Not sure blogging is part of "adulting," but I used to be better at that, too.
Here's your 2017 digest:
1) My dad got a new heart valve in February, in Charleston.
Charleston's a beautiful old city, and it's got MUSC. If you need heart surgery: MUSC.
I cannot recommend this hospital enough. My dad's surgery went perfectly, and we, as his family, were taken care of wonderfully.
So again, I say: MUSC.
2) I finally went to Las Vegas in March for the FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE.
I like it so much, I went back in September.
I had two completely different Sin City experiences.
One was spent with a friend who lived there, so we spent a day on the Strip a day at the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam and with the Joshua trees, and I got to eat real, REAL ramen and really spicy Indian curry.
I had a Guinness poured in the Guinness Store. I drank vodka sours with my friend at her home while making friends with her beagle and talking about what her new life in Alaska would look like.
It was a perfect weekend.
Later, I joined lifelong BFF Jess for a Labor Day weekend tearin' up the town from our Luxor Hotel headquarters, and we each walked more than a marathon that weekend.
I think my feet still haven't forgiven me.
3) My brother married an amazing woman in an amazingly beautiful October ceremony in Washington, D.C., on my parents' 45th anniversary.
Unfortunately, Dad was busy trying to not die from a bacterial blood infection, and Mom was busy trying to not let Shepherd of the Valley kill him with negligence, and neither of them was able to be at their son's wedding.
It was a beautiful, bittersweet day, and I had to have all of my makeup reapplied right after it had been applied the first time.
Because tears.
4) I got to play hostess to friends who were in the area for various reasons, including Fuzzy, to whom I introduced to Devil's Tower and Mount Rushmore one cold, foggy fall day; and my former city editor, Andre, who was passing through town with his daughter en route to Washington from New York. I almost stowed away in their truck, just to go back to Longview. Alas ...
5) I went on my first cave excursion when Amber took me to the Lewis and Clark caverns in Montana.
Caves and vertigo are a terrible combination.
Shortly after, I asked to be taken off my vertigo-inducing medication, and life's been ... less spinny ... since.
6) Tinder.
Inspired by conversations with Amber, I kicked off my summer with my first-ever Tinder date.
With a pilot.
Who took me on a sunset flight over the Bighorns.
It turned out to be a platonic relationship, but we stay in touch, and I went on to have several other Tinder-matched adventures — some OK, some not so OK, and one in which I got stood up in another town.
For really-reals.
I recently deleted Tinder. I'm not sure swiping people into and out of my life in a split-second decision is the best idea.
I'm also not sure the Tinder-is-for-hookups environment is one in which I want to try forging relationships.
So.
