Happy new year!

The thing I really like about Chinese new year is that it always follows the Western calendar's new year by about a month. The freshness of a new year, with its pristine motivating beginning, is just about yellowing as we reach this point, as noted by the diminishing frequency of the slamming gym door when I was living at Highland Park in Pittsburgh. (The gym door is right underneath my bedroom window.) BUT, as someone who observes this second new year's start, I get to have a second wind.

I know, it's very psychological.

Tomorrow we move into a little apartment in Wallingford. We've signed up for a six-month lease, extension depending on when we get sustainable work. It's a small space, but well taken care of. It's the semi-basement (really, the first floor with a side entrance) of a house owned by a Messianic Jewish couple. The wife has 20+ years of real estate experience, and does all the fixing and renovating of the place; the husband has a garage band. They are politically conservatives who support Santorum. Living in the near-heart of Seattle, I find them an incredibly rare breed. We'll be sharing a washer and dryer (so nice that they'll be *right there*, instead of several flights down = difficult with a baby). I hope they won't mind about Declan's cloth diapers.

With a(nother) new year, a new space, I am eager for a new start. Catching the bus in an hour or so to get job training later today.