Yeah. So this calls for a blog post about things in my life unrelated to my health issues! Although I do have some chronic issues in my life, I'm not constantly thinking about them. For a few minutes or hours each day, believe it or not, I don't think about A) my transplant; B) my miscarriage; or C) other ways the universe/God/whoever can torture me for the rest of my time on this planet. Here's where some of my energy and good vibes have been going these days:
We started a garden. When we lived in an apartment, closer in to the city, during our last real summer there we decided to start a balcony garden. And what a surprising success it was. We grew a bounty of cherry tomatoes, jalapenos and basil IN POTS on a very sunny balcony that faced a crowded parking lot and a huge dumpster. Our parsley in a pot did OK and our mint burnt to a crisp. But it was that summer that we were bit by the gardening bug. This year, with tons more space and hand-constructed raised beds, we've graduated to zucchini, three types of tomatoes, bush beans, plus herbs. And we added a lemon tree and a blueberry plant (that birds on our deck might be attacking as I write this).
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| Lemon tree, Blueberry bush, and parsley...literally ON DECK. |
Gardening...it doesn't really make sense, you know? First of all, it's a big investment. And second, depending on where you live, how big your garden is and whether there's a tribe of squirrels nearby, you're never going to grow the amount of produce you'd like if you want to replace the need to go to the grocery store. I think we'll be able to harvest our tomatoes in a couple of months. I'm not waiting that long to eat a tomato. It's kind of a ridiculous hobby, but it's also kind of fun.
I've been hosting a discussion club, and Ben's been hosting game nights. The best thing about owning a place with a little more space and better parking, is being able to invite all your friends over. Since February, I've hosted my girlfriends at my house once a month. We discuss the books we're reading and I make a s*%t ton of food. Everybody eats a little bit of food and then we also talk about boys. It's really great. The last meeting I held was actually a movie night and we watched The Overnighters.
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| Books we've read this year. |
And then Ben, decided he'd start a monthly Friday-night game night with his guy friends.
We're going to California. I've already got two vacations under my belt this year. One with Ben and one with friends. Both trips were big beach trips. And they were both glorious. But because of who Ben and I are, we knew we couldn't just go the REST of the year without doing one more thing. So we're going to California! We're going to visit my BFF/roommate forever (I still refer to her as my roommate) and her husband in L.A. Then we're going to Sequoia National Park and Yosemite National Park. This trip just so happens to coincide with the National Parks Service's 100th birthday, too. That means we get to visit these two parks for FREEEEEE! I can't wait to share more about what we're planning for this trip as we continue setting things up for my first REAL visit to Cali. I visited Death Valley in 2014 but that was the extent of my California dreamin'.
And now, probably for the rest of the week, I'm going to be thinking about Memorial Day, having a four-day weekend, the return of hot, sunny weather in the D.C. area, char-grilled food, being outside and all the happy memories I have associated with summer.
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