Hi friends!
Long time no see. Well, okay, just a week, but you know… felt longer.
Last week felt unnecessarily hard over here. Sorta heavy. My husband went out of town, and I was home alone for the first time in over a year… the first time since my mom died, and while I didn’t think that would impact me, it did. I felt suddenly very isolated, and had to come to terms with the fact that my go-to phone buddy was no longer available. A reckoning of sorts, and it involved a lot of tears, a lot of pizza, and a lot of “Grey’s Anatomy” — starting with season 1 — on my couch. (If you’ve never tried that trio of catharsis, I highly recommend.)
Anyways, I’m all good now. I think it was just something I had to go through, part of the grieving process, and probably pretty amazing that it took nearly nine months to happen.
I said I was going to use my self-imposed spring break to figure out what else I wanted to do in this space, but to be honest, I didn’t come up with too much beyond just wanting to continue sharing with you all. I’ll be posting every Friday still, but some weeks will be these stream of conscious-type posts (our “Friday Things” conversations), some will be sharing the four good things brightening my week (previously sent every other Wednesday), and… we’ll see! I’m playing with the idea of a reader write-in/Q&A type post… like you email me/comment with questions or things you want to me to write about, and I’ll dedicate a post to it once a month or something. Sort of Dear Abby meets Carrie Bradshaw? (…is that a stretch? I just always wanted to be Carrie, if we’re being honest.) Anyways, if you’re interested, let me know; you can shoot me an email with whatever you want me to cover, anytime.
In other news, today felt, dare I say, normal?! And that IS news, because I can’t remember a day that felt that way in a longgggg time. Cue the confetti! I met a close <vaccinated> friend for coffee (+ a not so great vegan doughnut…) and a nice, long chat, and we sat on the patio of the coffee shop sipping our drinks and talking like it was just a normal day, in a normal year. I mean, despite the mask hanging around my neck. When we said our goodbyes, I swear my shoulders had dropped a couple inches, at least. It was like a breath of fresh air. 🎉
Being vaccinated sure takes the edge off! Another friend recently asked me how I felt now that I’m fully vaccinated, and I replied, “Lighter.” And it’s true! That anxiety about unknowingly getting myself infected and ending up in the hospital, or getting someone else sick, was something fierce. And while it’s not completely gone now — I sanitized my hands like eight times while sitting in that coffee shop for two hours — it feels a LOT less, and a whole lot more manageable. I mean, I’m not ready to chill in an airport yet or sit indoors at a restaurant, but we’re getting there.
Now I’m off to sit in the sunshine some more, and bake some blueberry muffins. (Using this recipe, if you’re interested.) I hope you have a great weekend, friends, and let me know what’s bringing you some joy these days. 💛
Sending you all the YAYs,
Joelle
Friday Things // 04.16.2021
YAY for normal!!! ;)