Been a while.

It's been a while since I've blogged. It's been miles and miles and a life away.

Provo's been threatening to skip fall altogether as we dip into wintery days, but as I shake hands with November I hold its eyes with mine to tell it, I'm moving through you and I'm not looking back.

Then I flash it a smile intentionally ambiguous--was that genuinely benign or was there a hint of mischief?--while I secretly think that I'm happy these days and I'm grateful I got there so fast.

*

“I am looking for friends. What does that mean -- tame?"

"It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. "It means to establish ties."

"To establish ties?"

"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world....”

My Valentine...

...made dinner [shrimp and lemon-butter sauce and rice]

and dessert [chocolate mousse parfait]

and there were candles and music and words and some l-word-mushiness that I will not admit to in public.

...and I watched a documentary about Pollock and The Man aspect of the modern art world [Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock?] and some mogul skiing and figure skating.

...made me happy.

On Happiness

There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. By being happy, we sow anonymous benefits upon the world, which remain unknown even to ourselves, or when they are disclosed, surprise nobody so much as the benefactor.

Robert Louis Stevenson, "An Apology for Idlers"