I know it’s been quite some time since you’ve heard from me, but all I can say is that it’s been quite a year! In May of this year, I announced to the world via Facebook, that I had been diagnosed with Hashimoto's, a form of hypnothyroidism. A friend of mine told me of all the illnesses anyone could get, at least mine had a cool name! After being officially diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis in April, I have spent the better part of the last 6 months focusing on healing my body, naturally. I had to make many adjustments in my schedule to accommodate my new health regimen, but the time and effort was well worth it. My follow up blood work came back, and I am feeling the best I've felt in years.

Maybe you haven’t missed my newsletter for the last 2 weeks, but I have! I’ve been insanely busy these past few weeks. I’m not complaining…but sometimes it gets in the way of writing my blog. I added teaching two, 6 week courses to my schedule. The courses are 2 hours each, so by the time I prepare what I’m going to teach, teach, and then edit the videos of what I just taught…I’ve lost about 10 hours a week that was normally used for marketing, writing, and planning. Those two weeks I was at or near a full client load. The little spare time I have left used to prepare us for another move.

I’m tired of Covid. There, I said it. After two years of masks, vaccines, quarantines, and “science,” we are no closer to “flattening the curve” than we are to seeing Dolly Parton wear an AA bra. I’m not going to quote all kinds of life and death stats, survival percentage rates, and why you should or should not get vaccinated. Nor am I going to recommend taking supplements, losing weight, quitting smoking, or any of those other things your doctor would tell you. You’ve formed your opinions about Covid, and so have I.

Every year, my boyfriend Doug decorates our house with Christmas lights. It’s not quite the over-the-top caliber of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, but it is amazing display. Doug has enjoyed doing Christmas lights for years. He uses a special computer program that coordinates music and dancing lights. The music is projected through a small speaker so you can hear the display if you’re in front of it, but he also uses an FM tuner so you can hear the music should you decide to stay in your car to watch. Over the years of doing this, Doug has programmed 90 minutes of music for the lights to “dance” to. Each minute of music takes about 4 hours to program.

The life I am living right now is very different from the life I had less than 6 months ago. And that’s very different from the life I had a year ago. And that’s very different from the life I had 2 years ago, 5 years ago, and 10 years ago.

I’ve had to make some tough choices about the direction my life was going in, and I’ve made them. I had to say “goodbye for now” to several activities I enjoyed, in order to spend that time learning new ways to do what I do better and to communicate that with the world. I still have a lot of learning to do.

Doug and I celebrated the 3rd anniversary of meeting each other this past Friday. We met through OKCupid.com, which is not all that different from how millions of others meet potential boyfriends and girlfriends. What was different about us, was HOW we went about it.

Yesterday, was an amazing day. Doug and I began our day having an amazing breakfast buffet with our “chosen family” at Paradise Lakes Clothing Optional Resort. We then we headed to the pool area to relax. At 1pm, the owners of the resort and several guests poured several bottles of Mr. Bubble into the conversation pool.

I think everybody has THAT song, that when they hear it they are magically trance-ported to another world. I know whenever I hear Anyway You Want It by Journey…I’m back in junior high (young people: it’s what we had before Middle School). Whenever I hear Bat Out of Hell by Meatloaf, I’m cruising the southwest side of Cleveland, Ohio with my bestie Todd Stuart in my 1984 Chevy Cavalier drinking a nasty beer called Little Kings (young people: do not drink Little Kings and drive). Whenever I hear KC and The Sunshine Band, I can’t help but think of thinking how cute KC was, performing on Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve with those hot bell bottom pants and platform (boogie) shoes.

For 18 years, I was a professional people watcher, also known as a “comedian.” I got paid to watch humans and report on the weirdness of what they do in the funniest way possible. After many years of training, I now simply walk into any room and in one glance can put together someone’s background.

The Ghosts of Crafts Past...my mother used to get me all kinds of craft things when I was growing up. She loved sewing and crafts, my family members loved sewing and crafts, so it was just a natural progression that I did them too. Somehow, the crafting gene that was supposed to be transmitted genetically by my DNA skipped a chromosome and passed me over. When I did paint by numbers, it was supposed to be like coloring, only my landscape painting was really drippy...and required the furniture to be professionally cleaned.

To say I had an unusual upbringing would be an understatement. While my friends were headed to conventional vacation places like Disney or Cedar Point on a Memorial Day Weekend, my parents would pack up their 1926 Dodge Brothers Touring Sedan with a picnic basket (complete with a portable liquor cabinet)(it was almost okay to drive a little tipsy in the 70’s) and ride off to something like The Milan Melon Festival in Milan, Ohio. On the way home we’d hit The Blue Hole which was a huge blue hole in the ground that was deeper than the Marianna Trench. Of course, know one knew who Marianna was much less her “trench,” so making irresponsible claims like that was pretty safe.