full circle

TC asked how we're doing. I usually don't do update type of posts, but hey, this is different, isn't it? This site is now a blend of writerly thoughts and friends-and-family updates. Hmm.

So. I'll give it a try.

Damian's school is excellent, really good. More on that soon, it deserves its own space.

Cocoa hopped out of the carrier as soon as we brought him home and started exploring right away, as is his wont, but took a few days to truly acclimate. Now he purrs and sprawls and suns himself and acts like this is home. He seemed very happy when he found the ottoman, one of his favorite beds. I imagine it feels much like it does for us: our stuff, our home, and yet, well, not. Not quite yet.

A funny moment from a few days ago: we have big picture windows on one side of the big downstairs room. Cocoa spotted a wooly caterpillar on the outside of a window. He stood up on his hind legs, reached waaaay up to swat at it, slid across the glass to the left edge. Reached up again, swatted at it with his other paw, slid across the glass to the right edge. Did this a few times. Looked like a strange sort of dance. Never caught the caterpillar, of course.

It's not yet fall here. If I look past the fence into the neighbor's yard, I see one tree with delicate yellow leaves. The rest are green, but sometimes as we drive or walk through the trees, they seem sun-bleached, faded. As if they're rusting before our eyes. I'm both impatient for fall and glad to put it off a little longer. Right now the temperature is no shock. This could be Los Angeles, though perhaps LA in December rather than October. I find myself picturing snow and slush and reddened noses with a shiver of fear, but maybe that's just because when I told people in LA we were moving, they almost all said, "What, and go back to weather?" I shrugged and said I looked forward to seasons. And I do. And yet. What will it be like? I worry, just a little.

I found out a few days ago that Damian thought winter = snow. He thought that come December, we'll live in a white world. I explained that snow is like rain that way. But now I find myself thinking about that too. How will he react? He's done wonderfully so far with this move in so many ways, but how will he handle winter? Then again, snowmen and snowballs and snow angels� maybe he'll fall in love with it all.

Work� well, it's early days yet. I'm still working on my little freelance gig and not yet looking ahead. Dan's got an agent who is sending his resume out and about. We're feeling our way step by step.

It's hard to say how this move is. Because it isn't, not quite yet. It's still a beginning, and a tentative one, at that. But the signs are good so far.