Celebrating One Year on Nantucket

It's hard to believe that a year has passed since Craig, Nikki the dog (pictured here) and I arrived at Logan Airport and headed to Nantucket to live here year-round. The contrast of leaving 70 degree temperatures in Southern California on November 4, 2006 and arriving at Logan Airport in Boston to temperatures in the low 30's was a stark one. Scraping ice off the windshield of the rental car that first day we arrived was quite a wake up call as was the shiny red snow shovel that was situated right outside my office door when I went to work the day after we arrived. In my interviews for the PR/development position I held at the Maria Mitchell Association, everyone stressed the team approach but I sincerely hoped that snow shoveling was not a part of that collaborative effort. Also I remember when we were instructed to deal with "the storms" (i.e. storm windows) at the office when we were preparing to go away for Thanksgiving break, I had no idea what to do. Now, a year later, I still haven't shoveled snow and don't feel too proficient with "storms" but I do have a wardrobe of clothes (thank you, L.L. Bean and the Nantucket consignment shops) that keep me toasty warm in the winter. I have learned the fine art of maneuvering the ferries and short hop airlines that get Nantucketers to and from the mainland. I've learned to scallop and help pull lobster traps from Nantucket Bay (the four lobsters we caught this summer were the best I've ever eaten). I've experienced the beauty of thousands of long-tailed (old squaw) ducks flying overhead on a November day from one side of the island to the other out at the west end of Madaket. I've driven to the Nantucket Health Club for a workout on a cold January day and had a string of half a dozen deer cross the road in front of me without a care in the world on their part. I've learned to find my way around Cape Cod and more importantly Boston and its wonderful Museum of Fine Arts, the Fogg Museum at Harvard and other cultural landmarks (still many more to experience). Wicked weather and nor'easters no longer cause me to panic but the bone-chilling cold still makes me creak. I've been fortunate to have had a rewarding job at the Maria Mitchell Association for a year before moving on to a new position as Nantucket Arts Council Director of Development, allowing me more flexibility for travel and the opportunity to return to the arts that are my passion. Craig and I have made lifelong friends and have learned to appreciate the four seasons not experienced in Southern California. Still, we miss the West Coast in many ways and wish it was closer so we could easily travel from one coast to the other. We're looking forward to a two week stay back in Orange County, Long Beach and Los Angeles from mid-December to the first part of January to thaw out from the New England cold, visit my son Ben, friends and family, and enjoy our favorite restaurants and museums. Nikki the dog will not be making the trip this time; she's already got a reservation at the four-star MSPCA in Nantucket where I'm fully expecting her to emerge with painted toenails and an attitude to match when we retrieve her upon our return to Nantucket to start another new year. Time passes quickly!