Nostalgia is poison. But I also am a firm believer in being a hypocrite, so I will give you this quote, from a year ago today, from my very own writing on this site:

"Well, a new year is here. Which is always a good time to reflect on the past year, a time when various world events happened, people were born and died, and my dad's friend Larry got pulled over and fainted when a cop asked him if he had been drinking. Of course, people seem to put a lot of emphasis on actual New Year's Eve, which is a little wierd on the West Coast, because midnight comes to New York three hours before, which kind of takes the steam out of the whole event, because you kind of know that it's already New Year's in New York starting at 9 at night."

My dad spent last night with Larry again, for 2006, and the new year again came to EST 3 hours before it came to PST. I realize, in looking back, that I might have elaborated much more on how and why Larry fainted. I could also tell you volumes about things like my mother and her distaste for cilantro, or how my sister went on a boat trip where the dolphins followed, swimming in the wake. But I only have so much time to talk, and there is much bigger news to get to.

Such as: On the night of December 17th, I twisted my ankle so badly I fainted. First time I have ever fainted, that I can recall. I was jumping across a snowy curb, at night, and my foot went into a pothole in the street, and the next thing I knew, the wife was yelling in my face, just like in the movies when they bring the camera into focus to indicate that a person has been unconcious. Oh, and I lost a glove that I got in Montreal, which really upset me. That happend on a different occasion than the fainting spell. It was a glove from the olympic sport of biathalon in the winter games, where they ski and shoot, and the glove was a rare kind of neoprene with a grip on the palm. And somehow, after talking to an orthdox violin bow wholesaler on the plane, I got distracted and lost my brand new glove. And I should emphasize that it took me two hours to find that glove in Montreal, where, you might also want to note, it was -11 degrees. That is Celcius, but still mighty cold.

That was just one of the big adventures in the past month. I also got pulled over for my very first speeding ticket (clocked in at 63 miles per hour in a 45 zone) and also the firemen came to my parents house when the microwave caught fire, with the additional hijinx of my dad, humiliated over the ordeal, sneaking out the back way and the cops stopped him, thinking he was the arsonist. Oh, let's see, there was also the trip to the emergency room with my sister in law, for what seems to be a gallstone, then trip to the hospital for my mother, for what is hopefully a simple calcification. And of course my mother in law is getting chemo and home nursing, so there is plenty of medical stuff going on. Oh, and I went with my dad to the hospital as well. So there are health issues, and the rush of anxieties that go with them.

Then of course there are other issues being on the East Coast for a month, from the weather to the general transition of being out in california with no immediate family to being with family pretty much all day every day and figuring out how not to go crazy from running around all around. There is the positive stuff about family of course, like the lovely birthday party, for me, thrown by my brother, where many wonderful people showed up and brought nice stuff. And the lovely channuka party of my family, and a christmas eve dinner, and a christmas dinner, and a birthday for my father and other such parties held by friends and family. Actually, I had to run back to california for two days and there was another party here which was quite nice to attend. And I should also mention that weather is not easy to switch back and forth between, as it was freezing in new york at first, but then it got oddly warm towards the end of December. On returning to California, there were other weather drama, such as mudslides and floods, all happening in pretty close proximity to where I live. Close enough that I saw a car up to it's windows in brown water about four blocks from where I live.

Anyway, I know I have barely scratched the of the information deficit created by my absence, but it is a start.