Hello Again! Long Time No Blog!
Hello friends! It’s been a while since I posted. I stepped back in mid-December for a variety of reasons - partly because I got too caught up in celebrating and enjoying the holidays to carve out time for writing and partly because the blogging grind started feeling like a chore, so I decided to take a breather.
Shall we catch up?
I’ve been sick since December 27th with a mystery virus. I’m COVID-negative, but the grandkids had RSV around Christmas, and I was around them and snotted and slobbered on, so it’s possible that's what I had/have. I’m still coughing and starting to feel like myself again, but it’s been a slow process. Like a two steps forward, three steps back thing.
In other news, I turned 60 at the end of December. If you had asked me how I felt about that a few weeks ago, I would have said “No Problem-O!” In hindsight, I can see that carefree attitude came from friends and family celebrating me, giving me cakes and presents, and buying me dinners and vodka-based drinks. It made turning 60 fun!!
A few weeks in, it feels…meh.
Not to be morbid, but being sick and bored has given me too much time to think about my life and ponder how many Christmases I have left, how long before my neck permanently resembles wrinkled, plucked chicken skin, how much achier my body is going to become as I age, and how there are still more things on my bucket list than I’ll ever have the time and money to do. Depressing stuff, I know, but also a reminder: Love each day, limit contact with idiots, and enjoy the sh*t out of life. Maybe I should make that my mantra for 2026?
Let’s move on to happier things. Like how the best part of Christmas was spending it with the grandkids. Oh, those two! They overflow with sweetness and banish every bad mood. And they’re so adorable, I’ll forgive them for almost always leaking some virus or bacteria-laden bodily fluid out of every orifice on their heads, dripping it on me, and making me horrifically ill.
My gosh, we had so much fun making memories at Disney World on my actual birthday (right before the mystery virus took us all down.)
This week, I’ve slowly been easing back into real life. One day, I summoned enough energy to have breakfast, then see a movie with two of my favorite friends, and it felt really good. I also did some mahjong playing and then relapsed a bit, so I’m back on the couch resting today.
I’ll admit there’s been a quiet undercurrent of sadness to the start of this year— the kind that comes from realizing another Christmas is behind us and that I’m another year older and maybe slightly leery of the unknowns of 2026. Oh, why can’t everything the universe throws at me be good, especially at this age? I feel like at this point in life, I’ve paid my dues, spending decades dealing with some shitty jobs, some shitty people, some bad luck, some occasional poor health, and in an entitled kind of way, feel I deserve smooth sailing forever. I’m so over the bullsh-t, you know? Maybe I should make that my mantra for 2026: I’m so over the bullsh-t.
Am I the only one who feels a little blue for a bit when the joy and sparkle of Christmas give way to the gray, dreary days of January? Or am I just grumpy because I haven’t been feeling well? Or maybe both?
Anyway, better days to come!