Hello

It has been a while. Undoubtedly, it has been a while. Life has been hard and weird, and honestly it has been hard for me to find the motivation to write.

Back in November, Bill and I moved to Washington State. In our RV, we made the cross-country journey from Virginia all the way to Washington. It was fun, stressful, and exciting and we saw a lot of the northern United States that we might not have seen otherwise. The biggest highlight of the trip was when we traveled through South Dakota. It started out bumpy and scary in Sioux Falls. We were in the RV, and had my car trailered behind us. The highway we were on was under construction and it was windy as shit. The highway was down to one lane each way and it literally felt like the oncoming 18-wheelers were going to sling us off the road. I was so scared I had to go sit on the couch to keep from freaking out. Bill was livid and I have never seen him mad like that. Finally, we found a rest stop and we took a long break, then once we got back on the highway it was back to a normal two lane highway. Okay – well that part wasn’t the highlight, but it was an honorable mention. The actual highlight of the trip was when we got to Rapid City, South Dakota. That is one of the prettiest towns I have ever been to. In Rapid City, we went hiking and saw Mount Rushmore as well as Crazy Horse. If you ever have an itch to go to Rapid City, South Dakota, 10/10 recommend. I actually wish we were getting stationed there instead of Washington.

Adjusting to living in Washington has been incredibly difficult. Some days are really bad and depression hits me hard. Bill was here with me for about two and a half months before he went to Iraq to do more K9 contractor work. He will be back in about 3.5 weeks for a break, thankfully! It is mid-May and it. is. still. raining. all. the. time. I hate the weather here and honestly – if I could go back in time and not get stationed here, I would. My job is good & easy; I just don’t like Washington. I could probably count on one hand the number of times I have seen the sun in the last six months. I. NEED. SUNSHINE. That is the worst part of being here. It rains a lot, but even if it isn’t raining, the sun isn’t out. I don’t know what provoked me, but the other day I Googled, “average days of sunshine in Washington” and the answer was: 141. The national average is 205. That is depressing.

I do my very best to find internal happiness, though. I haven’t been running much (hardly at all) lately because I have been having hip issues that I need to sort out. I do my Peloton about 6 – 7 times a week, and I get out and walk the dogs when the weather is appropriate. They (I don’t know who they is) say that summers here are great. I haven’t seen it yet, but I am holding out hope.

I am going to make a conscious effort to write more. I can’t predict an exact timeline, but my goal is to be intentional and write at least once a week. Earlier today I was thinking about how much I love blogging. In my thoughts I realized I have been writing most of my life. The internet was common in homes in the 1990s. I know for a fact I had a LiveJournal blog ~2000. I wish I would have kept up with it back then. I could probably be a paid author by now.