Life Lately | February 2023

I'm in the middle of a stress breakout. I mean, it has to be. I'm 34 years old, hormones balanced by age and semi permanent birth control, and still, a spray of zits across my face. It's been a week you guys, and it's only Tuesday. But February is over and we are onward to March, which is basically spring. Good things are coming! 

February was a lovely short month - quick and mostly with mild weather that was very conducive to being outside. It was also the start of noticeably longer days. One night, I was driving home from work a little after 5pm and thought, by God, it's sunny out still! Of course I know this happens incrementally, but I swear it happens every year that one day, suddenly, it's just light again. It's wonderful. 

The month was also chaotic, hence the stress breakout. I don't want to wallow, so I'll synopsize. Stressful work month. Several surprise snow days for Duke in which he takes full advantage of the lack of supervision while his parents work in the other room resulting in the dog getting a goofy haircut and me scraping melted cheese off the fireplace. Good times! Lots of social obligations that I frankly don't feel like making or keeping. And a general sense of millennial ennui, thinking is this what I"m really doing with the prime years of my life? 

Okay, that last one is melodramatic, but I'm also in the sprint to 35 - which I'm actually not sprinting to at all, but will come quickly and 35 feels like an age so firmly rooted in adulthood that I want to meet it with some semblance of feeling like I have my life organized. On my 30th birthday, I wrote a 5 year plan, which is laughable now, specifically in content. While some of it came to fruition, I had "have another baby" on that list and we all see how that turned out. Rest assured, I'm not using my sprint in these last few months to fulfill that particular goal. But I am thinking about what I do want to accomplish with the second half of my 30's. I guess that 5 year plan really just taught me that five years will pass pretty dang quickly. 

Mostly I was a little melancholy all month, but I think that's just the seasonal slump. We're reaching the end of the winter marathon and I am tired. I know the finish line is approaching, and to be fair, we putting all our cheerleaders in the final stretch to rally our way to the end. Which is to say, February had lots of visitors, lots of sunny days, some laughs and a karaoke night to boot. 

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Let's start with the karaoke. Give me two drinks and I get brave, so I signed up to sing some No Doubt and dragged my sister up there with me. She flatly refused a mic, but bopped along as emotional support. 

And for the record. I don't get up there because I have any disillusions about being good. I get up there because it's fun. So I was not even a little offended when an old man wandered over later and told me I did a nice job up there with a little back-hander "Thanks," I said. "I try to hold the microphone away from my mouth a little on purpose." And he says "Yeah, and we could still hear ya yellin'!"

Loooool. Bet. 

My sister and her husband spent a whole weekend with us. We all sent our kids to their respective grandparents and luxuriated in sleeping in and watching TV that features swear words and in general isn't Bluey. I watched Fast Times at Ridgemont High on Saturday afternoon, taking up the entire couch and not sharing my snacks. It was wonderful. 

You can't tell, but that's a lake behind us. 

Still very much walking weather. If it doesn't hurt, I try to go outside. The evening sunshine is a nice motivator. 

Oh man, this February memory is a winner. Coercing Duke into the bathtub is a job for which I should earn money, it's that hard. But on this occasion, he was cheerful. "Mom! Come look!" he yelled. "I look like Dad!"

"Oh, because you have a beard?"

"No," he says. "Because it's WHITE!"

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A few other nice things that we enjoyed this month - 

Valentine's Day of course. We made a heart shaped chocolate cake. I don't eat sugar and Ryan's not much for sweets, so Duke feasted on that cake for a week straight. As you can see though, George was willing and available to help if the job got to be too much for Duke. 

Sunny Sunday drives that bring us to our favorite playgrounds. Just a few more weeks and the view will be decidedly different! That countdown brings me so much joy. 

Adventuring out to Iron Fish where the the pizzas and mixed drinks are great, but vodka tastes like absolute shit. That's my review. 

This was short lived, but for a minute, the Lake Michigan shoreline in Frankfort was caked with ice. Duke wanted to march right out there, but I'm a little leery about this so I suggested taking a picture instead. Duke's a total ham sandwich, so he posed and moved along without complaint. Small miracles, no?

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Onward to March! It's the last winter month IMO and it's the first with a few nice days so I am particularly delighted to be here. Happy spring - she's comin'!