January 8, 2024

It's 2024 and a new year and I feel like I should have something profound to say here but I don't, really. 

Life's good. Better than it was this time last year, at least.

This time last year I was prepping for Asia which but we were dealing with the falling-out of a friendship — one in a long line of 'em from the same social circle — except this one was more... personal? Hurtful? 

I guess you could call it that.

We used to be friends with a couple and the husband kept getting wasted and groping me (including sucking on my face while I was sleeping) and when we asked that he go to AA or to therapy his wife called me, screamed at me, and told me I was a "bad friend" for saying that I wasn't comfortable being around him if he wasn't gonna take his behaviour seriously.

I've never been on the receiving end of victim-blaming for sexual assault before and it was a confusing and stressful time and we're not friends anymore as a result of it.

That's the TL;DR version, anyway. 

Maybe I'll write about that in more detail here someday but today's not that day.

Today's about the new year. I have no set travel plans yet which compared to last year when we went away for 3 months to SE Asia feels weird and like there's a gap in my life

but at the same time it feels like a relief. Last year I travelled to:

Thailand
Cambodia
Vietnam
Japan
Baltimore
D.C.
and Toronto

which were all wonderful but the push-pull of prepping to leave and catching up upon getting back was A LOT to manage. I felt like I was always playing catch-up in my own life and not being in that tidal pull of Going Away and Coming Back has felt

like a relief, honestly.

Last year was hard in a lot of ways. My business has a lot of ups and downs which were amplified by my Going Away and Coming Back all the time, plus friend stuff mentioned above, plus general life stuff makes it hard to put a pin on 2023.

Was it a Good Year, a Bad Year, or something in-between?

I guess it was a mix of all three. Lots of emotional rollercoasters and stress but a lot if great experiences, too.

We hosted our friends from Japan and had our friends from Mexico stay with us

we lost two friends, sure, but we also gained a lot and reconnected with several who'd fallen away

we accomplished a lot and John and I became closer as a couple and as a team

we saw so much and I ate, danced, and sang my way through cities and countries I'd never been to before

my business grew and succeeded despite setbacks and my stressing about it WAY more than I should have

and I read a shit-ton of books and made a shit-ton of art.

I guess you could say that 2023 was pretty good despite some hiccups and a few losses here and there, which is more than what most people could ask for I suppose.

Fingers crossed that the new year has more good stuff in store.