Okay, this has been a grim-fest around here. I’ve committed sort of a hit and run where I’m all “Momma’s got open heart surgery and Charles died. Bye for a year.” Objectively though, I’ve been having a pretty good time with myself. Here are some awesome things that have happened in the past year with photo evidence:

1. In 2018, we went to Scotland with our family. I mentioned that but here’s some additional evidence:
   

2. Here we are, later that same trip, getting tattoos of our dog, Shirley, in Glasgow:

3. On that same trip, we stayed a few days extra to do a small hopover to Ireland. We stayed in Dublin and here we are Dublin’ it up:

4. Then from Dublin, we took a bus to Northern Ireland.

5. Then we spent the summer and fall at our camper Upstate:

6. This winter, we did a lot of fun things such as:

7. And then we went to see Maria Bamford in Newark for her birthday.

8. AND THEN we went to Paris for few days!

9. We went to LA and visited our old stomping grounds and also saw a lot of cool things that we couldn’t do when we lived there (for grievous lack of money).

10. Oh shit, we also met Nellie Oleson!

11. My sister had another baby!:

12. For some reason, my company let us knuckleheads launch an LGBTQ initiative.

13. We’re back up to our old tricks Upstate.

14. We bought a car!

So, I mention all of this not to brag to you, dear reader. I’m mentioning it all to brag to me. I’ve been really anxious and a little sad lately. I think it’s because I’m stressed. This year and a half since Charles died has actually been one of the best of my life; despite losing him. I think his death shook loose some cobwebs and gave me a more “fuck it” stance which ended up making me take life less seriously and have more fun. In all of the positives above, I didn’t mention how many funerals of other loved ones we attended. I didn’t mention the fact that I finally started taking an anti-depressant (which I think maybe helped me immeasurably). I didn’t mention my constant fears about failure at work. I didn’t mention that I twisted my stupid ankle in Salem, Massachusetts. In fact, I forgot to mention that we also went to Salem AND WE DID. More on that later because it’s worth mentioning.

And so, I’m posting all of the above, not only to bring up the tone around here but also to bring up the tone for me. I’ve been stressing lately but the reality is that we’re having a really good time in our lives and I need to just cool it with the anxiety. Life is really good and I’m choosing to make it be that way.

BTW, I’m going to write more in depth about some of the above because the point of this blog is really so that I can remember and if anyone else enjoys the ride; awesome.