April 19, 1993

I'm not one for celebrating birthdays or anniversaries in a big way – they're just days on the calendar for the most part. 

Except for this day, and particularly this year. 

I will celebrate today, April 19, as I always do: re-reading my favorite book, 

with a shit-eating grin  great big smile on my face that won't quit until I reach the end.
It will take several hours, and there may be a glass of wine...or two...involved, and I will savor every word.

This is the book. I have no idea what the title on the sleeve is. If anybody out there reads Japanese, maybe you can clue me in.
The book was given to me by a business associate from Japan.

At the time, it was full of blank pages, but I wrote in it from March 15 through August 20 of 1993 and almost filled it up. 

It's part diary, part journal, part to-do list ... sort of like a blog minus the computer. 

Anyway, it's got a pretty good plot and a very happy ending.

What's that thing called that's sort of like a tassle and sewn into the spine and can be used to mark a special page? 

Surely not a bookmarker – that's way too common. 

Well, whatever that thing is, I use it to mark off the page called April 19.

It's the day I walked into my boss's office and resigned from my job and life as I knew it, to move to New Mexico 

and be the person I'm quite sure I was meant to be. That was 20 years ago today. 

We'll pause for a moment now to let my parents gasp and say, "20 YEARS! Where has the time gone?!"

(If you're not familiar with the whole story, go to the About tab at the top of this page to find the links 

to the four-part synopsis I call "My fairy tale but it's true.") 

Last night while Smooch and I were on our walk, I started wondering what my life would be like today

if I hadn't done what I did on April 19, 1993. Where would I be living? What would I be doing? 

I have no freakin' clue. In my heart and soul, this life right here, on a ranch in the middle of nowhere New Mexico 

in the company of animals, is the one I am meant to be living. And I consider myself one of the luckiest people on earth 

to have been able to figure that out twenty years ago.