Hello Old Friend, It’s Been A Long Time

In April of 2018, I got the email a lot of us did. Open Diary is back, you can reclaim your old stuff. I was thrilled, but not thrilled enough to do anything about it. Instead, I was focused on writing fanfiction, which I have absolutely fallen in love with. Fast forward to this past spring with all the pandemic craziness, and I found myself struggling with the constant negative news. While listening to a podcast and working from my kitchen table, I took the action to start writing down three things a day that I am thankful for. That small activity has drastically helped my mental health. However, I still didn’t feel like I was documenting life the way I needed to, and taking a hiatus from Facebook made me feel like I wasn’t notating real things in my world. So tonight, I dusted off Open Diary. It’s been a long time, lots of changes, but I’m so thankful they were able to resurrect this platform. Let’s see if I can commit to keeping my online journal?

Since 2008, I found my best friend and married him, Iron Man. We had a dog together (Dusty), but he passed away almost four years ago. I told Iron Man I needed at least 6 months before we got another dog. Well, being friends with the local Human Society on Facebook shortened 6 months to three weeks and we welcomed Little Man into our home. Little Man is about 8 years old now. He’s a little grouchy, loving, old man of a dog. I love him with all my heart and he brings so much joy to our lives. He is really going to struggle when we both return to working in the office and not at our kitchen table.

Three things that brought me joy today:
1. Iron Man and I still aren’t ready to dine inside any restaurants. For lunch, we picked up take out, drove to the park, and ate while we watched the ducks and geese. It was a lovely, breezy afternoon.

2. I made cherry turnovers. The puff pastry was perfectly flakey and eventually, I’ll get the right ratio of filling to close the pastry without the filling oozing out the sides.

3. Dusted off this old thing. So thankful it is still around. Looking forward to writing about all our adventures.