Merry Christmas 2013!

It's Christmas night for about a minute more. [Well, it was true when I started the first draft.] I've just finished watching "A Christmas Carol" (Alastair Sim version) for about the 200th time, reflecting on how good it is to be alive. Last night's inspirational film was "It's a Wonderful Life." Different messages but similar intent: Scrooge learns that no matter how wrong his life has gone, he can redeem himself now, today, by changing his ways and learning to love and be loved. Hooray! George Bailey learns that no matter how disappointing his life may seem to him, he has had a wonderful life of giving to others. In return, he gets a great deal of love and finds out he's the Richest Man in Town. I'm a sucker for these morality tales.

This year started out at quite a low point, where finding the redeeming moments was hard amongst financial pressures and lack of work. Tough weeks turned into tough months. Friends and family kept me going, as they always do, but it was hard to feel good about my life as a writer and editor when it was not giving me much joy and certainly not coming close to paying the bills.

After much thought about how I might turn this around, I decided that I needed to lower my cost of living, in turn lowering the stress level during the ebb and flow of freelance work. As I thought of the various places I might move to find a more affordable lifestyle, I kept my mind wide open: For a few weeks, it was Thailand. Then Mexico or Costa Rica. France, as always, looked good, but not necessarily cheap enough. Almost everywhere in California was too expensive. New England, as much as I love it and miss it, wasn't going to lower my living costs either. Then Deb and Rick, dear friends in the Sacramento area, decided to move to Bend, Oregon, to be closer to their daughter and her husband. Another dear friend from high school, Ingrid, has been living in Bend for years and loves it. Housing was considerably less expensive in Bend. I had lived in Oregon before and had strong ties to life there. Next thing I knew, I visited Bend, found a house, and made the move.

Well, not quite that easily. Yeah, the move was hell. All moves are hell, and this one was particularly bad because I was trying to do it on a shoestring budget. Once I got to Bend, though, my rent went down significantly. The cats and I settled into a sweet and cozy little single-family, two-bedroom house in a residential neighborhood, where the people are friendly and the rules are few. I loved my condo in Sacramento, but the rules for the development bordered on the fascist.

It was hard to leave my friends and family in Sacramento, but I've thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with friends here, including people who knew me before I was respectable.

Bend is a wonderful mixture of western country—high desert surrounded by mountains—and bustling hip downtown scene, with young people, lots of music, great food, and amazing beer. Bend is a true beer-aficionado destination. You can't spit in this town without hitting a brewpub with awesome brews for every taste. It's a key feature in this town and a point of pride. I'm a wine drinker who has always loved good, hoppy beer but didn't drink a lot of it. That's changing. Wine is still my go-to potent potable, but I'm drinking a lot more beer. A good thing? Oh, why the hell not.

There's a good food scene here too. I first fell in love with the food trucks. There's a place downtown where four or five food trucks are parked permanently. There's a beer stand there too that sells local brews. During the winter, heat lamps and a fire pit keep it warm, since this is an outdoor space. The food is cheap and excellent.

Then there's Sporks. This restaurant used to be a food truck, but the owner moved it to a permanent space. I can't describe the cuisine (Korean BBQ meets thai curry meets Indian vegetarian meets...). I found out about it because my friend Rob, who lives in San Francisco, saw a review of it in the NY Times. How's that for roundabout? Great food, and cheap. Of course, like most Bend places, there's good local beer on tap.

I had brunch with friends from out of town at McKay Cottage last week. Wow! Fresh ingredients, clever food pairing, friendly and fun atmosphere, and reasonable prices.

Bend has many strip malls, too. It's not all charming, hip eateries and majestic mountains. We had a few inches of snow a few weeks ago, and none of the streets were plowed. Evidently, there’s a height/depth limit. What a mess! I now know why so many people have those noisy studded tires on their cars during the winter. But the snow was pretty at first, and one of my neighbors shoveled my walk and driveway just to be nice. Have I mentioned how friendly people are here?

Life is good otherwise too. I landed a wonderful long-term contract job, editing grammar lessons for a web-based language arts program. The company, IXL, has had great success with their web-based math program and is branching out. Like most people in the educational publishing business, the people at IXL care deeply about creating the best possible program for students and teachers. What’s different from so many projects that I’ve worked on in recent years is that there is time and sufficient resources to make sure that it gets done well. It's so nice to be working with people who are taking the time to get it right. It's making me feel good again about what I do for a living.

In other (good) news, I am now signed up for an excellent health plan, thanks to the Affordable Health Care Act. My insurance premiums went down (from $966/month to $355/month!), as did my deductible and out of pocket cap, and my coverage went up. I can now afford to have shoulder-replacement surgery, which I've been putting off for the last year. There were problems getting the paperwork through Cover Oregon, this state's health exchange. They, like the Federal version, are having major website problems. Despite that, we have to remember that this is providing millions of people like me, who have pre-existing conditions and are buying individual plans, the opportunity to purchase affordable health coverage. Eventually the sign-up glitches will get ironed out, and people will come to recognize what it is for so many: a life-saver.

As I'm thinking of the good things in my life, I have to acknowledge my friends far and wide and my family (also far and wide). I'm far away from so many of you, but I'm grateful to have you in my life. We may not talk much or see each other frequently, but that doesn't diminish how close I feel to you. Facebook, e-mails, phone calls, the collective unconscious, and mental telepathy keep us connected.

Thanks to all of you for making me relate to George Bailey in "It's a Wonderful Life." Merry Christmas, Bedford Falls!

What follows is a series of pictures that document my Christmas tree journey this year:

1) The pathetic Target faux tree, bought during a 50% off sale. While I hadn't "fluffed out" the top of the tree, you can tell from the lower parts that this would have been an exercise in futility. The tree went back to Target.

2) The replacement fresh tree. I'm partial to Douglas firs, not just because they're cheaper, but I love their fullness. This one was really full.

3) The final result for the tree, and some other Christmas decorating. The stockings are for show only. Santa doesn't bother to fill them these days.