2019: Highlights and Holidays

In my last post, I said that 2019 was the worst year of the decade. I still stand by that, but there were some good sides to it, or "growth opportunities" as they might say in the therapy books. Here is a short list of what I am grateful for in 2019:

New friends! 
The Girls Scouts have a little song:

Make new friends

Keep the old

One is silver

And the other is gold

I have been very fortunate to have made new friends through this adventure in the Boy going to Wilderness therapy and boarding school. I have three "Sister Mamas" who had sons in the same Wilderness program as the Boy. I am meeting new people through my health club, walking the dog downtown and Al-Anon.

Old friends!
Some of my old friends became even better friends. The best surprise was reconnecting with one of my college sorority sisters through a Facebook group for my son's Wilderness therapy program. Both our boys were in the same Wilderness program a few months apart.

Jigsaw Puzzles & My Dad
I got my Dad a Liberty puzzle for Father's Day, and now he is addicted to them like crack/cocaine, but of course wooden puzzles are not as bad for you as crack/cocaine. My dad used to buy remote control airplanes for a hobby. Now he buys these awesome puzzles instead. The best part--I can do them when I visit him in Ohio. Win-win.

Durango, Kalispell and Whitefish
My idea of a vacation is going into the wild (like Mt. Rainier) or hitting a big city: New York, London, Paris, Chicago. Without Wilderness therapy and boarding school, I would have had no reason to visit small towns like Kalispell or Whitefish, Montana, or Durango, Colorado. Now I have been to all three of these places in flyover country, and they are lovely. I am going to have to start digging into cool small towns to visit.

Our week in Whitefish over Christmas was cold, dark and quiet. After all I have been through this year, I am learning to appreciate the beauty in things that I might otherwise have considered unappealing. When I came back to the city after being in almost silent Montana, I noticed the constant level of low grade racket in my environment. Ditto light pollution. Cold weather meant a white Christmas and six inches of fresh powder on our first day skiing.

View on Christmas Eve from the back of the townhouse we rented.

The Boy
I saw him in Montana last week, and he is doing so much better. So, so, sooooo much better. While I miss him terribly, my gratitude for his better mental health exceeds any amount that I miss him. He was in such an emotionally fragile spot earlier this year, I don't think he would have survived without this level of a major intervention.

Claire-Adele
She is a rock star. She has a government internship this winter and I am giving (lending?) her the briefcase I bought when I ran for School Board. I am not using it. While I love this bag, it is way too formal for me to bring to work. This bag deserves to be out and about instead of sitting in my closet. May it serve her well.

Baking
Seeing the kids meant I got to bake. Hello again, muffins and scones!