Dear ones,
Happy New Year! I hope you are doing well, and that you had a wonderful New Year celebration.
Zheng and I did some shopping, and used some of our well-saved gift cards. Some of them will expire in the coming months, and we didn't want to become one of the statistics of "billions of gift certificates and gift cards go unused." He is proving to have a great eye for fashion and bargaining.
We then headed to return some items ...
and then celebrate with my family for dinner and friends for the "ball-drop."
The following day was more visiting with more friends! It's been really lovely. Thank you to the Z and S families for hosting us!
One of the last things I purchased in 2013 was this book!
It was inspired by a good friend's (Dr. MM) recommendation. We're only two days in so far. I'm looking forward to seeing how the days and months develop.
I'm leaving you with a photo of the Great Wall on New Year's Eve, courtesy of the Huffington Post and Associated Press photographer Ng Han Guan.
And a note about the five-year plan - a great stage director and very influenctial professor at Oberlin, JF, suggested that we always had to have a five-year plan. If we didn't, "we weren't focused, and if we weren't earning 100% of our salary from the music field by the time we were 30, we should do something else."
That deadline is well past, and I made it to that goal also amply before that cut-off. Now it is a matter of making my five year plan, for myself as an artist, and for my family. (Though the cats will be fine with whatever happens, I think).
On this auspicious turn of the year, I not only have a five-year journal but also a date-book that goes until the end of 2017!
What will these next five years bring?
