2018

2018 has ended already. It seems like after July came around, the rest of the year flew by faster than I could believe.  As always there were some not so great parts, but 2018 was mostly good.

The year started off with a homemade Panettone and a major house de-clutter.

The first trip of the year was seven days spent in the desert.  The first time either of us have ever seen the amazing landscape of the west.  I’ve dreamed about going back ever since.

The spring was oddly filled with many snow storms. Snow fell in March and even April, covering the spring flowers.

A low point of the year was in April when some loser apparently sneezed and ran a red light and smashed into me one morning. My car wasn’t in very  bad shape, but it shut itself down for safely and had to be towed.  I didn’t get it back for almost a month and had to argue with all kinds of insurance people because the guy who sneezed changed his story and tried to blame me. He ended up admitting it in the end though.  Looking back, this was probably the start of the bad anxiety that plagued me for months to come..

I planted my vegetable garden with the goal of not becoming overwhelmed like I had in years past. But… I still got overwhelmed when my plants started getting overgrown and the weeds invaded and engulfed my beautiful tomato plants! I hardly got any vegetables because I couldn’t bring myself to even look at it!!

But I managed to keep my wildflower garden looking pretty good for most of the spring and part of the summer!

One of the little things that has really improved my life this year was discovering the band Ghost, which quickly became my favorite and led me to stop listening to the radio.  I am amazed at how much my mood has improved now that I don’t have to be annoyed at songs or commercials I don’t like coming on the radio. Listening to Ghost makes me so happy, and even made me go to a concert for the first time! Something I had never been interested in before. It was great.

We took two short trips to Asheville and discovered more interesting places along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Including this meadow where cows roamed free.

 

Finally, after six years, we redid the exterior of our house.  Including painting it light grey, removing the too small shutters, getting new windows and a new porch to replace the rotting one. Also a window box!

While the windows got put in the cats had to be crated so they didn’t escape.  Luckily they did great with no freak outs! 2017 was full of cat freak outs so I was worried.

 

My best friend Alex and I took another trip to NYC, this time in the summer so we didn’t freeze to death like last time. It was fun, but I felt a little messed up the whole time because I had an interview with a company in Manhattan and probably had a good chance at getting it if a pursued it harder. I still think about what my life would be like in NYC, and if I should have tried harder to get that job.  But mostly I try to block it out so I don’t drive myself crazy.

A crazy project at work occurred and I managed to hurt my wrist by getting a nerve lesion. Over six months later it still hasn’t healed all the way!

In August we took our annual trip to my favorite beach.  It was a lot of fun, but not as fun as it had been the year before. Sometimes life is like that.

I think one of the best parts of 2018 was the weekend trip to Florida, where we stayed in a wild motel, visited the space center and ate the best ice cream ever.

 

In October I got fed up with the amount of stress and sadness I was feeling and was finally brave enough to make a doctor appointment where I got prescribed some medicine.  It’s been a little tough getting up to the right dosage but overall I feel a lot better. I should have done this years ago!

At work I got promoted to a senior position.  My first day as a senior was an exciting one because hurricane Florence hit and our office leaked all over as we watched live footage of a flag named Kevin get torn up by the storm.  What a day.

For Halloween I decided I wanted to dress up as a character from my new favorite band Ghost.  My sister helped me make this jacket without even using a pattern, and I wore it to my second concert which happened around Christmas time.

In early December a record amount of snow fell, almost 18 inches!  I loved it so much, but it melted way too quickly.

 

I didn’t set any goals for 2019, but I hope it involves getting a fish tank, going to Europe and remodeling the bathroom.  Oh, and staying happy! And maybe another Ghost concert!

 

Hope everyone has a great 2019!