Katie Leggitt

You ever wonder if you bump into certain people for a reason? Seeing a series of people that only really have one person in common with you? What's the message there?  Is it really about checking your baggage, picking it up or setting it on fire? Is it a confirmation of the distance you've travelled and an affirmation that you're on the right path in life? Is it just coincidence... Is it a mirror reflection offering you a glimpse into a part of yourself you haven't felt the need to pay much attention to in recent past? When there's 2, are there 3? Does it matter? With a new year just days away, events such as these do seem more significant, as if a chance to put some life stories to rest, for good, or for now, or at least to make way for new ones. John Butler , Katie

If you can't beat em, join em, right?  That's the saying? I feel like a Christmas warrior as I head into this holiday season.  Parum papum pum.  It's December 2nd, and I already put up my Christmas tree.  I've been listening to holiday classics since 4 pm.  F-it, I figure, might as well get this going. It was like a scene out of a bad 30 year old's coming-of-age made-for-tv-movie, where you just see a montage of this girl facing her fears and getting tangled up in the Christmas lights, and feeling really proud of herself when it's all done.  There's a slow-motion grace to the whole event. Well I definitely wasn't graceful, in my gramma sweater, a big scarf and actually getting my hair tangled in the lights.  No Clark Griswold here, just a modest single gal braving the storm that the holidays bring. Last year was a brutal one, let me tell you. Maybe it was the change in tradition (oh how it changes as we age!), maybe it was the cold weather, or