Tap, tap: Is this thing still on?

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Oh hello! Longtime no see, friend.

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve written here, and I’m currently sitting on the couch, bloated after eating an entire pizza, and thinking, “Maybe I should check in, see how everyone is doing and let them know I’m bloated on pizza.”

So, friends.

How are you?

Me? I’m bloated.

But other than that I’m ok.

I mean, my grandmother died this year.

Any of you who have hung in here with me know I thought the world of that ol’ broad.

A good cry sneaks in every day, particularly when I see a Golden Girls-branded anything (Grandma was my Dorothy) or smell garlic. Shit, pretty much EVERYTHING makes me think of her.
Mothballs (the sweaters in her armoire).
Crumpled tissues (she used to stuff them in her sleeves and drop them everywhere).
Shoulder pads (the woman LOVED them).

Grief is a very, very strange thing. Sometimes you can joke about your loved one being dead and you’re amazed at how well you’re handling everything and then sometimes your remember your grandma is actually dead and it overtakes you. It’s been a weird, challenging year.

I wrote a little about her death here and here.

Oh, I also moved to Colorado and then Pittsburgh, where I currently am. I put in almost ten years in Austin and miss it dearly. Hopefully we will find our way back there (we kept our house), but life took us on an adventure to Pennsyltucky. When I say “we,” I mean Geoff and I. He’s the dude I’ve been dating for eight(!!!) years.

Actually, I’m super digging the Burgh. It’s rich in culture and diversity and history. The city looks like it’s being reclaimed by nature. Crumbling red brick buildings peak out of the lush rolling green hills. Pittsburgh is a combo of old money, tech and blue collar workers. Though the area is pretty hipster, it hasn’t jumped the shark like many cities have, and I’m not sure it ever will. Unlike where we came from–Denver/Boulder, CO–there is socioeconomic diversity here. Colorado is gorgeous, and I’m so thankful for all my nature adventures, but I just didn’t gel with the culture there. (I’m dying to make a joke about how everyone in Colorado is named Chad or Madison and is blond, enjoys skiing and lives for football, but I won’t.)

I think I like Pittsburgh because it reminds me of old Austin. It’s working class artists. It’s a lot of weird people. It has a Jeff Goldblum fest, a Furry fest AND a pickle fest. The other day Geoff ate pizza at a bar and dog sat like human next to him. The town’s main dish is pierogies. They have their own language, yinz! After losing Grandma, I’m also happy to be back on the east coast near family and friends for the first time in 14 years.

Outside of moving my ass all over this country, I’m still a copywriter. I’ve jumped back and forth between freelance and full-time work and am currently back to freelancing. I’ve been a huge slacker on creative projects. I’m trying to launch a podcast called Love Will Tear Us Apart where I tell in-depth stories about iconic relationships. And one day I hope to finish my book proposal about train travel. And write a screenplay about Robert Oppenheimer. But for right now, I’m a bloated slacker sitting on the couch with a former feral cat on her lap.

Have I told you I’ve become an obsessive cat mom? It’s weird how you get a cat and you don’t have children and then you start calling your cat “baby” and ooh and aah over every little movement they make. She’s on Instagram is you like following cat adventures with first-person narration.

That’s it for now. I hope to post more on here. Blogs are kind of out of style, but I’m old and still enjoy CDs anyways.

Love to you all.

(P.S. I’m too lazy to proofread this blog post. I proofread all day and totally slack on my own writing. Please let me know if you see an error anywhere.)