It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything here. Do people even read blogs anymore? Is it all about TikTok videos now? I’ve made some TikTok videos and I admit I find that pretty enjoyable. Mostly they’re either videos of my cats or videos of me reflecting on my love of cats. I don’t make them super regularly or anything, just as the mood strikes. One of them has over 1,000 views so I’m pretty sure Internet fame is imminent.

When I started this blog back in 2010, it was to write about my experience of moving from California to Washington. It was a huge change and the beginning of a new chapter in my life. Thankfully, it turned out to be one of the best decisions I could have made and I love my life here. And now, I’m less than a year away from a different kind of adventure – turning forty.

In a lot of ways, my thirties have felt like they flew by. I definitely enjoyed them way more than my twenties! And they were filled with wonderful things. Bill and I got married and bought our home, we adopted our Ernie kitty, and I graduated from college and advanced a lot in my career. We’ve enjoyed fun vacations, including my first trip to Europe! And of course there have also been sad times, like losing my first cats Angel and Oliver, family members and friends passing away, and of course the Covid pandemic. I was thirty-five when Covid hit and in some ways I feel like the pandemic stole my mid-thirties from me, but I’ve come to realize that even though that time didn’t play out like I’d hoped it would, that’s just how life works sometimes and I can’t stay stuck in that headspace.

Now, with eight months remaining in this decade of my life, I want to end it on a high note by doing lots of fun things and by prioritizing myself and both my physical and mental health. Instead of being bummed about turning forty, I want to get excited about it because being able to grow older is a privilege, and I need to set myself up to be healthy and happy going into that new decade.

And so, I’m back to blogging, so that I’ll have a record of these last eight months and then of the journey of beginning my forties.