A Whole Foot in the Water

I made it. The digital sabbatical is officially over! I’m unsure if I’m more happy to be back or sad my little journey is over, because it was a wonderful one. I truly missed sharing with all three of you who read this, but it was so very nice to keep so many thoughts, ideas and moments to myself. I have so very much to tell you, things I did, people I spent time with, but trying to get it all out in one post would just be complete insanity. So I’ll start slow. I posted a list of things I wanted to do during my break in my big farewell, and I accomplished a few of them.

– Read two novels – I read the first two books in the Stieg Larsson series, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and “The Girl Who Played with Fire.” I have to say, both books were slow to start (took me weeks to get into the “Dragon Tattoo”), but once they picked up, it was hard to stop reading. More than once I found myself at midnight, unable to to switch off the light. Highly recommended, just give it a hundred pages to get good.

– Spend countless nights/weekends swimming at the pool – Done, done, dunzo. And now (since school starts this week) the pool is closed for the summer. Sad, but I’m ready for a break from the heat and the crisp fall breeze. Now, someone come rake my yard, because the leaves are already ridiculous.

– Get in some much needed girlfriend time – Have I told you all about the time I was with 5 of my best girlfriends in a giant red pickup truck on a rural highway in Alabama and we came across and minihorse that was running loose on the side of the road? No? Well, it’s coming. With photos (hopefully). In other words, yes, did this one for sure.

– Trade jokes with friends – See above. Also, had a pregnant lady movie night with fellow (former!) preggo Mikayla and non-preggo Mara. We watched Newsies. There was singing. It was good.

– Drink cherry limeades – Done, obviously.

– Laugh my ass off – Again, see “minihorse” and “Newsies.” Also, a family vacation where everyone got drunk but me and I laughed at them for days. Literally.

– Grow a new baby – El bambino (aka Taco John) is officially 22 weeks along…over halfway done cooking! Which is crazy, just freaking insane. We’ve had our midway sonogram and saw our little pirate swimming around in his oven. (Yes, I said his….it’s a boy!). I am apparently pretty obviously pregnant, as even my co-workers (who are a bit, um, unobservant) have started congratulating me. This deserves a post of its own, of course, and I’ll get to it very soon. Maybe. Hopefully.

– Have several movie nights – See “Pregnant Lady Movie Night” and most Friday nights in the past few weeks. Some Lulu favorites are The Princess and the Frog and Beauty and the Beast. Also, Annie.

– Do yoga weekly (or more…hopefully more!) – Mostly kept up with this. Also got a prenatal massage that was so awesome I refused to leave. I was just going to stay in that bed for the remainder of this pregnancy. The masseuse was very excited. OK, or not. He might have asked me to leave very politely and then shoved me out the door when I refused to budge.

– Create something – I (finally) started AND finished my Blurb book for 2009. Every year I put together a Blurb book of all the year’s photos, but I had put off the 2009 book for ages due to the sheer volume of photos I took last year, which was mostly due to the NYC + KC project. I finally forced myself to sit down and just do the damn thing, and I couldn’t be happier with the results. I name each book after one of my favorite songs of the year, and 2009’s was called “I and Love and You” after the Avett Brothers song. (You can see my other books here.)

– Cross two things off my life list – I was close to completing this one, but no dice. I even had the chance to ride in a rickshaw (No. 62) and DIDN’T DO IT because I’m a total idiot. I did however get closer to No. 37: Be content in my life. And I flew kites with Lulu on the beach, which I decided should be on my list, so it will now be No. 101. Who said a Life List can’t be edited? My life, my list, my rules.

Some items that just couldn’t get done, no matter how hard I tried:
– Make a storybook with Lulu – Chalk this one up to several vacations and too many nights at the pool to find the time.
– Teach Lu to ride her two-wheeler – The chain on her bike broke! Bummer and a half!
– Journal in a real book – I really thought I’d be in to journaling during my break, but apparently not. I carried my little notebook everywhere, but didn’t write a single word.

So, with that, I’m back! The sabbatical was something I’d recommend to anyone with lots of online activity. Removing myself from not only this website, but Twitter/Facebook/Chat was almost like a vacation, and I realized how much time I waste on those sites. I love what the online community has brought to me and my life, but I needed to reevaluate the hold that it had started to have on me. When the first thing you do when you wake up is check Twitter, that’s a problem, or at least it was for me. I needed to refocus on actually living my life, not just talking about it.

Along with that, I have to say, I really missed my online community. I missed seeing what everyone was up to and hearing jokes from friends I don’t talk with outside of this arena. I can’t count the number of times people told me to check Facebook for a photo or a social invite, and it was hard to say no. I’m slowly going back through timelines, seeing what I’ve missed, and trying to catch up, and I find myself very happy to be back. The online world is a great place, as long as I don’t let it consume me. Hopefully this is a lesson I won’t soon forget.

So, with that, what have you all been up to? Did you miss me? Don’t lie, I know you did. How could you not. I mean, look, I am basically Tyra Banks: