…has been crazy.

Things have been a little quiet around these parts, and there has been so much I’ve wanted to share, but there just hasn’t been any time.

I went to Italy and Spain. It was an amazing and unforgettable experience. My brother and I have been planning to go to Italy for about 10 years now. It all started when we were sitting at a little pizzeria and he looked at the map of Italy on the wall and said “We should go to Italy.” That day we decided that when he was 18 and I was 30, we would go to Italy the summer after his graduation. It felt like the day would never get here but, once it finally did, it lived up to all of my expectations and more! I ate gelato every single day. My diet consisted almost entirely of pizza, pasta and paella. I saw beautiful things and, for the first time, understood the expression “It’s so beautiful it takes your breath away”.

I finally ran a sub 2 hour half marathon. 1:59:05 to be exact. Then I never wrote about it. Mostly because there wasn’t much to say other than it was freaking hard. My recap would have been something like this: The race started and it felt only a little hard. Then it got harder. Then I was sure I would fail. Then I did it, but I was too busy thinking about how hard it felt to really be excited. Then the next day I was even more tired. Then the next day I was happy. And of course now I just want to run one faster.

I got a new job! Actually, this is probably the biggest one because I didn’t just get a new job, I started an entirely new career path. For as long as I can remember, my entire life has revolved around theatre. I decided it was what I wanted to do when I was 10 years old and I never really looked back. In fact, I had only ever had 1 or 2 jobs that were not theatre in my entire life and one of them was public speaking so it hardly even counts. Without going into too much detail (because that would take forever), I had become increasingly unhappy in my field dealing with the politics and administration of education in charter schools, and the overwhelming pressure I put on myself to only put on the best work possible. It didn’t make me happy anymore, and I was working endless hours for practically no money–which was fine when it made me happy, but then it didn’t and I started to feel undervalued and generally unhappy.

I was looking for a new path and exploring what else I could do when a perfect opportunity literally landed in my inbox. I have my first real “grown up” 8-5 job…in an office. It’s weird, and it’s not what I ever imagined myself doing, but I love it! This little blog turned into an opportunity to do social media professionally and work for an amazing company with really great people. Most days I can’t believe that I have been lucky enough to have my life always work out the way it has. Things seem to have fallen into place and I just feel…almost undeserving? But mostly just happy. One day I’ll tell you the story of the time I sang karaoke at work and then realized I finally found a place where I fit perfectly. 🙂

With so much going on, there have been so many occasions to celebrate with friends and family, and I was super lucky that Middle Sister Wines helped furnish some celebrating with some vino!

They have a super cute concept highlighting the way birth order affects personality, and specifically the strong, unique personality of the middle sister. I’m the oldest (and bossiest) in my family, so I don’t know much about the middle sister personalities (I only have brothers and only one on each side, so there’s no middle child), but I do know that they nailed my personality (and my favorite type of wine!!) with the Drama Queen Pinot Grigio. I may have given up a career in theatre, but I am still a theatre nerd to the core, and I will always and forever be the most dramatic drama queen. That part of my personality I have no desire to change.

We opened this baby when we got home from our European vay cay and had our family over to look at the (hundreds of) pictures we took. Vacation is awesome, but after over two weeks away, being home and sleeping in your own bed truly does feel like something to celebrate! The wine was light and crisp, and definitely matched the quirky, middle sister personality. Definitely a bottle I would pick up again–especially since it’s super affordable  at Target, and I got to Target about once a day.

 

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.