A Lovely Life

I saw this meme about 6 months ago and just FELT it. panDAMNit is correct.  P.S. The memes in this hellscape have been GOLD I've realized this week that everyone's "one-year mark" of COVID-19 is different. For everyone, though, it's whatever day that shit got REAL.  Mine is March 13th.  A year ago today, our Chancellor sent the email saying, "Anyone who can work remotely should do so beginning Monday, March 16th through March 27th. Those deemed essential should work with their supervisors...".  A year to the day my DFA came out of her office, looked me in the eyes, and said, "You're essential. Can you be here Monday?".  I should say here that I work as an administrative assistant/building ops gal on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus where they took this thing VERY seriously from jump. The days leading up to March 13th were full of anxiety. My email inbox was being inundated with canceled classes and meetings and almost hourly updates from cam...

I have a little secret. Today marks 30 days since my last drink**. I had attempted a 30-day alcohol-free period in January of 2018 which ended up being, arguably, one of the most challenging years of my life. I made it 26 days miserable days and it all ended because Brucey , my beloved rescue dog, died while I was traveling to Miami for an event. This is when I discovered that Walgreen's sells wine (what?!).  I look back at my first alcohol-free attempt and I realize that I wasn't really set up for success. Hindsight and all that... Not only did I try to detox on January 1st, but I was also newly ramping up training for my big bike adventures AND I decided to try my hand at 30-days of Yoga with Adriene . All of these things independently are (and were) really good things. Healthy. Mindful. Etc. Etc. However, I went into that period of time looking at not drinking as punishment. This dry spell was needed more than ever. With COVID hitting a year ago (that's another post in i...