At risk of sounding uber-Minnesotan, this winter has crushed my soul in a broken little toy.  It seems like the feeling of non-artificial warmth on skin will never return and we have somehow awoken in a dystopia Minnesota of yore where everyone is angry and sad always.

That said, I did do some fun/interesting-to-me things in the past couple of months.

Here we go:

  1. I passed the 6 month mark at my new-ish job. I am currently a junior consumer compliance examiner for community banks. It feels as both that I have been here a lifetime and that I learn 100 new things every day.
  2. I got under the 200 lbs. mark in my weight management goal! In the doctor’s office (where the scale is legitimate and doesn’t lie to me like I tell myself mine is doing on an almost weekly  basis), that I came down to 198 from  243 9 months ago. I still have a ways to go, but running has helped, and generally not eating garbage constantly might have played a small part.
  3. I visited Montana! I went a mini-exam in western Montana a couple weeks ago. Standing in front of Mesa’s that have existed for millennia and the complete absence of anybody around was exhilarating and terrifying.
  4. I have about 5 books going right now. I have a goal to go to my dad’s house before he sells it and collect all the books I inherited/collected before he throws them away or decides they’re his.
  5. Special shout out to “An Appetite for Power” by John Ramsden, which is an absolutely brilliant recounting of the Tory party’s quest for ultimate domination from 1848 to 1996. Highly recommended.
  6.  Spending time with my family. It sounds incredibly kitsch, but the sadness of all the recent loss in my family has really firmed up my family’s sense of community. My sister and I are on better relations now than at any point since I was born. My mother’s strength at going through what she has and still continuing on with such grace is a sight to behold.

 

Whats new with you, internet?