On New Years Day, I sat down and did a New Year reading with my Tarot deck. I made sure to write down what card I received for each month on my calendar and have been paying attention to my happenings to see if they’re synching up. So far, they’ve been synchronized only in loose interpretations and retrospect.

It’s no secret that I’ve been over the moon in these last few weeks. Aside from being on a high from us finally moving forward and finally getting away from a town I loathe and finally feeling rewarded for our efforts to change our situation, I’m just in love with my new home. Aside from Sanford being a genuinely wonderful little town, I’m back in North Carolina again, which has always been where I call home, even though I was away for half of my life. (I don’t think I could ever be in South Carolina long enough to consider “Carolina” USC or automatically think that the State Fair is in Columbia. Even after being gone a decade, I still told people, “Well I live in Myrtle Beach now, but I’m from North Carolina.” Kinda pathetic, I guess.) And, although I knew all this time that there were things I missed about North Carolina that South Carolina and/or Myrtle Beach simply doesn’t have, I’m finding that there are dozens of traits about the NC that I’d completely forgotten about altogether. A part of me feels like a kid again, running around in my acre-sized backyard with my brother and sisters… it’s incredible.

Chloe and I drive out of town while Greg’s at work, riding over rolling hills on country roads and gazing out over beautiful farms that all seem hand-selected from a decorator who said, “Okay, the theme here is classic, rural Americana. But I want extra charm!” There are old farm houses pushed back away from the highway, nestled under sprawling oaks with oversized ponds and self-sustaining gardens in the backyard. After years of driving through dusty, flat, dilapidated countryside, I’d forgotten how much I missed that. (Plus, I do love the knowledge that these little farm towns are literally 15 miles away from the state’s biggest, most prestigious cities. It brings it all back down to earth, really.)

We also go on walks around our little neighborhood where Chloe waves to every person we pass and yaps back at every dog. We sometimes walk down to the waterfront of the large pond that sits at our subdevelopment’s entrance and skip stones or point at ducks. (These are days I wish I had my own kayak, even if it’s just to take her out on the water for 10 minutes.)

In the evenings I feed Chloe dinner, give her a bath, and then sit with her on our couch while she watches a Disney Sing-Along-Songs DVD my mom converted from the original tape she bought us in 1986. As she sits, mesmerized and enrapt, I enjoy the way the setting sun shines through the thick leaves off our back deck, breathe deeply in complete relaxation and always, without fail, fight the urge to sob with gratitude and bliss.

I’ve not been bashful about admitting that this is easily one of the best moments of my life. I know, it’s all painfully overdramatic and pretty gross in my gloating of how awesome I feel and how things are going wonderfully for me. I’m even kind of getting repulsed and bored with myself and my own Mary Tyler Moore cheerfulness to an extent, so I’ll be literally amazed if anyone - frequent reader or not - has made it this far. And I also know it can’t last in the ebb and flow of life’s cycles, so I’m absorbing and milking every moment while I can. Although I’m on the edge of my seat with excitement about having a real autumn for the first time in 12 years (not counting my semester in Melbourne, AUS) I know better than to waste my days looking forward to the next thing coming.

But right now, for this one moment, everything is exactly what I’ve dreamed of for us.

Anyway, as I was unpacking more boxes, I came across the calendar that had my 2009 Tarot predictions on each page. When I went to hang it on the wall of my office I flipped to August and abruptly gasped with amused surprise and recognition, feeling my heart swell with even more blubbering, gushing gratitude.

At the beginning of this year, I drew the upright XXI Major Arcana card - better known as “The World”

Of course.

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In case you’re not into Tarot meanings here are some good definitions in addition to the one hyperlinked above:

A Brief Description

A Longer But Less Action-and-Foreward-Movement-Based description

And the Wiki Description

Somehow, in two weeks we’ve managed to find a house, sign a lease, and move all our crap 3 hours away to beautiful Sanford, NC. I’m actually very very excited about this kickass little town but unfortunately, I’ve been too busy running around to talk about it. Look for a new post next Monday when I will take myself to my local library (we don’t have the internets yet at the house) and spill everysinglething that’s been going on recently. No joke.

Oh, you’re good.

