put your brave face on: We'll amuse ourselves one day with these memories we'll trace.

There's a part in an Indigo Girls' song that I love. (Clarification: there are a lot of parts in a lot of Indigo Girls' songs that I love)...but this one gets me every time.

I'm gonna clear my head

I'm gonna drink the sun
I'm gonna love you good and strong

while our love is good and young.

It always makes me think of being young(ish) and happy and married and now, living in Southern California where the sun shines all the time over this happy life.

"The saddest sight my eyes can see

is that big ball of orange sinking slyly down the trees."

I've said it before and I'll say it again: My husband (and the Marine Corps) could have taken me to far worse places than Southern California. (And some of those places are right here in the good ol' U S of A, but I'll keep those opinions to myself. I don't want to offend any readers who may live in said boring, non-coastal locations. And if you live in a boring, non-coastal location, I didn't mean you. Or maybe I did.) When we first found out we were moving here, I was definitely nervous. Definitely scared. Definitely worried about leaving everything I had ever grown up with in the Midwest. And most definitely unhappy about leaving my friends and family. But, admittedly, definitely excited. The West Coast! Palm Trees! Eighty degree weather in mid-January! Hallelujah!