Cooler than You: Stupid Things I Say and Do

An Emporia, VA sunset.   In the run of things, 2024 was one of the hardest years of my life.  It began with a friend dying unexpectedly, and it ended with a new heart wound that I'm still processing.  It's been dark around here these days.  It's been dark for ages, actually.     My Dad's cancer was confirmed before Thanksgiving, the Wednesday the week before, to be precise.  In a phone call, as he was driving home (and stopping to see my Mom), I called him, and he told me.  He'd barely found out himself.  Then . . . Then, I made a phone call to an old friend of mine.  Little did I know that act would undo me.  Back in 2020, shortly after my sister passed, I was told that when it came to the heartbreaking, bad news, we called each other . . . no more texting things like "my sister has cancer" and "my sister died." It made sense; she insisted that we call from now on.  In all these years of being separated by ocean and ...

As it goes, life has been spinning faster than the speed of light. 2015 was filled with an array of changes, trips, writings, heartbreaks, and--well--just the speed of life.  I didn't send Holiday cards this year. If I had, paper ones would have looked like this digital one I posted via Instagram. Right column: 1. Vienna and Salzburg 2. Chezolslsvakia and Lublin, Poland (there's a hidden joke in the pic) 3. Boston and Salem 4. Garrison, NY and Manhattan 5.The Pope and Fall on campus and Pamakkule  Left column: 1. 2014's Swansong, Daffs in Spring, and Spring Pink 2. Poppies in Ankara, Ulus, Louisville, KY 3. Running Route in VA, trains, western Colorado 4. Half Marathon again, Connecticut sunset 5. Five mile trail in a half, NYC at dusk On the painted surface it was a beautiful year.  I was gone a lot this past year, as in I was physically home less than six months...not consecutively.  I plan to be gone more this year.  2015: Connecticut, Germany, Austria, Polan...