New Year's Eve 2022

 How do these years keep going by so fast? I swear, they get faster every year.  These are the beats on my 2022.

California Love

Over MLK Day weekend I went to California to celebrate my eldest uncle's 70th birthday at the surprise party that my cousin organized for him. The look on his face when he walked into the party room and realized what was going on was absolutely priceless. I really got to maximize my visit by extending the trip by a couple of days and renting a car to go from Los Angeles to San Diego to visit my old stomping grounds and to catch up with old friends.

Happy Birthday, Uncle Rick!

 

 

Overlooking the Batiquitos Lagoon in San Diego

 

Have you heard of CrossFit?

At the end of January, Will and I started going to CrossFit. For a long time, I had regarded it as something for adrenaline-junkie athletes and certainly not something for my 39 year old body to take on. I've generally always had to trick myself into exercising, like taking dance classes, or working towards a mileage goal when I was a runner. One of my best friends has been doing it for 7+ years and I eventually thought, "Well, if she could do it and stick with it, maybe I could give it a shot..."

We took the "CrossFit 101" intro class and were immediately hooked. I describe it as the perfect exercise for people with ADHD. No two classes are the same and you're constantly changing movements, so there is no time to get bored.  Frustrated and sometimes injured, yes. But never, ever bored.

I couldn't find the pic of me and Will after we "graduated" the 101 class, so there is a stand-in from a summer day when I saw a rainbow while waiting for my class to start.

Back At It With KKG

2022-2024 Fraternity Council, let's go!

I'm still heavily involved with Kappa, and at this year's biannual convention, I was re-elected to another term on the Fraternity Council as one of the four VPs. It was a doozy of a week in Palm Springs, let me tell you. Because of the pandemic, our 2020 convention was virtual and consisted only of electing the 2020-2022 Fraternity Council and district directors. Since we've been able to return to in-person gatherings, we had a lot of business to cover. It was a long, exhausting week, but it was worth it and I've enjoyed getting to know and work with my new fellow council members ever since.

New Baby!

Late in the Spring, our friends Zeek and Mere found a cat and her kitten while they were doing yard work  and they took them in and got them fixed up. However, they already had 2 cats and a dog, so their long term stay was uncertain. Upon hearing this, Will told me that we may have found my next “familiar”. If you’ve known me for a while, you may recall that I have had two other brown female tabby cats in succession—Trinny and Amelia. Somehow, these cats just find me. And I felt ready to take on a 3rd after having lost Trinny last January.

Our friends’ son named her Maple on account of her coloring, and they quickly surmised that she was friendly and even affectionate, if not a little quirky because of the fact that she’s spent most of her young life as a stray. She’s estimated to be only about a year old. For this, we jokingly call her a teen mom.
 

Over 4th of July weekend we drove out to PA to meet her and, if she seemed amenable to us, to bring her back to Ohio the next day. We met her kitten too, whose name is Juniper and she’s absolutely adorable.

Once we got her home, we officially declared her name to be Odessa Maple, and we've since given her about a million nicknames, several of which involve the word "baby". She's much younger and smaller than Norman and Watson, so it's a natural fit. After about a week of slow acclamation and introductions, she integrated with the rest of our little pride. Having 3 cats has restored balance to the household--we swear that the boys fight way less with a female cat in the house. She's extremely affectionate, curious, playful, and is absolutely living up to her role as "my familiar".

Cabin-Con 2022

In August we got to take a much-needed getaway to a cabin in West Virginia with a big group of our friends. It was a long weekend of mostly just hanging out, taking a nice long hike, and taking turns showing off our cooking skills for everyone else.

A Milestone Birthday

With Mom and Dad

I hemmed and hawed for months deciding what to do for my 40th birthday before finally pulling the trigger and deciding to throw myself a party. I long ago decided that I would take this milestone head on and embrace it just as I did 30, but it took me a while to land on how I'd go about it. Knowing that I was going to South America just after, I hosted it at a local Colombian/Venezuelan restaurant and invited family, friends, and co-workers from all over to come celebrate with me. All in all I had around 25 people come and I still get mushy just thinking about it. I don't get that many opportunities to see my parents, siblings, and various close friends all at once, so it meant a lot that people were willing to drive and fly in just to wish me a happy 40th! 

A Milestone Trip

¡Bienvenidos a Colombia!

I'm on top of the middle of the world!

