Dear Salty Sailor,

i am writing this update in a cute little apartment just steps away from the spot at which we met. darla and i are spending the weekend with frauntie martyna and her new place (with heidi) is on swann. it is literally less than a block from the black cat. I walked darla over there this morning and told her the story of our meeting. she couldn’t have cared less. there were leftover fries on the ground and apparently that is more interesting than the story of her parents falling in love.

as you would expect, it was a very emotional stroll for me this morning. walking darla past the places that we used to frequent, places she has been many times of which she will have no memory. i drove her past harvard hall when we came into the city and had a few tears seeing her first home again. i miss this wonderful place.

sometimes i wonder why we ever left. sometimes i wish we were still here. i know in my heart that moving to columbus was the right move for us and i know it’s where we’re supposed to be at the moment. add on top of that the question of where we’re going to spend our future years and it becomes such a big internal struggle of wanting to be everywhere at one time. but somehow, in these past few weeks the weight of that question has melted away because i don’t care where i live as long as i am with you and darla. you two are my home.

besides making the trek to DC, our week has been a nice mix of activities and down time. darla spent some alone time with uncle josh and clare bear. we took a rainy afternoon playdate with elsabun, cory, and the now free-during-the-day meg at the tuttle mall. afterwards darla was really intent on reciting her planets and she could get all the way up to mars but then would get lost in space. haha. forgive me the pun.

we also spent lots of mother-daughter time cuddling in bed watching movies. her latest favorite is the japanese animation spirited away. ’twas a recommendation from cosmic cousin and i have to say that japanimation might be our next big foray. i don’t know how my fantasy film childhood missed all these great films. also, i think we will raise her to be an animist. maybe a nice mix of native american and japanese??? i do like the fact that she now tells me she thinks she’d like to be a water spirit. she’d be a great water spirit. i told her i’m a fire spirit. what spirit would you be?

also, i wanted to update you on the cycle tavern excursion. it was hilarious and so much fun. i’d love to do it again sometime when you can be included. my legs hurt for two days afterwards but i kinda liked the feeling that i was working out while socializing. smiley smiles. we enjoyed all the attention it garnered. especially from the 3 or 4 firetrucks that stopped to chat us up. i’m just saying that the firemen of columbus might be getting paid to flirt with ladies on a 16 person bike. but who can blame them?

well once again i didn’t do a very good job of recording funny things baby d has said. at one point in time, when i was giving her a talking to for something or other, she looked me in the eye and told me “to take a deep breath” and started conducting my breathing. she was right and i did. sometimes daughter knows best. on our walk around dc she told me “mom, i love my dad and i have his toes.” i think she will be saying that she has your toes for years yet to come. it seems to have stuck. that’s all that i can really recall. she has been doing and saying so many things lately that remind me of you. i swear sometimes her speeches are a replica of your m&m commercials. it makes me so content to think about that.

well here are some pictures from the earlier part of the week. i’ll update pics from our trip here when i get home. we miss you and we love you. i’m very happy to be in the city of our meeting because it for some reason makes me feel closer to you. i guess, geographically speaking, i am.