Life Update 10/12/2020

 Hello, it has been nearly 6 years since the last time I wrote a blog post, but have had the urge to do a little writing so thought I would give it a shot again.

So many things have changed since the last time I wrote a post so I figured it would be a good refresh everyone about my life. I figure I could hit the important points from the last 6 or so years.

I met someone! This isn't news to anyone who I have done a good job keeping up with, but I will be honest in admitting that I haven't been all that great at keeping up with people in my life. Something I need to do a much better job of. We have been together over 5 years now. Hannah is a brilliant and kind person, who works as an RN and her patients could not be luckier to have her by their side.

We adopted a cat together a few years back, his name is Albus, to go with Astrid who I had prior to our relationship(see older posts). Albus is the brown and gray tabby, and Astrid is black and white.

They are wonderful company and will even snuggle with each other from time to time. That leads me to the next big life event...

We got married! I figure it will be good to include a picture, professional photos are still being worked on.

While this year has been difficult, there have been some amazingly bright spots as well. We were lucky enough to be able to have an outdoor wedding in the back yard of my now in-laws. We weren't able to have a larger gathering right now as that is just not safe, but we are so lucky to have had the amazing event with direct family and close friends. While it was not our original plan, we are just amazed at what we were able to do, we are also lucky to have been provided an amazing space by the Riggle family. We look forward to being able to throw a larger party once people can gather in large groups safely.

I am glad to get to share the good stories such as our relationship and wedding, but I also wanted to share the less fortunate things. Back in January I got laid off, this is not a post to trash anyone or anything like that, just to state the truth. Unfortunately some 9 months later I have still not been able to find a job, but I am continuing to hustle on that front. Over 80 applications and a dozen interviews, and still working at it. This is not a sob story, I was extremely lucky with how things went down. I got severance pay and we were able to prepare for the long haul while I am on the job hunt. Unfortunately for myself and the greater world the pandemic happened.

I didn't lose my job related to the pandemic, but I do think my struggles to find a job are related to the pandemic. I can't blame everything on the pandemic, I should have hustled more while I was still employed and even earlier on when I had just been laid off. That is purely on me. I think I let the negative feelings from getting laid off cloud my judgement, and I didn't put nearly as many applications out there early on as I should have. I figured with my management experience it would be easier to find a job, I am not all that picky in what I am looking for as far as work goes, I just thought I would like to see what it out in the world other than health insurance.

Well maybe changing roles entirely going into a pandemic isn't the best move overall, but I can't go back and change things right now, just have to keep moving forward. I would love to find a job where I feel like I can make an actual impact to the local community, which my last job was lacking, but I am willing to take almost anything that is offered to me going forward. I said it before and I will say it again, I am lucky as far as losing my job goes, we were able to save over the years, way more than enough to weather this storm. There are nearly 30 million people in this country who are also unemployed, and the odds are they aren't quite as fortunate, so to whomever needs to hear this, you are not alone going through this tough time, and if you need someone to talk to about thee struggles I am here. Also, Congress needs to get off their asses and take care of these people or the economy is really going to tank. I don't care if I get any added benefit from this at all, but every other "developed" nation in the world is taking care of their citizens right now, why on earth can't we do the same?

Wasn't planning on getting political right now, that is for future posts, it just didn't have to be this bad in the country, and especially in Northeast Wisconsin where I live, this all could have been reduced so much, but certain leaders chose not to, and some actively fought safety measures as well.

I guess that is the next topic to cover, what a year we are having huh? We have been mostly just been hunkered down since early March, we have only left the state once in this time, and that was for a very special occasion and was only really for a few hours. I am mostly a homebody so this isn't all that much of an adjustment, but even I miss getting out and spending time with friends, or going to a game store and playing games. To prevent cabin fever, I have been making sure to get out on walks almost every day, going between 4-7 miles daily, which has been nice as the weather has allowed for this, some mornings now I have to wait a while after Hannah leaves for work to go for a walk in a more comfortable temperature.

On the topic of weight loss, which I previously wrote about at length, things have been a bit up and down. I probably reached my highest point in quite a while near the beginning of the pandemic, but that was my own fault for being to sedentary. We have been trying different things with some decent success in the last few months, currently doing intermittent fasting while also trying to keep our added sugar low. It has allowed us to make all kind of cool things this summer that we wouldn't have been able to do if we kept with just slow carb. Just wanted to include a food pictures for everyone to enjoy. First we have Alton Brown's Mr. Crunchy(Croque Monsieur), then home made gnocchi with kale, bacon, and creamy sauce, and finally we have a tuna poke bowl that we both really loved.

All things considered, life is good. I will definitely be writing more about the cooking that we do, as well as all kinds of things like sports, movies, games, and really anything else that inspires me to write.

Until next time! Thanks for stopping by!