And This Old World, is a New World, and a Bold World for Me, Yeah Yeah

Well kids, it's a new year. Intellectually I know that December 31st 2022 isn't really any different than January 1st 2023, but I really don't see anything wrong with portioning out a year, and then going back and reviewing things, and seeing what worked, what didn't, and what I learned from all of  the shit. Like most years, 2022 was a mixed bag. It ended pretty well but I had to deal with some crap for a while there.

I always try to start a year out by playing outside when I can. So, for 2023, I did a two mile run, and was able to obtain my beloved runner's high. It was how I'd like the rest of my year to go - playing outside and getting endorphin rushes as much as possible.

We ended 2022 in  mellow tone. On New Year's Eve I did my first indoor bike trainer work-out, and picked a show that I can only watch while I'm on the bike trainer, so if I love the show, I will do many more work-outs. In 2018, when I picked "Game of Thrones", I got into incredible shape. John told me that I should start sprinting on the bike any time they showed boobs, but I told him I would be dead at the end of almost any episode. 

Anyway, this year I chose "Yellowstone". My brother told me it was a soap opera, but I don't care. If it's fun and the scenery is beautiful, even if I don't love Kevin Costner, I'll hopefully be engaged and want to do tons of bike trainer work-outs just to watch it. As you can already guess, I'm not the biggest fan of working out indoors, but I live in Iowa, so what's a girl to do?

We thought about going to the Dublin Underground for Irish New Year, which takes place at 6 o'clock Iowa time and is PERFECT for old people like me and John, but John was worried that it might be a super spreader event on account of how crowded it gets, and my meds supposedly lower my immune system, so we stayed home. 

I bought a bottle of non-alcoholic cosmo mocktail stuff and we played Scrabble and watched the latest Knives Out/Glass Onion movie. It was actually perfect, AND I didn't have a hang-over and hopefully not Covid either the next day.

So, as you probably already guessed, this is my year in review post for 2022. I turned 57 years old in July. My birthday was super mellow, but also really nice. John and I did a gravel ride to The Amanas and met the girls and one of their boyfriends and had food truck food and sat in a beer garden. Friends, family, bike rides, beer, and food truck pizza. What's not to like?

Trips we took:

At the end of January, John and I drove down to Bentonville, Arkansas to watch Cyclocross Worlds in person and try to do some mountain biking. It was great to be in 60 degree temps in January, but I had a bad cold and couldn't really ride as much on the mountain bike trails as I wanted.

In May The Oldest turned thirty. For her birthday, she wanted the whole family to road trip down to New Orleans together. It was such a wonderful trip. We all split the costs and took turns paying for meals, and it wasn't horribly expensive for any of us. I visited three new states for the first time: Tennesse, Mississippi, and Louisiana. I went to two museums for the first time: The Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, and the World War II Museum in New Orleans. They are both amazing, and I hope you all get a chance to check them out. I sipped on a hurricane and wandered around the French Quarter, I accidentally bought a sculpture of an orgy at the French Market, and we got to dance to a free show of Tuba Skinny. Most importantly, I was lucky enough to share all of these experiences with my family.

For John's birthday in September, he wanted to go back to Moab and ride bikes and hike. My brother came with us. It was an interesting trip in some ways, because it was only a month after my hyperthyroid/Grave's Disease diagnosis, and I wasn't supposed to get my heart rate up. The weather was perfect on this trip. I think we saw at LEAST 10 or twelve new Arches, we rode our bikes into Arches National Park, and went to Dead Horse Point State Park.

If you've read this blog for any amount of time, you know that as I age, I like to try new things. I know a lot of people who get so depressed and bored, and can't seem to get excited about anything as they get older, and I prefer to remain a spaz, and find new things to get excited about as I age. So, here are some of the things I did for the first time in 2022:

1.) I went on a ghost, vampire and voodoo tour in New Orleans on Friday the 13th. I passed out right in front of LaLaurie Mansion at the end of the tour. The Oldest's boyfriend was sure I was somehow possessed with some kind of evil spirits from the house. I think it might have just been a migraine. It was so very dramatic, and I was pretty embarrassed, but it sure makes for a good story. Maybe the evil spirits that supposedly inhabited me left behind the Grave's Disease while they were in there as some kind of parting gift?

