Last Post for NaBloPoMo

So, it's December 5, the last date for me to finish my month of daily blogging, and I realized this morning that I forgot to write yesterday.

Life will go on.

Today I woke up and saw beautiful sunlight filing our bedroom with its golden yellow and cream stripes on the wall. It's such a cheerful room to wake up in. And I realized that if the weather should take a turn for the worse, this could be the last time I wake up to that wonderful sight, because I don't think we'll paint our bedroom in the new house the same way.

Two nights ago I looked out the window of my office at the full moon and realized it was the last full moon I'd see from that window, because a month from now, we won't be in this house.

I want to savor every moment in this place, not because I don't believe life will have beautiful moments in the next house, but just because it won't be this house, it won't be these trees, it won't be this ivy and these azaleas. I don't even know what kinds of birds will be in the new neighborhood; there aren't as many trees, so I'm sure that will make a difference.

I wonder if this intentional effort to store memories is affecting my memory in general. This evening, I was about the core an apple. As I pulled off the stem, I had a sudden, long-asleep memory of how we school-age girls used to twist the apple stems off, saying a letter of the alphabet with each rotation. The idea was that the letter the stem came off on, was the first (or last, depending on what we agreed on ahead of time) letter of the name of the boy we would marry. Or the boy we "liked." Or who "liked" us. The assigned meaning varied. What didn't vary was how seriously we took it, just in case it happened to be true. Or just in case someone decided to tease us based on the outcome, whether or not we believed it could be true. So if we currently liked someone whose name started with an early letter, a lot of energy went into each twist!

Later in the evening, I was calling my parents and thinking how nice it was that their phone number has stayed the same for so many years. And as soon as I thought that, the number we had when I was a child came into my mind. And then the number of my best friend from elementary school--with whom I twisted off many an apple stem. Then the number of the chorus director, and my piano teacher....Numbers I haven't needed for decades (except for my piano teacher), but they're still there, and up they came.

Oh, and this morning I heard the voice of a person I hadn't seen or heard from in at least 19 years. He's an old friend of Drazen's. I found him on Facebook, we got in touch, and he called. It was a surprise for Drazen, and so amazing to me to think of this person from what in our lifetimes is a pretty long time ago, but then to hear them talking, and the friendship just picking right up again.

Memories are amazing. What a gift it is to have a memory that works fairly well most of the time. It's easy to take that for granted.

Anyway, that's what comes to mind as I finish up this final post for the month of posting. I hope I can remember that I really did do this, and that it can help me stay committed to other tasks I need to do on a daily basis.

I'm glad our phone number is going to stay the same when we move.

Oh, and one more memory, kind of related to the apple stem twisting. When I was growing up, and everything seemed to be done according to alphabetical order, as an Underwood I was last in the class until Chris Walker joined us in sixth grade. Somewhere in those years, I determined that I was going to marry someone whose last name started with a letter no further down than F. I'd marry and A or B or C, if I could! I was so tired of being last.

It's funny now, because of course the whole alphabetical order thing just isn't a big issue in adult life.

And because with only V, W, X, Y, and Z coming after U, I managed to marry one from that end of the alphabet! But at least he's not a Youngblood or a Zengaro....

So, goodbye, NaBloPoMo (Nat'l Blog Posting Month)! Hello, moving (we started packing today)! I have no idea how often I'll be blogging now, but until next time, I hope we all make good memories and enjoy the ones we already have.