Sunday ...

  I didn't do too bad on Charlie's trim yesterday, tho I can see where I need to even it out a little on his right temple.  He's not a huge fan of me and the razor, and I haven't mastered doing his legs and feet.  He can look like a Highland coo when he gets too shaggy.  But at least it will be a little cooler, and less attractive to burrs and weeds, and he can see where he is going before a professional cut in June.

 My recent vacation was life-changing for me.  I realized I've spent a lot of years in self-imposed isolation from family.  Maybe because of how I grew up as a transient military brat, but I never had any close family ties.  We just never lived anywhere close to family for more than a year, so most of my extended family have been ... almost like acquaintances.  My long friendships from school or when I was a child in Germany have been 98% by snail mail, email, or Facebook reconnections.  I never trusted being able to have close friendships because we'd always move.  Or I would have to move.

 Not long ago I turned my spare "bedroom" into a craft room and declared that I didn't like people enough to want anyone to visit me.  But actually, after this vacation, I'm looking forward to more trips with my sisters, trips to see my nephew and his family, and trips to see other friends.  I'm also rethinking my extra room, and how to turn it back into a guest room for friends and family.

 Instead of trying to figure out how to retire as a full-time ex-pat in Germany five years from now, I'm thinking more about making trips within the United States and just visiting Germany once a year.

 I've spent most of my 61 years alone, and really don't want to spend the next 30ish years the same way.  I wasted too many years feeling like (or being told by ex-hubs) I couldn't have friends or family.

 Not anymore.

I'm writing as part of my commitment to the American Cancer Society to write for 30 minutes a day in May.

Click here to go to my fundraiser page.