2.) I got to ride my bike to dinosaur tracks in Moab for the first time. It was all very Jurassic Park, without all the blood and gore.

3.) I did a low level white water rafting trip. Because I had no idea what anything meant when I booked it, the trip was way more mellow than I imagined it would be. It was supposed to rain that day, so everyone else canceled, and it was just John and myself and the guide, and we had a great talk, and got to float past Kevin Costner's latest movie set. Again with the Kevin Costner...

4.) As I mentioned before, I got a lifelong disease for the first time. I'm hoping my breast cancer doesn't come back, so I'm not counting that as a lifelong disease. This was not a fun thing to get me excited about aging, but it is a thing that will affect my aging, so I'm listing it anyway. At the end of July I noticed that any bike ride I did, I was twice as hot, and would get super tired and dizzy when I went up a hill or exerted myself even the tiniest bit, I also lost ten pounds in about 2 weeks, and I had really bad dry eye (which I've had on and off for years, but hadn't had in a while). My doctor is amazing and astute and decided to do a TSH and Free T4 test. My TSH was .001 which is almost non-existent. I then had to do an antibody test, and ate irradiated iodine and did a scan to see if I had any hot nodes (it sounds way sexier than it is). I tested positive for Graves disease, and negative for any kind of cancer. I started taking meds in September, and it takes about 4 to 6 weeks to really make a difference. There are also some really stupid side effects, like weight gain, which is annoying, and for me, they gave me a dull migraine almost every day for a couple of months, and if I even had ONE beer, that migraine would turn blinding, and I couldn't function. So, I started getting into checking out non-alcoholic beers, and making fun mocktails. The headaches seem to be calming down now, thank jeebus, but I'm still just limiting my drinking. I'll still have a beer or a margarita here and there, but it's been more like once a week or two, instead a few times a week. Who said there was anything wrong with moderation?

 

 

 

I didn't get to run or ride as much as I usually do in 2022, but we did manage to go on some fun rides with friends, and eat and drink somewhere during those rides. I feel very lucky to have the friends we do, and I never take that for granted.

 

 

Another thing I try never to take for granted, is the fact that my husband is so damn supportive of all my hair brained schemes. I'm sure half the time he feels like he's married to Lucille Ball. When I told him I wanted to turn our entire front yard into a garden a few years ago, he said, "How can I help?'. When I told him I wanted to paint our front door a ridiculously bright blue, he said, "That sounds great." This year, even before we stayed in the Bywater in New Orleans and saw all the amazing art work on every house, I asked John if he was okay with me painting anabstract pollinator mural on the alley side of our garage. Had I painted a mural before? Of course not. Did I have any idea what I was doing? Hell no! But John said, "I trust you, and I can't wait to see it." 

I didn't get it finished before it got too cold to paint outside. I still have to shade the brown-eyed Susans, and put some more grass and stuff on the bottom and draw and paint the bees and the butterflies, but I got a good start to it. I hope to finish it next year. Wish me luck!

As I've mentioned before, we live in a cottage that was built in 1950. We don't have tons of money or time, so we fix it up in fits and starts. Last year with tons of help from my brother, we renovated our one, small, bathroom. In 2022, we worked on the living room. We always say that best thing you can do to make your house look better, is to get rid of half the shit in it and clean the hell out of it. Which is what we did in our living room. We also saved up for 12 years to buy a new period to the house appropriate couch, love seat, swivel chair, ottoman, coffee table, and side table. The cats got a new condo too, and we found that entertainment center at the Habitat for Humanity store for $38 dollars that I will finish restoring when it gets warm enough to take outside, sand it down and refinish it. We still need to refinish the hardwood floors, but that is a project for another time.

 So, yeah. 2022 was another challenging year. The climate is still changing for the worse, the Pandemic hasn't gone away yet, and there are still way too many people willing to hurt other people for money. I'm always curious to see what a new year brings, and if it's bad, I just plan on gardening while the world burns. I just hope it's better...For everyone, and every species.