I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps...

And it looks like I will, at Christmas!

Mom and I are planning a trip to NYC for Christmas this year.

The idea was planted last Christmas, when Mom was here, and we were watching New York getting snowed in on TV. We looked at each other, and she asked, "Why aren't we there?"

So this year, we will be! I won't get to take my usual week off between Christmas and New Year's, as I am the junior manager, but I can take the week before...

Can I place my order for snow now?

We haven't been to New York together since the early 80's, when we were visiting relatives in Connecticut one Christmas and took the bus into the city for a day. We were scared little suburban rabbits then, and the big city was awfully intimidating. And unfortunately, we wasted most of our day on a bus tour. It was still fun.

About five or six years later, on another trip to visit family, my now-ex-husband and I spent a whirlwind day in the city, during which we stole a cue card from David Letterman's set. We thought that was so special...

Last year, I finally got to spend more than a day there when my friend Cindy invited me to join her and her daughter and nieces for a big trip to the big city. God, that was a blast...and I came home thinking I should move there. It just felt like home, but bigger and better. And all new to me at the same time. And since it's the center of the media universe, I figured there HAD to be a job there for me.

So I started doing some research and deep thinking about it. There was no reason I couldn't move....but could I handle starting a new life in a new place where I don't know anyone? I have a great support system here. Could I leave that? Even for a city as amazing as New York?

And then, one day, as I was driving home along the Marina, and looked at the sun preparing to set behind the Golden Gate Bridge, I burst into tears when I thought about leaving.

Guess I'm not actually ready for that. Yet. Maybe I'll never be.

But I can visit.