the problem with knowing people in the opposite hemisphere as you is that just as they are starting a new season, you are starting the opposite one. it just feels wrong to be aware that someone is enjoying the first delights of summer as you keep misplacing winter hats. you long too much for beach trips and bare arms and sunlight without the sharpness of the winter angle, and it makes it too much easier to be as cranky as you want to be.

it's about that time of year where i refuse to let the expectation of a new year pull me under through hopes bound to be dashed and lists of resolutions... and then at the last minute, give up and succomb. but so far my unofficial resolutions are modest and relatively undemanding, focused more on actions like reading more poetry and making some books and maybe even finishing the scarf i've been knitting for almost a year. eventually my resolutions morph into wishes, right now mostly for steady employment and the ability to travel and a little bit of internal peace.