I live in Asheville now. I binge-watch shows on Netflix and Amazon. I drink coffee in bed every single morning! Some days (like today) I lounge in bed until noon-ish. Mind you, I'm not sleeping until noon...I'm awake. I'm doing things or at least thinking about things. I play Wordle. I check out Google News on my phone. It's the news Google thinks I'm most interested in so far it hasn't really been wrong. It's more like soft news, really. Or, not really news at all.
The algorithms have it right for me. I don't want hard news. It's way too heartbreaking. I know what's going on. I have opinions about it, as does everyone else. My views haven't changed much since I was in high school. My values are very much the same.
I live in a cottage that was built in the 1920s. The floors are uneven, but it has the original wood floors. There are a few improvements we hope to make, but none that are urgent. I love this place as it is. Even if we never make improvements, there is nowhere else I'd rather live.
My girlfriends and I still have Girl's Night. It's a little harder for me to navigate because I'm coming from almost four hours away. But, Girl's Night helps sustain me. It is incredible to have friends that know you now and knew you as a teen as well. Our hearts are the same. These women make my life so much fuller.
I'll be married before the next Girl's Night.
Every time I come here to start a post, I stall because of the time since the last one. My instinct is to tell every little thing that's happened since I last wrote. But, a laundry list of activities would not be interesting would they?
I'm still "retired", though I work for "fun". I have a lovely part-time job downtown in the Federal Courthouse Building. It gives me a place to go each morning and a place to wear my cute clothes. I really enjoy wearing work clothes. I work 25 hours a week, with genuinely kind people. My role is really small, yet they say I'm helpful. It's lovely to feel useful without having significant responsibilities. There is zero stress for me. Just show up, do my part, and go home. It's wonderful.
I took a job at the beginning of the year. It was full-time and one that used just the right amount of my knowledge and experience. I was competent very quickly. I knew the concepts, I just needed to learn the computer application, which was quite intuitive. What threw me was that I didn't fit in. I was excluded socially. Mean Girls still exist in the world of work. I hadn't experienced that before. I've experienced difficult personalities before, but not Mean Girls.
I remember experiencing a surprise interaction that I did not know how to reconcile. I texted my friend who I used to work with. She and I easily became friends outside of work...but she knows the "work me." She said, "These are not your people. You need to leave now." She was right. They weren't my people.
That whole awful experience made me remember that life is too short!
.jpg)
