Let's Recap

Like most of my other departures from this blog, I never really meant to stop blogging (or stop running).  It just happened.  And now here it is 3 ½ years later and I am once again stunned that it has been that long and wondering what the hell happened. 

Only this time, I do know what happened. 
 
Freaking COVID!  Am I Right?! 

Let's recap, shall we: 

When I last posted, we were smack dab in the middle of quarantine.  At the time, my office was open for emergencies only.  The owner and I alternated weeks on call, so I was only working every other week and only a few hours at that.  I had all the time in the world to concentrate on my health and to exercise daily.

And to be perfectly honest, I was flourishing. 

The reprieve from the daily stress of my job had me feeling great.  For the first time in years, I had the energy to do things outside of work and I was taking full advantage.  Unfortunately, that was short lived because once we returned to the office full time my stress level sky rocketed.  Between constant worry about contracting the virus myself and absorbing all of the trauma the virus was causing to others, I was barely hanging on. 
 
It was all too much.  Way too much.  And I ended up drinking.  And eating.  A lot.

Numbing out was the only way I could survive.  Needless to say, my health took a complete nose dive and I ended up back at the bottom of that pit that I swore I wasn't going to ever end up in again. 
 
Fast forward, the world returned to normal, and I began to slowly dig my way out a little bit.  I was feeling better, things were improving, I was starting to concentrate on my health again. 
 
AND WHAM!! 

Life completely and thoroughly punched me in the face and knocked me on my ass.  

In the span of a year I went through a horrible (but much needed) divorce, lost the joint friend group to my ex, lost a close friend to breast cancer, lost another close friend to a move out of the country, sold my house and most of my belongings, scrambled to find a new (much smaller) place to live, rushed to fix up my new home, took on a second job to pay for it all, and dealt with an anxiety ridden dog who was struggling to adapt to all of the changes and completely freaking out (not that I could blame her). 
 
Again.  It was all way too much. 

At first I wasn't eating due to the extreme stress of it all. 

Once the majority of the actual work was behind me and the reality of it all set it, I started eating to numb it all out. 
 
I eventually started to process all of it and am slowly finding myself in a better place.  I finally feel ready to start the long trek back out of the pit.  So, here I am. Back. Again.