It’s been a while. Your girl has been busy making moves learning new things getting other things completed and prepping for the next part of life.

I chuckle that I am rebuilding a version of life as 54 waves to me from the very near future. Lots of people at my age are settled into their grooves I just took a little longer.

The new gig is awesome. I wake daily excited to go into the office. I am even excited about the paperwork.

The connections I am making in the city matter. The lives I am impacting will feel the results of my efforts not just today but years from now. I will benefit from this role in ways I did not think were possible at this stage of being me. I am thankful.

October still is what it is, but this year I have other things in place to keep me grounded. I have among other people places and things Andre and whew I don’t know what my life will look like if we ever have to part ways.

My blood pressure is back under control. My blood sugar has gone from firmly in diabetes numbers to no longer there without daily medication. My weight at last weigh in was 236 which I haven’t seen since Baltimore. I still miss a few things that I had to leave behind this spring but I’ve gained so much more.

This is what it feels like to be loved and supported and given space to exist without a side eye. This is what it feels like to wake up everyday and like the person you slept next to. This is what it feels like to love what pays the bills and where it will take you. This is what it feels like to breathe and not concern yourself that you have to shrink to not make the person you love feel less than.

I deserve this life.