Happy New Year!

You may not have realized it, but it's 2014, y'all.

My circadian rhythm is all messed up. Well, not my circadian rhythm - that's my body's 24-hour cycle. To be fair, that does get messed up pretty regularly though - just because, whenever possible, David and I flee for foreign shores.

All in the last 8 months or so... if you want jobs like ours, get in touch! We're hiring!

Side bar: This reminds me of one of my all-time favorite songs: Pamela Brown. I really like the Leo Kottke version, which has a folksy feel, but the original, twangier Tom T. Hall version ain't too shabby either. You should you-tube it, mainly for verse 2:

I've seen the lights of cities and I've been inside their doors / 

Sailed to foreign countries and walked upon their shores /

I guess the guy she married was the best part of my luck / 

She dug him cause he drove a pickup truck.

You'll have to go listen to the song to get the rest of that little delight. Anyway.

So, it's not my circadian rhythm this time. It's like my "circ-annum" rhythm or something. All across America, high school seniors are lining up to walk across stages into what, for many of them, will be the best summer ever. Days are getting longer, grills are being wheeled out of storage, gardens are being planted, and weekend schedules are filling up with festival dates, outdoor concerts, cookouts, and bike rides.

In painful contrast, I'm shivering. Literally shivering. Leaves are covering the ground and I've spent the last two weekends in sweaters and boots working on a Christmas knitting project. Last night, I started a puzzle while my dinner - soup - simmered on the stove and I worked on my second cup of tea.

We're less than 8 degrees off the equator, but in the most confusing direction - South. I never realized the weather had such a big effect on me - but I am fully in winter-mode. Of course, if any of my former ilk (Ohioans) visited, they'd laugh. Despite the smattering of leaves on the ground, the bougainvillea is still in full bloom and we're tropical enough that there are limes fruiting on the trees in the backyard of our office as I type this.

But, still.  I'm all out of sorts.

It doesn't help my screwy sense of time that, for our purposes, it is 2014. Monday was basically our New Year's Celebration. We - and by "we", I mean the 1,147 farmers we served during the 2013 harvest - met our payment deadline.* So, it's on to 2014! We're diving head first into enrollment and putting our focus on expanding our services to (likely) more than double the 2013 headcount.

Anyway. My New Year's Resolution: buy more sweaters.  Seriously guys, I'm really chilly.

*And this is why my job is amazing - we're talking about some of the poorest people in the world and what did they do?  This year, 1,147 of them planted what, for many, will be the best harvest of their lives and they all paid for it - in full - by the deadline.  That's how poor people grow their way out of poverty and into a better life.  Cool, right?  If you agree, let me know -- we're hiring!