Learn. Live. Hope.: 2 years

Yeah, yeah, yeah... yet another long hiatus from this little ol' blog. It's the same reason, really. I've been busy, I rarely log onto my laptop, and typing a blog post from my phone is way too time consuming. So, as much as I wish I could commit to blogging more often, lets face it. It's not gonna happen. :) So enjoy it when I do! Ha ha!

I'm still a little in awe that it's already been two years since I left Arizona. I feel like I've come so far in those two years. I really do feel as though I've grown so much personally. I'm pretty proud of myself, to be honest. It oddly simultaneously feels like I just got back not that long ago, and yet like I never left Washington to begin with. I know, makes no sense to me either!

I'm living alone, which is wonderful! It's been a long time since I've had my own little place. It was a bit overwhelming furnishing it all. I brought very little when I moved. But ya know... it's all ME. No compromise, and very little that is tied to my former married life. I get to make all the design decisions, watch what I want to watch on TV, and I get all the closet space all to myself! Needless to say, I love it. It was an expensive few months, but so very worth it!

I think the biggest thing for me is that I'm becoming comfortable doing things by myself. Seems so silly, but there's certain things that I just couldn't ever bring myself to do by myself. I'm now perfectly content to go to a movie alone, go out of town by myself, and go into a bar or restaurant and have a meal or a drink by myself. I decided that I don't want to miss out on doing things I want to do, just because no one is able to go with me.

I'm still navigating the dating world. Punctuated with several breaks in between. The southern gentleman and I started dating again. We got along so well, and I really did enjoy spending time with him. He even met all my family. But... we really should have just remained friends And so it ended again. I've dated a couple other guys in the mean time. Nothing really spectacular, or worth writing about, really. Dating can be exhausting.

So, the past 6 months have been good. Busy. Very busy, but pretty darn good. I moved, I took road trips to my uncle's in Eastern Washington, went to Ocean Shores twice, spent time with my amazing friends, and my even more amazing family. I've gone to concerts, to a play, made plans for future trips, future concerts. I'm watching as my nephews and niece grow up, and my pseudo niece (one of my girlfriend's daughters - she's 8 months old, and SO much fun!!!)

I don't want to paint an unrealistic picture that life is all puppies and roses and rainbows... I've had my struggles as well. I started seeing a therapist. While that's good, it brought out so many not so good things that I didn't really deal with during the divorce. I typically maintain a good attitude about dating, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that it's a total blow to the ego at times. I've gone through some difficult times with a couple of my closest friends. One of which, I'm not entirely sure that we will ever get back to where we were before the hurtful things were said. (unfortunately, I was on the receiving end of the hurtful things) So yeah, I've had difficult times as well. But the thing is, I choose to focus on the good. At the end of the day, I'd rather count my blessings than spend any more time or energy on the negative. I have a lot to be thankful for.

Because no blog post is complete without photos, here's a few from over the last 6 months.