The real winter

Being there for the first real snow in Ottawa this year made me feel as though I had barely been away. Made me realize I've got mad winter skills -- such as driving on winter tires and scraping off windshields. I'll miss those skills. I'll now have to find some France skills to replace them, I guess.

OK. More snow today. Now I'm remembering the real details of a winter in Canada. I'm going to pour myself a hot chocolate and work on the pitch for my book. It seems crazy to think about a life in France (and how I feel about that) while I'm staring out a sliding door at a mini blizzard, but I've heard that being away from a place can sometimes help you better define it.

I'd been hoping to work on a movie about Canada when I went to France, but became too bogged down in the story of being in France. I hope thinking about it here, now, in the snowy season, won't make me too afraid to go back!