10:13 a.m.

Or more like Friday Brain meltdown?

The first week of the new year, after a slow on-vacation/off-vacation holiday. By Jan. 2, I was ready to get back into the swing of life. And it shows, as my to-do list for work on Monday, Jan. 3 was extensive, yet not complicated, so it was easy work to jump on at the beginning of the year.

But no wonder I’m tired by today, Friday. Hormones and the effects of my booster shot are probably playing a part of my lethargy.

Oh, 2022. As usual, folks are setting goals, ideas, hopes, dreams, as most do for the beginning of a year.

Me? Meh. Nothing really matters anymore, really.

I mean, some things do. My work is important. Pursuing creative endeavors is important. Staying healthy is important. Being social is important.

I think that last bit is what I’m struggling with. I essentially moved to PT during the middle of COVID and it’s been a bit hard to make new friends through various groups, as I typically do. And the darkness these days. I noticed (and literally, just this second, as the sun suddenly came out) that merely sunshine alone, shining into my space, drastically changes my attitude.

Moving to California seems like such a great idea right now.

But, I have fun things to look forward to. The first trail race of 2022 is in 8 days – a 25K that I’ve been training for since October, through all the fall and winter rain and snow and blustery-ness.

My birthday is in March, and we’re trying to find some place sunny to hit up that has the least chance of possibly being cancelled. Grand Canyon was on the table but then we saw the average temp was 51 degrees in March, so we nixed that and started looking at places like Cabo – I have the airline miles and an enhanced drivers license (booooo there goes the sun now), and the prices for all-inclusive resorts seem reasonable in March. Which then in turn creates a new goal of getting in a little bit of shipshape for a swimsuit vacation, thus forcing me to clean up my eating habits, which would be so helpful in trying to figure out why I have some sort of congestion in my chest practically daily in the morning – is it the coffee? tea? bread? eggs? yogurt? poor air quality in the house? just eating in the morning in general?

New team at work has been a nice change. Stepping up a bit and helping make changes in our department that my new boss and I would like to see has been refreshing.

Oh, four minutes left.

Creative endeavors this year – working on that book. Food memoir. Research right now, involving interview family members and deciding on different topics to further research, such as the state of fresh food in the late 1970s when I was born, versus when I started the Bremerton Farmers Market, versus today.

Before the holidays, to help me get into the weekly habit of working on my book, we would do “Memoir Monday” in a bar in town – grab a beer, food and write. The problem is that there’s only, like, two places in town where I liked to work and only one of them served food on Mondays. Thankfully, a new place opened up that wants to cater to the locals with cheap eats and laid back atmosphere. I’m antsy to go try it. Interviewed Dad already, need to go through those notes and determine what I need with a follow-up interview. Need to create interview question list for Mom and set a time to interview her.

Tomorrow, the last long run before my race – the 12 mile route on the Chetzemoka Trail around town, something I’ve been wanting to do since I learned about it.

10:28 a.m.