It was only a year ago today that I was trapped sitting contentedly in our microscopic two bedroom apartment in California. My husband temporarily relocated to California on an extended business trip, and the children and I joined him for the duration, which turned out to be seven months. As it happened, though, no sooner did we arrive in California that he was flying back to Florida several times to “fix” things at the Cape’s launch site.

Big sigh.

All the grand plans to get my scrapbooks caught up, my sewing projects finished, and my recipes, addresses, and rechargeable batteries all organized into Word documents, notebooks, and neatly color coordinated plastic bins with pretty labels vaporized into thin air once I saw how far I had to walk to get the laundry done.

Poof. In one instant, my big plans became big obstacles. Not only wasn’t I going to sew away my days with daffodils neatly pinned in my hair, now I’d have to coagulate some kind of storage solution for my lame projects. Sewing machines, recipe books, and rechargeable batteries don’t fit into 888 square feet apartments when six people are living in it. Not if you let the kids have clothes and keep their Happy Meal toys.

But my handy wireless laptop managed to squeeze its way in there, and so I frittered away any free time emailing friends back home and love notes to my husband at work: I’ll love you forever if you pick up Thai on your way home. Make sure you substitute extra wontons for the salad. Love, Your caged wife.

In the back of my mind, I picked up something about a “blog” and a Dan Rather expose’. Though I didn’t know the whole story, I figured a “blog”—whatever it was—couldn’t be all that bad if it did all that good. So I googled, “How to blog,” and I was up and running twenty minutes later. I was surprised at how easy it was initially—to publish, to write, to debate, to link, to make real friends, and to speak too quickly sometimes.

And now, one year later, there are still two things that surprise me, yea, three things that make me wonder: (1) how come none of the people I initially wrote the blog for ever had time to read it, (2) how come people care enough about cranberry sauce that they’ll take time out of their day to write me about it, and (3) how in the world to get that trackback thing to work.

I hope the second year brings more clarity.