts than thine.

Complete these dear unfinished tasks of mine

and I perchance may therein comfort you.

It’s about the words, but it’s also about the repetition.  It’s almost like a prayer, only not.

Then there is this advice I gave to Britty when she was upset about life and couldn’t stop crying (somewhat like me, I think):

Breathe in the roses

Blow out the bubbles

Instead, I just have a parrot staring at me. 

“And all along I believed I would find you
Time has brought your heart to me
I have loved you for a thousand years
I’ll love you for a thousand more”

Happy 3rd Anniversary to my adored husband who loves me just as I am.    Thank you for being the love of my life.

In Nebraska, when we go to the grocer, we have a selection of fish. Catfish. Swai. Some sort of icky whitefish. Nothing worth eating. The salmon is likely good, but if you really want good, good fish, you have to make a special trip to the fish monger.

We watched a movie on Amazon (can’t remember what) and then we watched part of the festivities in New York City. I began wondering… why is the calendar changing to the New Year party-worthy? I don’t mean to be depressing at all. It’s just that every new year is full of its own challenges. I’ve had some pretty major challenges in the last year; some of them pretty amazing, some of them incomprehensible.

So if every year continues to have its own challenges, I suppose that it’s realizing that you’ve made it through the old year’s challenges or enjoyed the gifts of the previous year, and you’re moving into the unknown, where it can be good or bad; happy or heartbreaking, but hopefully mostly joyful.

Maybe it’s the feeling of comfort of the moment; being in a happy place, with a roof over our heads, access to all of the requirements to live on… plus something more.  And if we’ve started the New Year off in a horrid place, there is always hope for a better tomorrow.

Maybe that is the point.

And getting to see LMFAO performing in Times Square.

I am waving “so-long” to the challenges of 2011 and saying, “Bring on more great things” to 2012.

Happy New Year!

in a pleasant sort of way.

http://爱的天堂.com/blog/2009/so-here-was-my-morning/

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I got some nice presents, including a Cuttlebug that I can use with my cardmaking.    TLK and I had fun making cut-out butterflies and frogs, and playing with embossing, which I must say… using a machine to emboss is much easier than hand-embossing… more dramatic and less painful. 

The people at work bought me an ice cream cake and my friend put a banner on my cubicle so everyone knew.    I received flowers from my family in Texas and the funniest card from my family in Kansas.   I put a call into my parents via Skype, but had to leave a message.  Not sure if they’ll hear the voice mail.  My dad says he can’t get through the Italian prompts.. but maybe he can by now. 

We went to Applebees for dinner, which was nice.  They have good steaks and something wonderful called “Peach Sangria”    Yum

Oh, and everyone I knew on FB said, “Happy Birthday”, which was fun. 

Overall, a really good day.   It is good to be 23 again.  “Mommy counts backwards now”.  LOL.

April 1 is the anniversary of our filing of the fiance visa. Gathering all the information together was a nightmare, especially while we were 6 hours apart. It really helped that Ian and I were together last March.. filling out forms, digging up supporting evidence of various things and photocopying what we needed. It would have been a long, drawn-out nightmare otherwise.

And here we are… married, legal residents, just filed our taxes and able to do stuff together after a long 7-month separation.

It’s happy and symbiotic.

His card which authorises him to work for an American employer went to production, his paper which allows him to come back into the US if he has to leave temporarily (for holiday or emergency or what-not) is approved and on the way.

The request to remain (green card approval) has skipped over the interview phase and gone straight to California for approval, which is good.

This is what immigration used to look like.

I can now see a french garden rose and know exactly what it is and differentiate it from all the other roses.   Begonias.   Caladium leaves.   Lisianthius buds.   And my favorite: ranunculus.

I blame Martha Stewart, in a nice, sort of “Thank you for some amazing ideas” sort of way.