I'm going to take it from December 2025 - December 2026, because as the purveyor of this blog, that's my right.
December 2024 - Mom is dying, dies, is dead. Living in her house which has been torn asunder by an estate sale to clean out her house in order to sell it, to keep her in Memory Care. Several days after Christmas, return to Nashville where I lose two teeth via extraction after an unfortunate incident with a can of stale wasabi peas.
January 2025 - Multiple unsuccessful trips to Atlanta to probate will. Attempt to ease back into work. Working exclusively from home at this point. Trump is inaugurated.
February 2025 - Dinner at OK Cafe. Sit at counter next to a guy who has bedbug-sniffing dogs for a living. Will is probated! Stop at IKEA to celebrate. I buy a few dish towels and some Easter candy - a bunny you have to assemble from three parts. Brilliant.
March 2025 - House sells for over asking after one weekend on market. Book facility for Mom's celebration of life to be held in May. Husband starts a new job that he loves. Things at work are sort of fractious, but I can't put a finger on it.
April 2025 - We assemble our IKEA bunnies for Easter. I find a dress for my mother's celebration. Plans for that are underway. Work is sliding sideways, and I find that I don't have any new projects to focus on.
May 2025 - Mom's celebration of life exceeds my expectations. It works out nicely, everyone is there, it is joyful and the food is good. Tons of support from our families, friends. I share a work email with my sister, who suggests I might need to update my resume and start looking. I get back to Nashville and start taking her advice. At the end of the month, we learn that our division will be shutting down at the end of the year.
June 2025 - Panic sets in, and I start the job hunt in earnest. I also find a company to make some fixes to our cabin and plan to meet them at the first of July. I also finish getting the cabin bills transferred into my name, and we subscribe to wifi in the cabin.
July 2025 - Visit cabin - no hot water, which we add to the list to fix. I visit Babyland General Hospital, and make some small changes to cabin - new books shelf in bathroom, etc. I learn just before July 4th that my last day at work will be September 2nd. Husband is working soccer and full-time job. I am working and interviewing intermittently with no success, though I have several promising leads that all die within days of each other.
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| Me at Babyland General. In about two hours from this, I'll be getting my severance information. |
August 2025 - Preparing for the Soque Club 100th Anniversary. I become t-shirt chairwoman. I continue to send resumes all over the state, country. We learn upon arrival at cabin for the Anniversary that there is no running water, full stop. I make an executive decision to book rooms in Helen for us, my sister/nephew. The prices are exorbitant, but we sleep well, having running water, and enjoy our Labor Day weekend/100th Anniversary Celebration immensely. I continue to oversee our cabin progress.
September 2025 - My last day of employment comes and goes without any leads, job offers. I have a final interview that I prepare for extensively. Post-interview, I realize that I am the only candidate. I am still not offered the job. They decide to re-post for it, and I go into a complete and utter two day meltdown. I pull it together after having texted many friends to whine about it. One of our Atlanta friends takes a long weekend to visit the city and we bring her around to our favorite places. She suggests we come to Atlanta for Thanksgiving. I continue to oversee cabin progress.
October 2025 - I begin another series of interviews, including one for a job I very much want, and would like to start quickly, as they are in need of resources for a large incoming class. The date passes without an offer, and I continue to interview for other roles including one for the State of Tennessee that would have been well-paying, but a grind. In mid-October, I receive a call from the job from the large incoming class company. They had to delay hire due to large incoming class, but want to offer me the job. I accept, with pleasure. We have soffits and fascia replaced on our house. I celebrate my 51st birthday with dinner at Loveless with my BFF and husband. I continue to oversee cabin progress.
November 2025 - I begin at my new company. There is a lot of time until my first class to teach, but I begin learning the process and writing. I am invited to have brunch with some friends/acquaintances from my High School, and it is delightful. We have dinner with our friend from California, and it is great to see her, but also, vegan food is hard to digest. I learn that a sorority sister has died unexpectedly, and I suggest we gather for a reunion. One of my sisters runs with the idea and plans a weekend in Savannah. I prepare for Thanksgiving in Atlanta, including a much more reasonable hotel than my Labor Day selection. We enjoy a Hondurean breakfast with a friend, then Thanksgiving dinner with other friends. We spend the weekend at the cabin. We now have running hot water. We also have leaky pipes, but we sign off on the cabin, regardless. The propane heaters work, but a throttle cable breaks on our four-wheeler, so we use our internet at the cabin to source a replacement from eBay.
December 2025 - I decide that we need some joy for Christmas. I purchase a small cut tree and decorate it with lights in our front room. We also put multi-color icicle lights on our porch. The light helps post-time change. My BFF and I go to a production of White Christmas out in Franklin, and it's excellent. My sister's father-in-law passes unexpectedly of a heart attack while setting up Christmas trees with the Knights of Columbus. He is 84, but I saw him in May and he was in excellent shape. I debate trying to get to his funeral in Virginia, but send condolences and food instead. I find that I am possibly more upset about him than I am the one-year anniversary of my mother's death. His funeral and that anniversary fall on the same day - I work on supporting my sister and her family, and the day passes uneventfully. I decide to take over buying presents for Christmas, opting for toys and gadgets. My husband surprises me with a wallet that matches the bag his sister gave me for my birthday. We eat muffulettas from Goldbelly and enjoy the gifts we gave one another, as well as those sent to us by friends and family. Much of it is food, and we will continue to enjoy it as the days pass. Tomorrow, we will be meeting friends to eat eggplant parm (thanks Goldbelly) and play games into the new year. I have the requisite black-eyed peas and greens planned. It should be winner, winner - lucky dinner. Did we even eat that last year? I think not... mostly because I was toothless. LOL.
In and among all of that were breakfasts with my best friend, trips to Kroger, gassing up my truck, feeding the dog, laundry, dishes, trips to the dump, to the mulching center, to Goodwill. Amazon boxes, cards, letters, and bills. Manicures, doctor visits, Belcourt, Voodoo Gumbo, so much salsa, jelly-making, emptying the shredder, emptying the dehumidifier. Meeting up with friends. Arguments and disagreements. Hurt feelings, conversations. Nice walks and death marches. Sadness, but also so much joy.
My hope is that in 2026, there is more ease. Things work, I work. Less struggle. And more teeth. I need to get this gap filled - my smile is even more crooked than usual.
Look, this year was hard. Maybe the hardest, or maybe not. But it had some high points, filled with people I love.
So much of this last year was settling into "newness". My hope is for 2026 to feel a little like an old slipper. Warm, comfortable - maybe a little smelly, but familiar.
And there are plans. I am going to Savannah to see sorority sisters. We are going to California to see my nephew graduate (and he already has his pick of colleges). We have to figure out the plumbing at the cabin. I want to take a class or two for fun - writing, dance... we'll see.
But that's where we are for now, and I like it. We're good. The dog is amazing spry for a pooch of her advanced age. We're going to work on getting spryer. We did a long walk this weekend that kind of kneecapped me. Not literally, but it was tough. The recent cold snap has me a little stiff, too.
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