It's the time of year that I reflect on the previous year, and select my goals for the coming year. This is a ritual I have done every year for almost 2 decades - and I used to share them here on the ole blog.
Reviewing 2023, it was a year of 2s.
- Ron and I bought a house in Colorado. This was the result of a multiple year search. When we first started talking, we liked the idea of a "second" house someplace other than the dome in California. (I'm still keeping the Dome - never gonna sell this respite.) As much as we/I love the dome, it's just not suited for two professionals who work from home with dogs and people visiting. We looked in Maine, Vermont, Oregon, Washington, California, New Mexico and eventually landed on Colorado and found a perfect place in a Ponderosa forest, 15 minutes from my parents.
- Pebbles and Joey. After Shoogs, we had a year break with no dog, not even a foster! After having 2 older medical rescue dogs (Archibald and Shoogs) I was ready for a break, but I did miss the doggy energy. And we didn't do as much traveling as I would have hoped (maybe due to my knee situation). So in Spring, I started looking for our next dog, another Boston Terrier rescue. My regular rescue had gone offline, and I wasn't finding any boston terriers anywhere! Then out of the blue someone messaged me in instagram and asked if I was interested in her Boston she was rehoming. That's how Pebbles entered our life. She was/is a perfect little sleek, friendly, silly, flirty boston terrier, with massive fireworks/loud noise issues. (That's why she was being rehomed.) We all met, and fell in love and she came home with us just before July 4.
Once we had the new house in Colorado, I was like, time for a second one! Since it had taken us so long to find Pebbles, I started looking right away. Colorado has a different Boston Terrier rescue organization that supports something like 5 states. In a week, I found Joey from Iowa, and after the required paperwork, he caught a ride to Colorado and came into our lives. - New Knees! For the first time in 30 years, I went under the knife - twice! I was genetically blessed with bad knees. Back in 2017 I learned I was bone on bone in my knees. Medical professionals couldn't understand how - did I have an accident? did I have a sports injury? The answer was no. Just bad genetics in this case. After a lot of back and forth, I finally got approval for knee replacement surgery in November 2022, and had my first one done in January 2023, and my second one in December 2023. Not gonna lie, it was/is the most pain I have ever experienced. But the ability to walk without pain, to hike, to swim, do pilates and pull my luggage around Heathrow Airport is very appealing.
A few other things happened this year, I finished 3 more modules in this Buddhist course, I dealt with a water leak/insurance issue at the dome, and the Colorado house was not without it's issues. And then there was healing from being stabbed in the back, ruining my achievements at IDPro for exceeding our membership goals in terms of #s and $$s.
I drafted outlines/book proposals for several books and started working on them (before being sidetracked on all these home issues). It's not a bad year, despite a lot of challenges overcome.
I am looking forward to locking all this pain and drama into 2023, and start 2024 with renewed energy, positivity, creativity, and tenacity. I look forward to calm, relaxing days, at home with the dogs and my beloved Ron. No idea what the future will bring, but I am curious and relaxed to find out.
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