A Year in Review

Time, this ultimate mind-fuck, seems to pass faster the older I get, but this year didn’t merely fly; it shot by at hyper-speed through and out of my life, leaving me instantly older, admittedly better, and relatively wiser, but also slightly confused. Blink-blink, what just happened?! Here’s some highlights:

2019 was a good year overall. 

We settled in our new home and got used to village life.  I got two speeding tickets, and learned to drive slower.  Everything is slower here.  Stress declined exponentially, and we relished the lack of traffic and the palliative effects of nature.  I saw countless wild animals and weathered through the rain season and heat waves; I trimmed brush, cleaned gutters, stained decks, swept chimneys, and fixed the pool. 

Made new friends, got involved in the local community, continued to be politically active—protested against Mike Pence and wrote a piece about racism in America.  Writing almost daily, something I’ve struggled with for the past 8 years.  Minimized distractions and optimized my schedule to accommodate writing, even if it meant giving up photography professionally, though I still take pictures for fun. 

Speaking of fun, we travelled some, not much but just enough to see both familiar and new places—first time in NYC and a month in Bulgaria to spend time with family.  The boys enjoyed Legoland and learned to swim.  Johnny is a grown young man and loves music; Julian is shaping to be an engineer.  We tried a season of soccer, summer camp, visited the grandparents in the mountain.  The boys started school together, close to home, and are doing well.  They too made new friends and had play dates, made art, made messes, and are now true country kids, wild and feral at times (skinned knees, long hair, tick bites and all), but free and happy. 

John continues to alternate commuting and working from home, but he’s using the train more often.  We hosted friends and family from Bulgaria, played tourists, enjoyed the beautiful California parks and coastline.  We spend the Holidays together, trick-or-treated, cooked and ate, gave and received presents, laughed and cried. 

The cats are fat and happy.  Date nights are regular and much appreciated.  So far we’ve done everything we had on our list for this year and have already planned 2020. 

We are a bit tired and we occasionally stumble, but we’re moving forward and we’re grateful for it. 

In 2020 I want to have my Mom over to see the house and be with the boys. 

I want to start cooking more often for myself. 

I have a book list I want to finish reading, and I want to keep writing as much as I can. 

I want to put a flag pole to fly the pride flag in front of my house, and I want to set up a Little Free Library. 

I want to visit Japan. 

I want to keep in shape like I did this year, even a bit better. 

And I want to get this owl tattoo I’ve been planning for awhile now.

The rest is just more of the same—being with my boys here in the country, loving them and being loved.