getting high

As the friend who took this picture wrote me: "What a year it's been already!" He's absolutely right. So far I've:

• danced for hours and made new friends
• had a perfect, lazy snooze-in-bed day the day after I danced for hours (technically the same day, actually)
• been invited to play a really cool gig
• gone snowshoeing up a mountain and looked down on my lovely city, still half-shrouded in morning clouds
• ate Lemon-Buttermilk pie
• took a mini-roadtrip with a pal to visit friends of his, where we played music and boardgames and went for a late-evening ice cream excursion
• been for several long walks with my mom, and another roadtrip today with her as well.

Phew. I think I'll take the rest of the year off! Kidding. Hopefully I'm just getting warmed up...

I have to give a huge shout-out to my mom, who isn't mentioned in this blog as much as she should be. Which is how she would probably like it, since she's a modest sort who doesn't really approve of blogging. "Why don't you just keep a journal?" she has asked me in the past. (Because I'm an attention-seeking egotist artist, Mom.) She has been my rock these last few months, giving me rides, money, advice and support. Sometimes I look at her and I can't believe that one day in the not-too-distant future, she'll be too old to go for 2-hour-plus walks with me. I am so lucky that my family is blessed with health and longevity. My mom often sometimes drives me crazy, because that's what mothers do. But we have rediscovered a sweetness together in the last month that has left me feeling grateful and lucky.

My loooonnnnng vacation has shrunk to a couple of days. My little Christmas tree has to come down tomorrow. I cling to the last lazy hours while hoping for excitement ahead; the eternal conflict in my soul between peace/comfort and challenge/excitement.
I've already climbed a mountain this year. What's next?