Last night I went to a winter solstice gathering and we made these origami boxes. Inside are all my hopes and dreams and fears for the new year. Hang in there, the days are getting longer!

Have I ever told you there’s a very large bird that moved in across the street? It moved in a few months ago. I don’t know what kind of bird it is, I think I saw it on the shoulder of the neighbor walking down the street once. Maybe it was white. Or green. Whatever it is, it’s *loud* and it *squawks* or maybe *screeches*. It’s very odd. I feel sorry for the bird. It’s not quite as bad as the dogs that used to live next door in Chicago. Their owners would leave them alone and they would bark all night long when I was trying to sleep. Their window was right next to mine and it sounded like they were in the room with me. It made me very unhappy.
This rant is going nowhere, so I’ll stop now.