Life is good good good; make that great.

What can I say? Twenty months of stability (my last scans were remarkably stable) and it’s starting to feel like a new normal. Dangerous perhaps, this recently acquired ability to relax. Come June I am moving into a different loft and I will be signing a THREE YEAR LEASE. Just words, I know, but heady ones for a girl who has spent the last eleven years imagining the future in three month increments, the time between scans!

I have been in survival mode for a long, long time but I’m starting to switch things up a bit—moving from survive to thrive. I’ve been hitting the art hard—most days I start painting around two or three in the afternoon and go until the light fades. And I’ve been pulling together The House of Redemption, my vintage clothing venture. The best part is neither of these things feels like work anymore—rather like purposeful play.

Self improvement is a central theme for me as of late. Apple is phasing out their one to one program but my subscription is good for another eight months and I’m using the heck out of it. I’ve been limping along on my computer for far too long now—really underutilizing so many of its functions. And then there are my sloppy personal habits, like the 33,000 (really) unopened emails—those have got to go.

Happy picture for a happy post: my cute and colorful college bound kid.

I’m trying to get a grip on my finances, now that I’ve got some personal assets again post divorce. Last week I opened up a money market account and met with a free financial advisor at the bank—there is so much I don’t know but I am eager to learn. Peter’s got all his college applications in and I’ve spent the last two days working on his College Board financial aid applications and in the process have made a lot of headway on my tax return for 2015—something I have not done alone since I was married almost twenty five years ago.

Of course, I continue to exercise (walking, and soon yoga as well) and I am hoping that this is the year that I really become an inspired cook. I’m reading and writing a lot in in my free time (!) and learning how to play mahjong, japanese style, thanks to Koichiro and Machiko. Supposedly it helps with cognition so I am having fun but also exercising my brain.

The only thing missing is travel plans. I want to visit friends and family but also spend some time getting to know those people and parts of our planet that I am currently unacquainted with. Iceland, here I come!