First, there are over 2 million people at The Mall in DC who are all singing, dancing, and filled with joy and hope, being televised across the globe. Then you make it snow in Myrtle Beach. All before 10 a.m.

Whoa. Way to pull out the stops!

I’m going to be hanging out, trying to fight back big, happy tears during this whole Inauguration thing (I’m such a bloody-hearted liberal) and then watching my three favorite films all afternoon while playing with my little girl. Feel free to keep the magic coming.

P.S. Thank you. I’m sorry I ever doubted your professionalism.

~ Chloe is walking all over the house these days which is more exciting than I can possibly describe. She also LOVES dancing to any form of music available (musical toys, commercials, etc.) but nothing makes her shake her little behind quite like Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” which we listen to gleefully at least 20 times a day. She likes the rest of MJ’s “Thriller” album [which I have on vinyl!] just okay, but when the “Mama-Se Mama-Sah, Mama Coo-Sahs” start, she starts clapping and shrieking like she knows she’s the happiest baby on the planet.

Also, she’s talking up a storm. Her best words are still “Mamamama” and “Dadadada” (respectively), but she’s also learned that ducks (”Dahs!”) say “Quack!” (”Kek! Kek! Kek!”) and that Benny (”Bee!”) is a cat (”Kah!”) and that my mother is “Granny” (”Gaan! Gaan!”) It’s all terribly exhilerating. She also babbles pretty much incessantly (”GoGah! Woodleweedlewoodle! Deedledoodle! Gaaahhdaaahh…Loodleloodleloodle” She’s getting to expert level on glottal sounds and we feel she may be a champion yodeler by the age of 3), but my mother says she only does this when I’m around and, when she’s left in the company of strangers, she’s mostly just silent and smiley.

~ On a whim, I ordered the “Ocean’s Twelve” soundtrack for supercheap at Amazon.com. Say what you will about the overzealously shameless “Oceans” movie franchise, I honestly think the soundtrack might be one of the most underrated compilations ever created. Seriously, tres cool.

~ My free trial week at WeightWatchers.com is over and, even though I totally screwed up the program for two days in a row, I still managed to weigh in 6 lbs. less than I did last week. Holy crap. That’s the kind of progress I can work with. (And yes, I’m shelling out enough dough for a three-month run.)

~ This morning I woke up at 7 a.m., fed the baby, got her ready for travel, slapped on some eye makeup, got together all my legal documents and excitedly hopped in my car to drive 20 minutes to the county seat and finally register for my small business license. Turns out today is the same national holiday they’ve celebrated on the Monday of every birthday week since I was born…

Hunh… Go figure.

~ I don’t know why I get all shaky and nervous when I submit fiction works to the 10-12 contests I enter annually, but I uber-courageously [insert eyeroll here] kicked off 2009 with my first two submissions last week. Suffice to say I was so anxious, I nearly dragged my keyboard under the desk to hide out when I hit the “Submit” button. Why can’t they award prizes for bravery, no matter how awful the fiction attempts may be?

~ Because I’m using WordPress format on this blog, I have the privilege of tracking who comes to read my scribblings here and I’m always amused at what sort of ridiculous searches bring readers to the site. Aside from Googling my name, it seems there are a ton of people searching for the keywords “Marilyn Monroe’s Chanel ad” (duh), “naked women” (also, duh), and, mostly, “naked feminists”…

…Wait, what?! There’s a market for that!?! Well, looks like I’ll have to go looking for photos of the days when Gloria Steinem was working undercover as a Playboy Bunny. We may be able to sell ads here with the sort of traffic that’ll garner.

(Mrs. Steinem, if, by some slim chance, you’re somehow lost on the Web and reading this, I’m kidding, of course. Although, for the record, I think your tirade against Playboy and Hefner in the 1970’s was a bit ridiculous and insulted the free will and intelligence of women more than it supported our protection. This being said, I still respect your work and appreciate that you’ve grown a sense of humor and a willingness to marry in your older age. From a next-generation neo-feminist, thank you for your efforts, angrily executed though they may have been.)

~ I’m so excited about the inauguration tomorrow I can’t even stand it. If the permeating excitement of November 5th wasn’t intoxicating enough, I have a feeling that tomorrow will be one giant global party and I’m looking forward to riding the worldwide energy all day. For my 26th birthday, I think I’m getting some patriotism for a change.