At this time last year, I was really struggling to stay perky and bright. I was pregnant, if I recall correctly. I must have been, as I now have a baby that refuses to go back back to her real mother. Last winter involved copious amounts of snow, to the point where we were all "snow-weary." "Snow-derangement" followed and Cabin Fever set in with a vengeance. I needed spring like a cactus needs a raindrop--anything, any sign of its arrival, was good enough for me. I hoarded each precious speck of sunshine.

This year, it isn't as bad. In fact, I am already thinking ahead to happy summer plans and events without craving the slightest hint of green in the foliage around my house. I am really beginning to suspect that I live in the wrong area of the country. Now, I must consider how to remedy that problem.

This country is divided up into three parts--California, New York, and everywhere else. I have lived in all three places. I hate living where it is too hot. I can remember in Texas opening my car door and feeling a BLAST of furnace-hot air roaring out at me. That particular car, my little Geo Metro, had no air conditioning. I had to drive along the Texan highways with my windows rolled down. One time my boyfriend was driving, and for some reason I stuck my head out of the window. Perhaps I was feeling wolfish. My glasses, which were missing an earpiece (if I remember correctly) went WHOOSH! right off my face into the roadside Texas Bluebells. In my case, love was truly blind at that point.

I have lived in the rainy Pacific Northwest, in a city riddled with steep inclines and one way streets. Seattle is a fantastic city to stay in shape as a pedestrian--unless you also work for a pasta company and eat what the kitchen cooks every day for lunch. I have seldom been more physically active in my life than at that time--but a diet of tortellini and alfredo sauce and Sherried Mushroom and Brie Soup do not a slim silhouette make. I am proof that you can be in fantastic shape and still be a heifer!

Having lived here, there and everywhere, I really do know that there isn't just one ideal place to dwell. Home is how ya make it. Too much snow, too much oven-hot heat, too much rain... you can find something to complain about no matter where you are.

The goal is to find to look back at where you've been, and appreciate how far you've come.