It's A Bird! A Plane! The Turning of a Calendar Page!

Well, well. One flip and a fast rip and it's a new year. Welcome, one and all, to aught-six.

(Quick, I need to write a check so I can get used to this new number in print!)

It' s not like I can claim January snuck up on me or anything. I do regularly use a calendar, and they're fairly strong predictors of what is to come. All grids and patterns and regimentation, they are. Dates are not obtuse.

Yet, so far, it seems like I'm only wrapping up the old, not yet encountering anything "new."

Yesterday, I packed away Christmas decor. Today, I need to clean out a linen closet to make room for my boxed clothes. (Still at work on the unpacking, 7 months in to the new house.) And, speaking of w-o-r-k, I have a whole LIST (Santa-like, it unscrolls and dips to the floor, an accounting of the kids who have been bad, not good) of follow-up calls that have lingered for a month.

Life keeps rolling, I know; but so often I don't feel the motion. Like, even though the globe is on spin cycle, the sky is still up and the ground is still... still to me. If January is a state of mind, I definitely haven't reached it yet.

I wouldn't dare a grudge against a year so new, so I'm not complaining. It's just that I could use a breath of the fresh, as soon as that can be arranged. Until then, I wrap things pending and await things portending. Welcome, 2006.