It's the close to another year, and it's time for the annual blog post!
A Return Visit to California
I wish I could say it was for a happy reason. My Uncle Mario passed away on January 15th from complications related to diabetes and several members of the family gathered to celebrate his life a few weeks later. He was a larger than life personality, a favorite family member of mine, and my Mom's next closest sibling in age. "I had a front row seat to his childhood," Mom said at his memorial before she proceeded to pay touching tribute. That is also how I learned the bittersweet truth that I was actually named after him and not my grandmother. I am so glad that the last time that I saw him in August 2021 when we buried my grandfather, I told him that I love him and gave him a big hug.
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| Uncle Mario and me at my Mom's Air Force retirement party, August 2005 |
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All of Uncle Mario's nieces and nephews at the memorial
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The One Where Will Goes to Bootcamp
My husband took medical leave in spring 2020 (unrelated to the pandemic, but the timing was uncanny) and ended up leaving the company permanently for good reasons that I won't go into here. The next couple years were a journey of career rediscovery that culminated in a 14 week coding bootcamp learning Java with Tech Elevator. Even though it wasn't me doing the work, we were very much going through it together because it meant long days of class, homework and group projects that bled into evenings and weekends. We had to adjust our household duties and schedules, but it was all worth it in the end. Will thrived in the program, made great friends and contacts and finished with flying colors. I could not be prouder! Hiring in the tech sector has been a real slog this year, so even after graduation the next several months of job searching was also very challenging mentally and emotinally. However, I'm pleased to say that Will did accept a job offer as a scrum master with a state university and started in October. Woohoo, we're DINKS again!
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First Day of Bootcamp, January 2023
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Bootcamp Graduation, April 2023
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Friends 4 Life
I got to see so many of my besties this year! It's a big deal for me because now I don't live in the same state as any of them anymore. In March, Liz joined Club 40, so naturally I went out to celebrate with her, and in June we went to our 4th Dave Matthews Band concert together.
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Graduated from the lawn to pavilion seats, baby!
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I got two visits in with Lindsey this summer, on account of her sister getting married and my attendance at the bridal shower and wedding. My enjoyment of weddings has grown 125% since my own, now that I can appreciate everything that goes into them.
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Someone is showing off her pockets
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And speaking of my wedding, that's the last time I had seen Alyse. The pandemic kept us from visiting one another, of course, but so did her move to freaking Tokyo! I will go more into that trip in a different section, but suffice it to say that it was so wonderful to see her again after the longest period we've ever gone without seeing each other.
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Hello from TokyoDisneySea!
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Goodnight, Sweet Prince
I had the honor of taking care of Norman when my grad school friend put out a call for someone to take in her Siamese cat after the birth of her second child. Siamese cats are well known for being chatty and in need of lots of attention, and she needed him to be with someone who could provide that to him. The next 8 years were full of fur and kitty biscuits as only he could make them. Norman was a ball of demanding affection and loved nothing more than to be loved. And oh, how Will and I loved him. Among his many nicknames was "My Little Prince", said in the way of Pam Shipman from the British show Gavin and Stacey. He turned 16 this year and was our silly old duffer who napped a lot and had been living with chronic kidney disease since 2017, but still enjoyed life as the senior-most cat in the house. One day in late September, Norman spent the entirety of it parked in one spot on the couch and didn't get up for food, water, or the litterbox until I physically carried him downstairs. He was lethargic and listless and the only other places he was interested in being were either sprawled out on Will's chest or loafed up in his cat house. I looked into his face and saw the same pinched expression that Trinny wore in her final days and in my gut, I knew what we were facing. We took him into the vet's office the next morning and received confirmation that Norman was very ill. An X-ray showed a large mass in his abdomen that the doctor couldn't officially diagnose as cancer without further and more invasive tests, but his bloodwork told us everything we needed to know. My Bubba Kitty was ready to say goodbye to this earthly plane and move on. We had him put to sleep in the vet's office before he suffered another day's pain, with both of us by his side. It's a heart-rending thing to do, but it's the steep price we pay when we love a pet deeply.
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Oh, Norman. You big baby.
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Checked Japan Off the Bucket List!
The reason why Alyse moved to Tokyo is because she got an incredible job opportunity with Disney to go there on assignment. And while her husband holds down the fort in Orlando with their kitties, they visit each other multiple times throughout the year while she takes advantage of the adventure of a lifetime. I had wanted to visit Japan ever since one of my sorority sisters studied abroad there, and over time it moved up the ranks to become a Bucket List item. And once Japan re-opened to tourists last fall, it was decided. Will and I spent 2 weeks between Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka and just took it all in. The food was incredible, the dollar was strong and therefore eating was super cheap, and the language barrier wasn't as high as you might think. Most street signs were also available in English and smartphone apps made it possible to translate text in real time on screen. Not to mention, if you go to touristed areas, many people do speak enough English to make basic transactions go smoothly. We learned a few words of polite Japanese and quickly picked up on things like bowing to others, walking on the correct side of sidewalks and escalators, and staying quiet on trains. I know that I've only barely begun to scratch the surface of all that Japan has to offer, but I experienced enough to say that it lived up to my expectations and that I would go back again and again.
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Taking in the temples in Kyoto
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At the Close of 2023...
I can say that it's had its rollercoaster moments of ups and downs, but on the balance it has been a good year. I'm still keeping up with Kappa and serving on Fraternity Council, Will and I had another fun and restorative CabinCon trip with our friends over the summer, and I've relaxed the gluten free restrictions up a bit. Do I still get joint aches? Yes. But it's also really wearisome to avoid it sometimes, so it's more like an 80/20 thing. I still go to CrossFit and have made a couple of PRs that I'm proud of (275# deadlift and a 200# backsquat, baby, and I'm aiming to do more next year), and the older I get, the more I'm learning just how crucial my strength training is becoming for my long term health.
Next year we can look forward to planning our next big trip--this time it's going to be Europe for reals--and just generally trying to get the most we can out of life and the pursuit of happiness. As ever, I wish all of you readers a Happy New Year and buckle in for whatever is to come in 2024. It's sure to be another doozy.
