This is the first day I have felt at all like writing in a couple of weeks.  I haven't been sleeping well, and last night we made a very concerted effort to help me get a little more sleep, and it worked.  Not perfectly, but I got more than I've been getting, and I feel quite different.  Good different.

Our anniversary was lovely, thanks for asking.  We went out to dinner and exchanged presents - actually the night before, because we had to go listen to a lecture on heart attack on our actual anniversary.  No really, Joey's mom was giving the lecture.

As of yesterday, I've lived in Toronto for one year.  I think that is a topic that deserves a little more time than I can give it now - I'm just taking a little break at work at the moment.  But it's for real - I live here, after a year, with no plans to go anywhere.

In six days, I will turn 32.  With everything that I've been through, a birthday is sooooo not scary.  More like a badge of honor, made it through another one kind of thing.

Then, just two days after that, my parents arrive for Canadian Thanksgiving/American Columbus Day weekend.  Maybe having my mommy here will help me sleep.  You never know.

More soon, I hope.  Talk to me.

I've just been too damn busy to blog.  Work and life converging in a certain fashion.  Lots of upcoming events: our first anniversary, my birthday, Canadian Thanksgiving, Joey's birthday, American Thanksgiving, not to mention all the Jewish holidays, kind of fill up the fall.  And yes, in a couple of days it's going to be fall.

I got Joey's anniversary present yesterday.  I ran out while he was still mostly asleep, got it, and when I got back he was awake so there was a lot of "don't look until I tell you!" and I shoved it in my closet.  He has promised not to go in there; there's really no other place to put it.  When I was working from home, it would have been more elegant.  Them's the breaks.

I gotta go do laundry or I will not have anything to wear this week. 

I don't want to talk about it.  I never want to talk about it.  Except that as I was walking home from the subway (I cut out early from exhaustion, especially since my work day starts at 7:30 tomorrow morning), I looked at the sky and remembered the gorgeous day it was five years ago. 

When they show the burning North tower, some of that smoke is made up of the ashes of people I knew.  Don't tell me to get over it, but don't show me the smoke over and over again either.

I won't forget what it looked like if I live a thousand years.

I am employed at a Canadian company.  I accepted a permanent position at a small market research firm this morning.  I've been working there for a month on a temporary basis, and they liked me enough to hire me on with no experience other than what they've given me over the last few weeks.

It's flattering, for sure.

I never imagined myself in market research; I never really imagined much about market research beyond picturing myself self-strangulating with the phone cord during long surveys I hadn't signed up for.  I am pleased to report I will not be doing that sort of thing.

My commute is short.  My pay is decent.  My coworkers are nice.  My computer is all right for what I need to do with it.  My chair is comfortable.

I can breathe now.