Now, taking a big trip to celebrate my birthday was never in question. I've done it so many times that it's practically a given by now. It's my favorite kind of birthday present to myself! I convinced one of my best friends to come along with us, so we converged in Miami and went on to Medellín together.  There we spent several days in an Airbnb high rise condo before moving on to Quito, Equador.  The experience was incredible, even if it wasn't a barrel of fun in every moment. (Food poisoning is no joke.) We ate fantastic food, saw breathtaking views, and encountered so many friendly locals who were quite patient with our combined limited Spanish-speaking proficiency.

It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Gets a Shot to the Knee

Scale appropriately, friends.

 

In mid-October I went to a CrossFit class as usual and did one too many wall-ball shots. Wall ball shots are not exactly as fun as they sound. You stand arm's length in front of a wall, take a medicine ball and from a squat, launch that puppy about 8 or 9 feet into the air and hit the wall before catching it in a squat position again. It's hard. And I did, like, 50 of them.

Here's the thing about CrossFit, especially if you are starting from a sedentary lifestyle. It's as challenging as you make it, and it's easy to go too hard and get injured if you're not meeting your body where it's at. At about 8 months in, I had become much stronger and more fit in many ways, but I am still very much a beginner and I had the tendency to overdo it. 

 

Well, for as long as I can remember, my right knee has been prone to becoming cranky if I position it in specific ways. Seriously, even when I was a little kid, my right knee would be stiff and painful after sitting cross-legged for even a few moments. The wall ball shots exacerbated this knee to the point where I could barely walk by the end of that week. I limped into an orthopedic surgeon's office the following week and when he examined me, he said, "Wow, that's really swollen!" An X-Ray confirmed that I had mild osteoarthritis in both knees and bone spurs in the right. He gave me a nice big steroid shot in the bursa and prescribed me 6 weeks of physical therapy. The great thing about living next to a Big 10 school like Ohio State is that you have access to the OSU Sports Medicine Center, which I took full advantage of.  Twice a week, I went to PT and worked on strengthening the muscles that support knee movement (and did home exercises in between), and by early December I was back in classes. Now I aim for going 2-3 times a week and I. Scale. Appropriately.

I Went Gluten Free

Look at this gorgeous GF pumpkin pie that I made for Thanksgiving

 

 

Yeah, yeah, I know. CrossFit and Gluten Free?! Hear me out. I do not have Celiac Disease, as far as I am aware. I am not allergic to wheat, which I also confirmed with an allergy panel this month. But what I am is pretty attuned to my body.  When I was going through the knee problems, I also decided to try an experiment and avoid foods that are known to trigger inflammation so that I could help the healing process for my poor old knee. For a month, I avoided wheat, barley, and rye. Then I ate something with wheat in it and had achey joints and a stuffy nose by the next morning. In particular, it felt like I was being stabbed with a knife in my right knee when I woke up. The sharp and stabby feeling eventually subsided with movement, but you don't forget pain like that. Since I've stopped eating products with gluten in it, my joints don't constantly ache anymore.  Four years ago, I did a Whole30 challenge and noticed stomach upset and stuffy nose as soon as I re-introduced wheat products, but at the time it wasn't a deterrent. Now it is. As much as I enjoyed bread, pasta, etc. I don't miss it that much because I don't want to feel crappy.  I know 40 is still relatively young, but at this point I feel a lot more protective of my health than ever.

Goodbye, 2022

Will made me a photo book of our trip for Christmas, yay!

Merry Christmas!

We had a quiet Thanksgiving and Christmas at home this year. In the latter case, we couldn't have gone back to Pennsylvania for Christmas even if we wanted to because Columbus got nailed with the polar vortex blizzard Hoth-storm just like the rest of the Midwest and the roads were pretty much impassable. So, we hunkered down with the cats and did our best to stay warm and entertained. Between all of my adventures earlier this year, I only had a couple days of vacation left for the year and thus enjoyed an extremely quiet last two weeks holding down the fort at work with a skeleton crew as well.

What remains of the year will be spent much the same: just me, Will, the cats and a sheet pan of nachos.

Hello, 2023!

Next year I'm looking forward to watching all the rest of my friends turn 40, haha. 

As ever, I'm plotting and planning for more time abroad. It may be Germany, it may be Japan, who knows?

I'm setting intentions to keep reading--I'm rounding out the year with 33 books down and that's a HUGE improvement from the 2019-2021 slump--to keep working on embracing rest and rejuvenation without guilt, to managing anxieties, to enjoying the life I lead and keeping my values out front.

So as usual, I wish you all a healthy and prosperous New Year. Onward!