Well, well, well. What have we here?

You may not be stunned to learn that today, 5 June 2003, is exactly one year after 5 June 2002. That it is exactly two years after 5 June 2001 is irrelevant--two years ago today, the world was a simpler place: it would be three months before the terrorist attacks, two months before I moved to New York City. But June fifth one year ago, the "president" renounced his own administration's report on global warming, the "justice" department proposed draconian new restrictions on the civil rights of immigrants . . . and a certain literary masterpiece got its start.

Upside-down Hippopotamus is one year old today.

If you have been reading along (and reading between the lines), you know that it has been a tumultuous twelve months. I do not feel like the same person who, a year ago, sold his couch, killed some baby birds, and moved from Queens to Manhattan to start a new life with Goblin Foo Uvula. So little is the same. I have made some wonderful new friends. Clients have come and gone. My relationship is dramatically different. My dog and I became world-class advice columnists. I went from sixty to seventy-three pages in the book I am writing. I started going to the gym and to psychotherapy and to treatment with a new acupuncturist. Typical yearly changes, in other words, but the difference is that, for the first time, I can look back and track the journey thanks to this web log.

I do not know what the next year will bring. A new apartment, definitely. My completed book, it is to be hoped. Perhaps a new blog design, or a commentary section, or maybe I'll even use a contraction or two. I hope you will keep reading to find out.

I will keep writing.