Year of Contrasts

2025 has been a year. It's the first year since James and I got married that he has just not worked at all. It's been stressful.

But this morning, Google Photos showcased an album called "Same Me, Different Places." 

Honestly, it's a great reminder that even when things are rough, they're also magically wonderful.

Care to take a walk down Memory Lane with me?

Here's the picture:

Left to right, top to bottom we go.

1st picture is in Lago Vista after I'd had my pupils dilated. That's why I have a pair of sunglasses on top of my glasses (I hadn't put my contacts in that morning because I knew I was going to have to take them right out at the eye doctor's).

2nd is in front of the Buddha Burger food truck in Austin. James and I splurged and went there one Wednesday when Mal was in school. We got a burger that has grilled cheese sandwiches as buns. Holy smokes.

3rd is Mal and me at Elisha's Food for the Soul in Marshall, Texas. We just happened to see it on a map on our way to Louisiana, and I had the best pork chop I've ever eaten in my life. The restaurant looks like it used to be a church? The building had that structure, for sure, but it also had worship services playing and religious iconography everywhere. Super glad we lucked into that stop. 

4th is the three of us in front of the Louisiana Children's Museum in New Orleans. We got soaking wet that day, dried off, got soaked again, and generally had a terrific time.

5th is me outside of Acadiana PoBoys in Lafayette, Louisiana, on our drive home from the week in NOLA.

6th is Mal and me at the Blue Bonnet Cafe in Marble Falls. We drove over for a mystery shop I had and that ended up being a fiasco. I was supposed to spend some money and have it immediately refunded, but instead I spent 3 months running down the last $45 they hadn't refunded and it was the beginning of the end for my trying to restart mystery shopping (I just quit; it doesn't pay enough to be worth it anymore). But we had some great pie at the cafe, and that made the trip worth it! (Plus I eventually got paid + reimbursed.)

7th picture is at home with Rudy trying to get way too comfortable with me.

8th is Mal and me, this time visibly soaked, after we got rained on while Mal and a friend were playing at The Quarry Splash Pad in the Southwest Regional Williamson County Park. 

9th is Mal and me (we spend a lot of time together!) in Houston, waiting for the Lyft to take us to Mal's first Weird Al concert! (My 6th.)

10th is me at lunch in the Windjammer Cafe aboard Harmony of the Seas, after Mal and I had gone ashore to Coxen Hole, Roatan, Honduras.

11th is the same ship, this time Central Park, walking in the rain after a brief venture into Cozumel, Quintana Roo, Mexico.

12th is me with my parents and Mal as a day visit to Temple was wrapping up.

Stress about money, jobs, and the future aside... it's been a pretty terrific year! And I guess it'll be an adventure to see what 2026 brings, too.