Real Simple.

It’s been a while since I’ve written and although I am sorry to leave this small corner of the interwebs that belongs to me empty, I’m not sorry enough to apologize about it. Nothing is worse than a half-ass apology so I’m just going to skip the “I’m sorry you felt that way” and move onto something else. Well…. I’m sorry that I’ve been too busy enjoying my life to write to you, and even more so that I’m sorry I’m not sorry. Darn, I guess I’ve succeeded at the half-ass apology I was trying to avoid.

Anywho, the other day as I was reading a brief memoir in REAL SIMPLE magazine (pause, yes REAL SIMPLE) and had a moment where I saw myself. The writer talked about going back to her first home she shared with her husband and talked about the different things she loved about it, hated about it, and even nearly 40 years later missed about it. Then she called her now ex-husband and tells him where she was and they laugh and chat briefly about their past life together. She then goes on to talk about her journey to learn to love herself and how in the process she left many loves behind. Eventually she goes full circle and even mentions things she would have told her 26 year-old self if she could….well and if her 26 year-old self would have actually listened.

Well, I’m far from a lot of that stuff (ex-husband and all) and I’m sure many of you will agree that no one loves me more than I love me, but those aren’t the parts I saw myself in. I guess it was the retracing of her steps and the feelings that evoked in her. I was recently in San Marcos (le sigh) and had brief encounters with some of my  favorite places from my past life, many of which have changed completely or slowly are beginning to lose the luster they once had. (I literally sat at one of the tables I shared with my girlfriends as ungrads where we seeked comfort before and after exams, breakups, and any other reason we could find) As I rode through town it all came back to me….and I do mean all. A few weeks before that I drove past my first apartment in Austin and had a very similar experience. It’s amazing to think of all the changes I’ve seen in not only myself, but the people and places around me.

It seems to come in waves every 5 years and well chil’ren, we’re reaching that time. Scary, exciting, and essentially the title of the magazine in hand.

~ACG