1-1-11

Yesterday as I was happily enjoying sweet potato encrusted grouper over a bed of greens and mango at a late New Years Eve lunch at the incredible“Food Shack" in Jupiter, I was telling my father about an email I received the night before from the Brooklyn Heights Association. Essentially they were telling brownstone owners not to put garbage outside on the snow banks because sanitation workers aren’t expected anytime soon due to unplowed roads in the Heights, and "no one wants to have trash piling up" (!).

I feel a long, long way from home right now.

While of course I miss friends, plans and seeing New York as a winter wonderland covered with a carpet of snow, I’ve enjoyed my unplanned South Florida “snowed out of New York’ extension, even without my sister and her family.

Driving around in my sister’s car in the ‘burbs of the Palm Beaches, I’ve had a few “Orange County moments” where I’ve missed my exit, have missed noting which shopping plaza I’m supposed to turn into because they look pretty similar, have missed whatever house I’m trying to find in a gated community. Though turning around is how you learn...

Despite a few navigational challenges, I’ve really enjoyed spending more time with my father and his new fiancé, seeing my sister’s friends, boating and the simple pleasures of going to Native Yoga in Juno Beach wearing flip flops and minus a down coat, smelling ocean air when I leave class.

Last year I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge for the first time the day after New Years. It felt dramatic and a little symbolic too. I do remember I picked one of the coldest days of the year and ended up running over the last half of the bridge because I was so chilly. This New Years Day morning I’m barefoot and enjoying coffee on the deck, listening to birds and the breeze ruffle palm fronds, watching water move. In a couple hours I’ll be joining my sister’s friends Christine and Bob and several others for a New Years Day boat cruise down the innercoastal and cook out on Munyon Island under a bright blue sky.

Sometimes when things don't go as planned, you get more than what you expected. Happy 2011 everyone. Don’t be afraid to dream big!