Oh crap! I haven’t been out to the mailbox since I got home. Well, I expect that will make for some cherry Sunday evening reading.

I sent my exchange cards before I left but there may be some others out in the wild that are/will be in mailboxes soon. I love this new tradition.

I have received many, lovely cards... and I love that they've come throughout the season. So fun! I put them on the brick build-out in front of the (non-working) fireplace, and they are delightful.

Last year brought our household a marriage and good health out of bad, so I have huge appreciation for all of that. Ooh, and a lovely trip with friends to see other friends in Panama.

I've had several game nights, brunches, dinners and things with friends over here, which has been so much fun, and I've recently reconnected with three dear friends (two I've known since third grade, and one from college).

We've decided to stay in this rental house for the next two years. I still need to buy some more "real" furniture to make it more like a full-on home... I do not have the interior design gene, so I freeze up when it comes to choosing things. Just have to buck up and do it this year.

I continue to think every single day about everyone dealing with physical and mental health struggles and send you love and good vibes.

More people will get cards, but not until my household is over COVID, which will hopefully be fairly soon. 2023 decided to start some right away, no slack.

I received cards from JZ and Jessica this week. Thank you very much!

dcp, did you not get my card? I sent it!

Jesse, I did, and thank you. Sorry for the omission.

No worries, I was just afraid the mail stole it from you.

Oh man, dcp, that sounds rough. Hoping 2023 will go as well as possible.

I'm living in Minnesota now. Feeling pretty fortunate overall.

So, in the very end of 2021 I at long last moved back into the city after seven years away - I never thought I’d be gone so long. After paying a realtor fee for the first time in my life I found a two bedroom, 1.5 bath (that half bath is amazingly rare) in a rent stabilized building with an elevator. It’s lovely and sunny with beautiful hardwoods and a deep tub. It’s literally two blocks from my last place in a neighborhood I love. I’m never moving again. I’ve already had one Buffista stay and am looking forward to many more.

In the spring I adopted a little rescue pup who’d been taken out of a hoarding situation. Since Dallas lived to 18 I have experience with a senior dog and said I’d be happy to take an older one of the 45. I named him Warwick after the place where he was rescued (thereby officially making that a tradition after Dallas and my cat Manahatta). Due to a broken jaw that had gone untreated and healed crooked he had an oral/nasal fistula. In repairing the hole, they removed the remainder of his teeth. He was very scrawny and his coat was sparse, his ears were just skin. For the first month he’d only leave his crate when I pulled him out to clean it. We honestly didn’t know what to expect, but if he only had six months they were going to be safe and clean and comfortable and loved. His physical recovery has been everything we could have hoped for. His coat came in, he put on muscle, he goes for walks. He has become increasingly trusting and affectionate but still has his behavioral oddities (won’t eat or walk through a door if I’m looking at him) and training a dog who’s not food motivated (eating having been painful for so long) has proved challenging. House breaking went very well and once I get him outside he enjoys that, sometimes a great deal. It’s slowly dawning on him that being a doggy is a wonderful thing and one bright day I’ll come in the door and he’ll come running.

In August I appeared in a play as part of a South Asian theater festival. It was an English translation of an Indian play called Silence! The Court is in Session by Vijay Tendulkar. The cast was all female and international. We were well received which was gratifying as the audience for that festival is notoriously tough and we were pushing the boundaries of a modern classic (The Crucible is a fair comparison) that all of them knew well. It was also particularly timely as the story is about a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy. Hopefully we will be mounting further productions.

In September a friend and I made a trip to Minneapolis to see My Chem. The trip had been postponed twice due to COVID. We had a wonderful time. We ate at the acclaimed indigenous restaurant Owamni (do that if you can). We were supposed to see a play at the Guthrie but I came down very suddenly with a vicious headache, fever, exhaustion… in the morning I felt much better, normal temperature, tested negative, and flew home. We had hope in our hearts because, hey, who sleeps off COVID?

Within the day, alas, my friend, our host, and I were all sick and testing positive (thereby making me the worst houseguest ever). It was a terrible week with a brief ER trip when my oxygen tested low. Fortunately a breathing treatment and the Paxlovid did their job. I was fatigued and easily winded for a long time afterwards, but I did recover completely.

In November my father died 10 days before his 74th birthday. He’d been ill since September - in the hospital dealing with a series of infections. It has been horrible.

Christmas with my extended family was in person for the first time in three years and though my father’s absence was felt bitterly, it was blissful having so many of us together again.

Here’s to a good 2023 for everyone. You are all in my thoughts.