The Year of the Rooster has come to an end—it was exhausting to keep up with my superstitious fears. For the first few months I wore a jade bracelet and ring and lots of red hoping to combat any and all bad luck coming my way.
But the year was less about bad luck and more about abrupt change. Change in heart. Change in mind. Change in body. I suppose that has yielded a change in spirit.
Good thing this happens only once in every 12 years.
I never got around to doing a Christmas post. I had that wretched flu. I was going to do one a Epiphany and didn’t get there either.
I’m happy to see the cock go. Welcome Year of the Dog instead.
I let this site kind of go to pasture for awhile. But I’m taking this week as a new beginning. There are so many things around here that need completion. Like libraries. Like divorces. Like books one has been writing for too long. Also I’m teaching in prison now.
So here’s to new completions. These are the things I’m happy to report that the Cock year brought on:
- Divorce. (was technically started the year before).
- New love. (isn’t so close together to number 1 as it appears)
- 10 K words of the book that are useable (yay!). Also new play! Also new chapbook of poems!
- Libraries moved and changed (now instead of one big library I’m feeding books and book related services to about six in the area–including one prison–but so much new organization needs to be done.
- Kids are full blown teens with full blown teen disease–it lasts much longer than the flu. We have beautiful moments and there are of course moments of exasperation. Why do they always want to know about sex?
- Pachuca Productions hit the ground running. We’ve produced two small shows so far and have two more theatrical items for February, one in March, one in July. Whew. Check posts soon for schedules.
- Financially independent and stable for the first time in years. It’s amazing how not sharing a checking account with someone else (psst husband) can do so much for your financial outlook no matter how little you have.
- Sad Girl Zine is back! With looks like 3-4 issues in the works. Thanks Marya Jones for the inspiration.
- I was never really a drinker or a drug taker in the first place. But I met a man who flat out doesn’t drink, which made drinking less appealing. And now I don’t drink. It’s amazing to reach for a cup of tea after an exasperating day instead of a glass of wine. It’s fantastic to be with someone who doesn’t need this. Cue weight loss. Cue better health. Cue always being in one’s right mind and facing whatever needs to be faced head on.
- Moving makes you declutter. Simple is as that. Slowly packing up my life. Thriftstoring things. Donating my own books to students. Simplifying for the next stage. The next years. Marveling at how some things stay with us and some are discarded. Why do I have the stuffed animal I’ve had since I was 2?! Four place settings of good china? A key from my room in Germany from when I was 12?
That was my year of the Rooster. The Cock brought me tumultuous change I was not ready for and I’m barely catching up to it. Let’s hope the Dog gives me a chance to finish what I started. I hope so. I’m confident about this.
And above all I have love in my life–a wonderful man who I never thought I’d be lucky enough to meet. And my relationship with my mom is changing for the better. My kids and I are adjusting to our getting older and hopefully wiser. My relationship with myself is changing for the better too. Ah to figure one’s self out. Everything and love.
Throwing Chanclas 