New Day, New Year

Happy 2011 Everyone! Hope all your dreams and schemes will come true in this new year. We had a fun New Year's Eve at the hospital gala held at Prince Michel Winery. This was the same winery that owns the barn that featured prominently at our daughter's wedding in the apple orchard. They hosted a wine tasting for our guests before the ceremony, and promptly served as a staging area for the Bride to rest and munch on some goodies before tripping down the aisle, slowly, after our beautiful flower girl. Our daughter didn't want the labels on the wine bottles to display their names, only the beautiful Blue Ridge mountain logo. Putting their names, or monograms on everything, in her universe, equals too tacky. The only thing that was personalized was the book mark we had made and inserted into every guest's hotel gift bag. Stuffed right there beside the pickle flavored potato chips! Along with the programs, my husband's printer went into overtime making the bookmarks, starting with the names of The Couple, that said "in lieu of a wedding favor," a donation has been made to the local SPCA. And speaking of the SPCA....

My plan had been to walk some of the shelter dogs on Xmas day while my other half was saving lives in the ER. It is a "no kill' award-winning shelter that tugs at my heart every time I think of it. Why is it we can listen to news of the latest war casualties coming out of our miss-guided missions in two wars without so much as a tear, while hearing about some small dog being thrown out of a car onto a freeway gives us nightmares? Once upon a time, I was quick to pick up my pen (so to speak) and address just this type of issue in my column. In fact, I've written about the futility of war, as we know it, for our local paper since moving here. But time has a strange effect on us all, and I'm afraid my days of trying to "save the world" as my Irish cousin calls it, are dwindling. The news junkie in me has been laid to rest, slowly, after the Big Move, the Loss of Vision (and temporary loss of smell), and the Wedding. Think global, act local? Or maybe just try to tackle what I can actually get my arms around - like the hunting hounds that are left there because they are not prey-driven. The "special needs dogs." Miss Bean came from this shelter, and she is love-driven, just as I am driven to love her. Even when she escapes outside the invisible fence, causing great tearing and rendering of clothes and gnashing of teeth!

The Book Club this week will be tackling Emma Donoghue's "Room." An exquisite account of being held prisoner through the POV of a five year old boy, Jack, who was born inside this cubicle. The walls of the room, this 'visible fence', take on the character of the boy's vivid imagination. His mother has created a host of activities and games to entertain and teach him. Donoghue is an Irish writer, and Jack's world is so beautifully nuanced, you come to perfectly understand why the 'real world' cannot measure up. It was a haunting read for me, laid up with the stomache flu over xmas, thanks to my vector of a husband. He says this stomache flu is, "...going around." In fact, did you know that my MIL can catch it just from talking to me on the phone?

So, instead of volunteering at the Pound, I spent the holiday reading, and recuperating from my little bug and wondering if I'll ever want to eat sushi again. Now I must go out and buy a little camera for my computer. The Bride just called me and we Skyped for the first time! Why am I so late to this party?? I could watch her eating breakfast, playing with the dogs, and showing me her orchids which have found their perfect place on her desk getting filtered light all morning.

Some people create their own prisons, and some people Skype.