The Broads Are Back in Town

The last couple Decembers, I've participated in month-long blogging projects. In 2010, on a more "national" level, and in 2011, on a more "local-and-less-touchy-feely" level. The latter was way better than the former. I loved it. As such, I'm grateful that the Broads-in-Charge (K & K) have put together another opportunity for group-blogging. June will be dedicated the another Reverb Broads challenge.

I'm excited to recommit myself to Warmed the World. I've had quite a run, these last two (!) years...but I've fallen off the wagon in recent months...in more ways that one. In part, I've just been busy with a whole host of major life events. I'm glad to have this wonderful opportunity to get back on the bloggin' wagon and write on a regular basis.

More importantly, however, I'm looking forward to the challenge of recommitting myself to my original goal: celebrating the contributions that brighten our lives. I want to get back to focusing on why certain things or people or ideas or articles or experiences are world-warming. I'm going to strive to "journal" and "wax philosophic" a little less. Not that there's anything wrong with those things...it's just my goal to push myself to do a little more than that. I'm going to recommit myself to thinking about things according to the 5 6 criteria I established early in this blog. I'm going to be a little more intentional and obvious about drawing out these connections.

I don't think I really ever lost the positive tone I've been striving for in this blog. Not too often, anyway. But I do think I got a little lazy in regard to connecting it to the bigger picture...in regard to getting back to my main goals. As such, I'm going to work hard to get back to my blogging roots. I hope you'll hold me to it.

So...here we go...again!

Catching Up

Soooo...

What have you been up to? You know...since last we spoke?

Oh yeah? Really? That's wonderful! Glad to hear it! (or..."Oh no!! You're kidding! Well, I have absolute faith in you and your ability to deal with this situation. Things will be looking up in no time!")

Me?

Oh nothin' much.

Just one or two little things.

Hardly bears mentioning, really. No. Really. It's okay. I don't want to go on and on about it...

...no that's okay...

...really...no...I couldn't bore you with the details...

Well, since you insist:

We bought a house.

Not the house we thought we were going to buy, back when I was prattling on all those months ago. That short sale business exploded into nothingness after 6 months of waiting. Because (after all sorts of dawdling) one of the banks (which had previously agreed to the short sale) came back and told the seller they'd reapprove the short sale...but would reserve the right to come after them for the rest of the money at any point in time. So the sellers withdrew their offer. And the whole thing fell apart. And I cried a lot. And drank a whole bottle of red wine by like 2:00 pm on a Monday.

And then we got our shit together and went out and found another house. We saw the house at like noon on a Friday (not 4 days after losing the other house), made an offer around 7pm that night, and found out we all agreed to the price by like 10:00 am the next morning. In less than 24 hours, we managed to accomplish what we couldn't in the previous 6 months. Craziness. I must have been pretty scarred by the previous experience, because I called my wonderful agent at like 10:00pm that night...while we were waiting to hear if the sellers would accept our "final offer" and said "Did we really like it? I can't even remember what it looked like. It's all happening so fast!" "This is what it's supposed to be like," she reassured me.

And we love it. More than two people could ever love their home. It's magnificent!

And then, just one week later, I defended my dissertation. You know, that stupid thing I'd been bitching about for years? It's done. I'm done. Forever!

And then a week after that, I graduated. It rocked.

And because, you know, all that wasn't really enough, we threw a fundraiser for Minnesotans United for All Families about a week and a half later. Because they were having their big "200 House Parties All Across the State!" thing. And we had to be a part of it! For obvious reasons. We raised about $1,000, and so, so many of our dearest friends were there to support this important cause. It was an awesome day!

We forgot to take pictures of the actual event.

That's about it, I guess.

So...you know...nothin' much new here. Nothing much at all.


Oh, and I just found out that I have a new job. I start June 25th.

But that's it.

I swear.


My world is a beautiful embarrassment of riches right now. I couldn't be more grateful. I feel humbled by the generosity of my friends and family...and the Universe in general.

Life is so, so good.