Not Dead!

Hello blog world! As it turns out I wasn’t face down in a ditch. Or dragged into the sewers with IT. Or blew a secret ninja mission and ended up in North Korean prison.

Yeah, glad I’m not there.

No folks, I’m alive and kicking. But it has been a busy (glances at the last post entry date) uh, yikes, three years. Really?! Three years? Sheesh. Okay, so yeah, a lot going on.

What Have I Been Up To?

Welp, a lot, actually. Let’s see, 2015. Wasn’t the best of years. But it did end on a higher note. My sweet mom was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s in 2010. The decline was steady, but tolerable. But from about Christmas 2014 to June 2015 things really took a nosedive into bad.

Mom in her twenties

I know there are a lot of strong feelings about this subject, but after she grew really bad we decided to put her in a care facility. I used to judge people who seemingly “dumped” relatives into facilities, but now I definitely don’t. It’s a painful decision, but often it can be the right one. My dad, as the caretaker, was looking worse and worse and his health instantly improved once we moved her. Plus, she didn’t look at him as the warden, but as her husband again.

From there things got progressively worse until she fell and broke her hip and it only took a few days from there until she passed. A line from Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events came to mind over the next several weeks:

If you have ever lost someone very important to you, then you already know how it feels; and if you haven’t, you cannot possibly imagine it.

How true that is. I’d lost friends and grandparents, but never someone seemingly before their time who was that close to me. The only thing that kept me going, and keeps me going, is knowing she’s not suffering. Do I wish she was still here? Absolutely! But would I bring her back in that state? Absolutely not. I can’t say after three years that it doesn’t still hurt, but it does get a little easier to bear.

Along with this I had a cyst I wasn’t sure whether it was cancerous (it wasn’t, thankfully), lost my job, and endured several months of unemployment.

BUT! My Dad and I were going to be the only ones around for Christmas and rather than sit at home missing my mom, we thought we’d do something amazing. We headed out to New York City. I’d been several times before. My dad went once when he was 18, but that was a looooong time ago, so some of the city felt new to him. And we had a blast. Plus the weather was unusually warm, so we didn’t have to trudge through the infamous New York slush.

Rockefeller Plaza was PACKED! But worth it.

On to 2016

I did end up finding another job just at the end of 2015, so now I do graphic design at a marketing agency. Almost for 3 years now! And what else? I went to a Disney park, 3 TIMES!

Yeah, I’m a big Disney head and three times almost doesn’t seem like enough. The first was Disneyland. The second? PARIS Disneyland. And the third? Disney World. I can’t say, though, that I was super fond of the Paris version. It felt a bit run down and less . . . I dunno, magical I guess? It was okaaaaaay. But the others were a lot of fun. I even got to meet Jack and Sally in Disney World during Halloween time.

I also visited the BFF who was living in Germany at the time. We did Germany, Paris, and Croatia. It was my first time to Europe and I’ve got to say, the French are waaaaaaay cooler than rumored. I was all ready for them to be snotty and rude. Quite the contrary. They were super nice! One lady was concerned about where we were going on the train and stopped and made sure I got to where I needed to. I feel like they were practically offering me croissants. You Frenchies, you’re just the best!

In the famed Catacombs!

And then something really amazing happened. I met someone. More on that in 2017.

Did we cosplay as Jedi? Why yes we did!

¡Bienvenido a 2017!

So, yeah, met a guy. We actually met through e-Harmony. He lived about 5 hours from me, so it was a little tough in the beginning, but we still had a good time over Facetime. And we’d take turns visiting each other one weekend a month. And then as things grew more serious, he decided to take a job in Salt Lake City and the rest is history.

But let’s be honest. I wasn’t just going to have a normal pretty princess wedding. And it was during Halloween time after all. So I threw together a Halloween Wedding Extravaganza. For the first hour or so of the reception we were in our formal wear. But after that, it was zombie bride and groom time. Something I always thought would be fun would be to come out to Thriller. My husband agreed and so, we did!

Cuz this is THRILLER!

It was the wedding of my dreams! His, too. We did have a few naysayers, but most everyone was eager to show up in costume and have a fun time. And then in November, we took our honeymoon to Japan!

At the Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto

So yeah. Kind of a bunch of things going on. Marriage kind of turns your life into mush. You are just trying to get used to all this new stuff with new person and you aren’t thinking much about blogs or anything for that matter.

But we at least hit the Disneyland to celebrate our six-month in 2018.

Ermagash, those Mickey pretzels….mmmmm….

What have you been up to these last several years?