Update - 4/24/24: This was initially posted just after my birthday back in January. Since moving this blog from WordPress to Substack to Ghost (if you noticed anything off last week, please let me know!)—I'm updating and reposting pieces I find evergreen. So despite references to it being January, there are some points here I still want to make today. Look for additional scattered notes below.

Welcome back to ILHYT!

That was directed at me as much as you. I’ve been…derelict in my blogging recently, I know. All I can do is offer up a sincere apology and promise to be better going forward. I’d like to start with a quick rundown of 2024 thus far.

(Ed. note: At least I've been less derelict since starting weekly posts last month!)

Frankly, It’s more about the last week, seeing as how it was my birthday week and therefore I was culturally impelled to do some serious navel gazing and self-reassessing.

Just kidding, you ought to know by now that I don’t generally fall into those sorts of culturally-defined habits. It’s taken me years to break them, but I’m happy to say that at 47 I can finally see most of them coming and swerve myself out of the way, without going off the road completely.

OK, less aimless rambling, more blogging.

I just turned 47.

And, as I had made the reservation long before being laid off in October, I spent the week up at my happy place, Whistler, B.C. Just me and Rufus sharing a condo in Village North, a short walk from everything the village has to offer yet set back in the woods and quite peaceful as long as you ignore the noise from Hwy 99, the Sea to Sky Highway, that runs just on the other side of said woods.

Rufus, aka Dingus, learns that snow will not, in fact, hurt him.

My initial title for this piece was “In Search of Calm, I Found Dog Pee.” Since just off the edge of the patio there were 5 areas of yellow snow when we got there.

Since the layoff, I’ve been struggling a bit. Not financially, mind you. Between the severance and state unemployment benefits, I’ll be OK for several more months. Rather it’s been a struggle to maintain all the great work I did with my therapist last year, before she retired a month before the layoff.

(Ed. Note: Still struggling, just handling it more OK than I was in January.)

I was hoping this trip would provide me with three things: a chance to reset up in the clean mountain air (Whistler regularly has an Air Quality Index score of 1), a chance to get some edits done on my novel, and a chance to get back on skis after 4 seasons off. And all that with my sister and brother-in-law staying two buildings away.

Is it any wonder I love it up at Whistler?

I finished a round of revisions on the novel and got two good days on the hill with my sister (including having her film me as I haven’t seen myself ski in…decades). As for the reset…sigh.

I found it difficult to fully settle into being on vacation without constantly falling into an internal monologue about what I “should” be doing to find more freelance work, or how I “should” have tweaked my resume more for that last application I sent off, or…you get the picture.

(Ed. Note: Yep, still having that difficulty back at home.)

The week was absolutely a success despite this. If anything, it highlighted a few things I’ll be working on as January progresses and I find my 2024 feet. First, meditating has fallen to the side so I’m going to bring a regular daily practice back into the spotlight. (Ed. Note: Nope, that hasn't worked. Every week...ish, but not daily yet) Second, I’m going to be more present here at ILHYT. (Ed. Note: See above comment about weekly posts since last month, go me!) I’ve been stuck in a special version of Analysis Paralysis when it comes to writing here, one where I spend so much energy planning posts, doing research, and debating which title is more appropriate…that I never, you know, post anydamnthing. So the takeaway is:

Less thinking about blogging.

More blogging.

Moving on to the weekend still in progress. I spent my actual birthday driving down from Whistler back to Seattle. With the recent weather happenings, the road was…messy. Snow, slush, ice, and what I now know is called Snirt (that icky mix of snow and dirt that litters…everything starting a day after a snowstorm rolls through) covered the road from Whistler all the way to the border. Then in Bellingham, southbound I-5 was closed. Not like ‘roadwork closed a lane’ closed, like ‘you’re getting off the freeway here, good luck’ closed.

Needless to say by the time I reached home I was knackered. Happy birthday to me…

Yesterday started with a Zoom meetup of folks from Micro.blog who are fans of analog tools. One need only look at my collection of currently inked fountain pens and multiple stacks of notebooks to understand why I was excited about this discussion. And the group did not disappoint.

Aside from getting to meet and chat with the man I credit for getting me into all things analog, not to mention introducing me to Micro.blog in the first place, Patrick Rhone; I also got to hear about everyone’s current favorite analog writing tool. A personal highlight was the frank discussion with one person who wants to be into analog tools but asked for assistance as he continually finds himself back on the computer instead.

(Ed. Note: That group is still going strong with monthly gatherings. Last week we had a member in the Basque Region of Spain and one in Scotland joining the rest of us on the West Coast.)

Finally, today started with a quick dash through the farmer’s market to restock my eggs and meat supply, and now I’m comfortably settled in on the couch for a slow day of watching it rain and getting some reading done. As soon as I finish and post this, that is.

(Ed. Note: Ironically, as I edit this I also spent this morning at the farmer's market. But this time it was followed by schlepping my sister and brother-in-law around since they have a flat tire and can't drive on the freeway until tomorrow.)

The condo had a lovely couch...

What’s next for I Like How You Think?

A final word of the housekeeping nature. I know I’ve been absent more often than not, and for that, I apologize once again. The posts I’ve been overthinking are still in the works but will be spaced out between more posts like today’s—general updates and musings on all things…mundane.

I find the mundane quite beautiful and would love to share more of those thoughts and ramblings here.

Now I’m off for a tea refill then it’s into a good book with me. I hope you’re all having a wonderful January.

(Ed. Note: Most of that is still true.)

(Final Ed note: one more apology is needed, this time for the completely unintentional Alanis Morissette reference in the intro.)