Life has been sort of up and down these days.

I turned 29 last week.  I was able to spend parts of it with three of my best friends.  Brunch with Haley, three-hour FaceTime with Bela, and dinner and drinks with Julia.  I am grateful for the people who made me feel special and loved.

But my birthday was also hard this year.  I can't quite put my finger on why.  I am not sad about growing older... I don't see the point in that.  I see each year as a gift, one that is easily taken away in the blink of an eye.  Getting older doesn't worry or scare me.  And since I actually FEEL younger than I did just a few years ago, I really don't let age get to me anymore.

This year I just felt... lonely.  The last twelve months have been a generally lonely time for me, and my birthday just kind of capped that off.  I love Spokane.  I love my friends here, and I love my job.  But I am growing more and more weary of solo living with no family nearby.  I'm beginning to wonder if soon it will be time to make a move to be closer to family.  I have no intentions of going back to Florida, but even just to be a day's drive away would be nice.  I'm not in any rush about it, but I won't be surprised if within the next year or so I am making plans to move.

I've been thinking a lot about the beginning of my time here in Spokane, and why I chose to stay here.  Many of those reasons still hold true, but are not really enough to keep me here forever.  Like I said, I'm not about to make drastic changes tomorrow, but life is certainly moving in that direction I believe.

In other news... only four more days until my Half Iron Man and I am freaking out!!  This week is a major taper.  At this point, I'm not stressing about my time because I feel like I've done all I can do to be ready.  What will be is what will be. Simply making it to the start line is huge for me.  Sixteen weeks of training for this has been one of the hardest things I've ever done.  No matter how things go, I'm still proud of myself and how far I've come.  The miles run, biked, and swam.  Persevering through many difficult days of training... and most of it while working night shift.  So no matter what... I've done as much as I can do and have not given up.