This blog turned 17 at the end of December. SEVENTEEN. Though, I'm not sure the mere 12 entries in the past 3 years really count. But I'm going to count them anyways. SEVENTEEN!

I've read a few things lately about how social media is an edited version of people's lives, and it paints an inaccurate picture of what someone's life is actually like. The version we see is all the good, beautiful things that are happening while the mundane, not so pretty things are left out. It makes other people feel inadequate, like their lives aren't as good or don't measure up and that's terrible. I don't think anyone ever intends to purposefully make others feel that way by presenting an edited version of their life, it just happens.

If you're following my loose train of thought on this, it may sound like I'm trying to say that I've rarely posted to this site in the past three years because things have been bad. That's not entirely true. There's a whole list of reasons I could give about why I haven't updated this site: too busy; out of the habit; too tired; feeling like I have nothing to contribute; etc. I could go on, but I won't. What I'd like to do is briefly try and catch you up on the last three years. The good stuff and the bad stuff, because even if isn't documented, it does happen to all of us.

2015 Highs: Started a new job (which I think I actually mentioned way back here), celebrated a milestone birthday by going to Chicago for a week, dusted off my sewing machine and started making some of my own clothes, finally stayed at the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo
2015 Lows: my dad died unexpectedly

2016 Highs: Completed my first (and so far only) Whole 30, celebrated a birthday by going to Cambria and visiting Hearst Castle (I had never been!), bought a house and moved to Santa Cruz (!!!), spent Christmas in Hawaii
2016 Lows: had to have another throat surgery (but it was thankfully less traumatic than the first one), packing up the entire apartment and moving (this one really deserves its own post), the election

2017 Highs: women's march, it finally started raining (real fill-up-the-reservoir type rain), nesting chickadees in our backyard, Fourth of July trip to Bellingham, took a girls trip to Tahoe, participated in Inktober for the first time
2017 Lows: my brother died unexpectedly

Oh, and in between all that, one of the cats developed an anxiety issue and has completely licked his stomach bald of any fur (he's totally healthy aside from that), and I've gradually gained back about 20 of the 50 pounds I had lost by the beginning of 2015. And that feels like a major defeat. Between the stress of, well, a lot of things, and a nearby beer garden with multiple cider offerings, I probably shouldn't be so hard on myself. And I'm slowly learning not to be, but it's not easy.

So, there's three years in a large-ish nutshell. I do plan on writing about some of that stuff at length, but I need to get back in the habit of doing this first. I think it had been kind of therapeutic for me in the past, and it might help to start doing this again. We'll see.

So, uh, how are you guys?