Reverb 10: First post

I laughed out loud at a cartoon I recently saw in The New Yorker. A mother and her teenage daughter were going through the mom's boxes of memorabilia from her youth: yearbooks, journals... The mom smiled fondly at a book labeled Diary. The caption, spoken by the daughter: "What was the point of having a blog that no one else could read?"

At the risk of joining in the sin of over-sharing on the internet, I'm embarking on a series of creative prompts via Reverb 10 designed to encourage end-of-the-year reflection. In other words, I'm publishing my journal on my blog. It's only for one month and then I'll be done, I promise.

After that enthusiastic introduction, here is my entry for December 1.

Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today. What would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you?
(Author: Gwen Bell)

2010: Suitcase
It's true, we've done a lot of traveling this year. Our number of nights in a hotel exceeds 40. However, even our time at home has been suitcasey. Everything we buy is weighed in terms of if it's worth shipping back to the US when it's time to leave. This leads a bizarre collection at home: we have a tartan blanket from Scotland and a poster from Oktoberfest, but I have lived without a microwave or hair dryer for two years. Even more abstractly, our time in Europe has been filled with moments of not feeling at home; we can't help people who ask us for directions even if we understand the question in the first place. Chris and I don't have a regular doctor, and we're lucky if we make it to the dentist once a year. We're living out of a suitcase, metaphorically.

2011: Settling
Once Chris starts his new job as a professor, it will be first time that we've decided to live somewhere for an open-ended period of time. We will finally haul all of our old boxes of memorabilia out of our parents' garages, yearbooks and outmoded diaries included. We'll take seriously our role in the community. I hope that, in the midst of saying goodbye to Europe, we will be excited by this change and be happily spreading out roots in our new American home by this time next year.