Guys, Merry Christmas to ME! After a month of being computerless, I finally bit the bullet and bought a new laptop. I don’t want to get into which kind I got because I don’t want to be all product-placement about it, but I love it, and it’s fast, and I’m keeping it far away from water.

In the meantime, what have I been up to, you ask?  Over Thanksgiving, I went to Tennessee, where my brother’s father-in-law rented a great cabin overlooking the Great Smokies and we ate way too much food (as you’d expect from Thanksgiving) and had (probably too much) moonshine. In fact, the last night there I dreamed a doctor told me I needed to lose 77 pounds. I don’t, but it tells you where my mind was by the end of that weekend.

At Ole Smokey Distillery after an excellent moonshine tasting. Their Shine Nog is dangerous!

Also, nephew-time. ❤

AHHHH I LOVE HIM

Over Christmas, I went to Baltimore again to stay with my BFF and her family. It’s the first time in my life* that I was not the youngest person at Christmas, and it was about time. When you’re 31 and still in everyone’s mental role of baby-of-the-family, you know it’s time to shake things up a bit.

But the biggest project in my life is creating an office for myself. Ideally, I want to be a freelancer or remote employee, and I really can’t do that sitting on my living room sofa. Besides, I have a sewing machine, typewriter, turntable, and knitting supplies (#I’m97) that simply don’t fit in my bedroom. Enter the office. My dad was self-employed and, after he passed away several years ago, we never did anything with his old office. So this month, I’ve been cleaning it out and preparing it for my own creative space.

I thought it would be a lot harder, emotionally, to go through his things, but except for one or two choking-up moments, most of it has been easy. I find myself talking to him a lot. “Really, Dad,” I’ve asked every 7 minutes. “Why did you keep every wall calendar since 1985?” or “Seriously, Dad? What was the purpose of the thirteen rulers in your desk drawer?”

Just one stack of paper recycling from the Great Office Cleanup of ’15.

Before …

… After.

Today I prepare the walls for painting, and when my brother’s home for New Year’s, he’ll help me get the rest of the heavy furniture out of the room. Here’s to making a home space a home base to make travels that much more fulfilling!

* Actually, I think I spent Christmas with my BFF once in college, too, and her younger brothers were there. So maybe the second time in my life. Still.