Once again, I’m so, so sorry for going AWOL these past few months. I had committed to writing to help curb the discomfort from COVID, but then Colorado started to open back up and I found myself diving face first into anything and everything I could.
Around the same time, I decided it would be a good idea to ask for a promotion. Scary, right? I’ve never been so ballsy.
But I’ve spent the past few months trying to prove I’m ready for it and it’s been largely all I’ve thought about since. And none of you want to read about things like:
- Learning how to use design program Adobe InDesign, which is absolutely not intuitive at all (barf, although I’m glad I finally learned how to use it) and
- Proving I know how to use the project database software Deltek (double-barf) and
- That I taught a class to my peers about how to write effective resumes for proposals (scary and maybe a little exciting!). The presentation had memes. I couldn’t help myself. Here they are for my fellow writing nerds.
All this to say, I’m still here, I’ve just been really, really distracted.
So much so that you’re not the only one I’ve unintentionally ghosted—members of my family have wondered if I’m mad at them.
I’ll tell you what I told them:
I’ve had a lot on my plate that has had me mucho, mucho distracted, none of which is as important to me as you are.
And I mean that.
Here are a couple apology memes to try to make it up to you.
Here’s the trouble. With so much mental distraction, I have massive writer’s block in a big way. So please forgive me if this post has zero direction or point. The beauty is, it’s my post and I can do whatever I want with it! Hardy, har, har!
I guess I could talk about some cool stuff that happened this year. I apologize in advance if it isn’t riveting.
Here’s one: I’m officially thrilled to announce that I have finally learned how to make wings on the smoker by myself start-to-finish.
That’s a big deal, considering I had no idea how to grill anything until my mid-thirties…and technically know very little beyond making wings and veggies and whole chickens one time.
And also, cooking chicken is harrrrrrd. Chicken is my nemesis. It’s so easy to fuck up/under cook/dry out. So I’m pretty excited to have wings in my corner for once.
Another thing: Bailey is doing really well right now and is even gaining some weight. He might’ve been another massive mental distraction as is evidenced by how many times I post about him on social media.
Should I ever get to have children, I might become one of those mothers who can’t stop posting pictures of my babies on the internet.
I apologize in advance for that.
I never got around to writing about Bailey’s 17th birthday like I planned to, but that’s also because he got super sick the next day. I’ll write about it at some point. It was fun…until it wasn’t. But sometimes we party too hard and feel like shit the next day…it happens to the best of us, right Bailey butt?
I finally learned how to use my fancy camera and am loving it. There have been several occasions where I failed to start fishing because I had my camera with me and never ran out of things to photograph. I feel guilty about that, since my fly rod is custom-built by Steve just for me, but I think he understands.
I also revisited drawing and drew Steve a brown trout for our anniversary because the man is impossible to shop for. I forgot how much I love to draw. And now that brown trout might have become one of our most prized possessions as a result.
Hmmmm. What else.
I went rollerblading twice this year. And fell down hard both times.
I’m not so sure I want to rollerblade anymore.
Next up….
Steve crushed it this hunting season and brought home this massive elk (among other meats)—an accomplishment 10 years in the making.
I’m not sure I’ve ever been so proud or excited about anything to do with hunting as I was about this. I know how much time he spent working toward this hunt—preparing for it, planning for it, romping around in impossible weather and terrain for it.
He also caught his first lake trout this year—just before the world fell apart. Again, this is something he worked hard for and again, I couldn’t be prouder.
Also worth noting, he and this fish were roughly the same age.
Even though I learned how to row our raft a couple years ago, this year I realized I love it and I’d rather row and watch Steve catch fish than fish from the boat myself (that’s also because I always fuck up my line when I cast from the boat and that gets annoying after awhile).
My car has a day park pass hanging in the windshield from this summer. Sometimes I’m asked why it’s there, since it’s expired. I keep it because it reminds me of the day I rowed a 17-mile section of the Arkansas without switching off with Steve. And somehow (thanks to Steve’s instruction and my brain’s ability to finally act on instruction quickly instead of panicking) I got us through the very long Bear Creek rapids, which were well out of my comfort zone.
It was a pretty awesome win not just for me, but for Steve and me together. That kind of high-stress teamwork is pretty hard to come by and we managed it without killing each other. Actually, we managed it really well.
I guess I might be crazy for loving that kind of scary bonding experience with my man.
But it was pretty fucking cool.
Ummmmmm, anything else?
Oh sure, there’s the part where I found soft pants for $5 at Walmart yesterday—WINNING!
And the part where I’ve watched 13 of 17 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy this year.
And the part where I still have no idea what I’m doing half the time.
And the part where I was sure I had COVID, but it turned out all my symptoms were just from adulting way too hard.
And the part where I’m turning 37 next week and am kind of freaking out about it.
And the part where I had to completely revamp my running shorts situation because my thighs chafe when I run more than 2 miles, which is kind of annoying and hard to accept. It’s because of leg fat.
And the part where I had a hair dyeing party in the bathroom last night and am once again a proudly unnatural purpley-redhead. It’s not perfect, but I love that because it’s like hair dye tie dye.
Oh! And the part where my bestie Cherie decided I needed to be in this cat meme group on Facebook and she was absolutely right.
Anyway…I’ll try to write more in the coming months. I have a few great ideas brewing, but I’d love to hear what you want to read about, if anything.
Thanks for reading. I hope this didn’t make you want to stab your eyeballs with a fork.
The Pickle Writer 