How'd it get to be the future already?

Here's a quirk of geography that had my head spinning: For 14 to 17 hours, I was living in a different year than my loved ones back home. Weird.

After last night's late night, I slept through the first half of the first day of the new year (which is as much of a New Year's tradition as champagne and fireworks, now that I think about it...), rousing myself just in time to call the US and wish folks there a Happy New Year. It was nice to be able to report from the future that 2010 was thus far uneventful.

By mid-afternoon, I was sufficiently awake to begin this blog, part of my resolution for the new year. Begin, you ask? Aren't there entries going all the way back to August?? All written after-the-fact: although I left the US on September 1st, I began this blog on January 1st...

It's amazing how fast these four months have gone by and my memories are already getting hazy and begin to bleed together. I kept a journal for every day I was in the Peace Corps. I'm glad I did... This being the 21st century, I figured I should take advantage of technology... Besides, if I blog about my experiences, that's fewer photos and notebooks that I need to lug around when I inevitably move again!

I still don't intend to join Myspace or Facebook, but I do want to make it easier for loved ones to keep tabs on me... I know I can be elusive. As the months progress, and as my photos pile up and intended emails to loved ones go unwritten, I finally had to admit to myself that a blog was the easiest way to share all my thoughts and images of living here in Japan.

And if anyone else stops by? Hello! Hope you read a thing or two that you like.


Happy New Year to all.  2009 was a little too full of Fear for my taste... Let's work for a little more joy.