2013 April-December Recap

Well folks, it has been far too long since I've written...well...anything, now that I think about it.

As predicted, 2013 was a year packed with transition.

A quick summary: End of a 10 year relationship; 4 months of living uncomfortably with the ex, getting a new car; the ex finally moving out; getting an email from my landlord that they were needing to sell the house I was renting (aka: not renewing my lease); my hunt for a new house to rent; packing; crazy roller coaster of emotions tethered to starting over in the dating world; moving my excessive amount of belongings (my friend says I'm one trunk away from an episode of "Hoarders", but I think that's a tidbit drastic) to my new rental during torrential rain storms at the end of June; a large portion of my grandpa's roof collapsing & making a trip home to help move everything out of that room so the insurance/construction company could come in and repair everything; unpacking/making my new place feel homey; crazy grandma actually trying to commit suicide & consequently getting committed to an institution; establishing a new relationship; realizing my previous landlord was totally trying to screw me on returning my deposit & the seven months of certified letters, court filings, and court appearances that took a full year to receive the judgement I finally got for half of what he owed me; meeting the new boyfriend's kids & family; dealing with a bi-polar ex-wife; experiencing INTENSE feelings/emotions/situations that are completely foreign to anything I've experienced mainly as a result of this being my first divorced-dad boyfriend & pseudo-stepchildren experience; the worst winter EVER since I've existed on this planet; pseudo-living w/ Mr. Mac & the boys while subletting my rental house to a 60 yr old, pot-bellied hippy; a freakish flash flood that pushed 2' of water running through every room in the rental house, the well pump at Mr. Mac's house going out the same day (which also happened to be days before Xmas); realizing I didn't have flood insurance; Hippy & I having to move our belongings out of the soggy rental house (in sub-zero temperatures) while simultaneously refusing to let anything ruin my never-ending amount of Xmas cheer...

That was 2013.

Looking back all I can think is "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger".
Is that too cliche to use, anymore? Maybe so, but it's true.
Frankly, there was quite a bundle of great things that came from all of that and most importantly, I survived with my sanity intact & was able to construct the longest run-on sentence of all time (above).



I was never so glad to see a New Year. Ever.

Remember what I said about Xmas cheer?
Amidst all of the chaos, we were able to construct the greatest, homemade Ugly Xmas Sweaters of all time & won some serious bragging rights with Mr. Mac's family.
Take a minute and really soak in all the details of our handiwork...