Thank you all for your concern. I really appreciate it and didn't mean to cause any alarm. I tend to hibernate from blogging (and pretty much everything else) when I have a lot on my mind and choose to bury my head in the sand rather than deal with it.

This is my favorite time of year here in the desert. When I walk outside, the air is sweet with the fragrant aroma of the orange blossoms from the many citrus trees in my neighborhood.

This year, the scent is a little bittersweet. Our lease is up. Soon I will be leaving my beloved Cocoon and moving to another area of town where there are no orange blossoms nor heady bouquet to greet me in the morning. No local cafés where they know me by name. No Cocoon.

As much as I want to be excited about this move, obviously...I'm not. Although there are many items in the pro column, they are over-shadowed by the glare of the few cons. While it's not my ideal, it is the best situation I have so far, so away from The Cocoon I shall go.

It's particularly sad for Julie and I. We've lived together for almost nine years. That's hard to believe some times. Nine years. We are our longest relationship. And as cliché as it sounds, it really does seem like just yesterday when we moved into our first apartment together, three addresses ago.

Yesterday, Jason asked me which DVDs were mine and which were Julie's because he wanted to pack them. I opened the closet where we keep them and started handing hers to him. (I really should have snagged that Freaks and Geeks set for myself, even though I gave it to her for Christmas.) I surveyed the rest of that closet and realized that our stuff is pretty much integrated after so many years together. For the longest time it's been ours, not mine or hers.

While I will miss the orange blossoms blooming in March, the cafés and many other things I adore about my neighborhood, I will miss definitely Julie the most.