why a blog?

I'm really not sure. Maybe it's just a side effect of early spring (here in Northern California it's already starting) -- the sakura are blooming, so are the plum trees, and there are yellow daffodils by the library and white-and-gold ones in front of the houses downtown. There are pink magnolias, too -- I think they're technically called saucer magnolias, but S, my friend from Japan, calls them 'mokuren,' which is a beautiful name. I always feel a lot of energy at this time of the year, the desire to do and make things, even when (like now) I'm so busy with classes that I don't really have any time to make an effort in other areas.

A blog is a nice way to create and express, and a way to be ... public isn't exactly the right word. It's just that there's a difference between expressing myself privately, in a journal, or semi-privately, with my husband and our friends, and trying to describe my life and thoughts and feelings to a wider & unknown audience. Even if nobody reads this (and of course I hope that people will), the feeling behind putting it here is a different one, and seems to satisfy my springtime restlessness, at least a little.