Oh hey there….it’s been awhile!

I don’t need reiterate how much of a garbage year 2020 has been, but even at the beginning of the year I needed a break. And a break turned into a few months, and then that turned into nearly a year, and here we are today – many months later, finally back saying hello.

To be honest, the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 (even pre-pandemic), were absolutely crazy, and crushing, and my naive-self was super excited for March when life was settling down a bit (aka, we were well out of the craziness of our Mr. Peanut Super Bowl campaign – hello, Baby Nut!). And then we all know how March went, and then the next few months felt like a year, and then justifiable civil unrest happened, and I just didn’t really feel like my POV on the world is what anyone should be listening to at that time. I wanted to make more space for other, more qualified voices, and also take some time to self-reflect and take care of my own mental sanity a bit.

I focused on seeing friends, navigating dating apps (lol I’d never online dated before – WHAT is going on there…), working my butt off at a new role (still at the same company), and also finding some balance in the crazy work-from-home life. Everyone thinks working from home is GLAMOROUS, but you’re really just rolling out of bed 5 minutes before your first call and REALLY hoping no one makes you go on video at 8AM. I’m finally getting used to it after 8 months – so here’s to hoping I don’t totally lose it before we “maybe” go back in April. 2020 will go down in infamy as the craziest, most chaotic, stressful year of all time – but I’m happy there was definitely some highlights along the way.

Like this wild pup, who quickly became my sweet foster fail – meet Milo! 

I had wanted to adopt a dog for years, and once COIVD hit, dogs became the hottest commodity in all of Chicago. I filled out countless adoption forms over the spring and summer with no luck, and basically gave up. I had been following an animal rescue organization (Mercer Animal Rescue), and one day while I was scrolling through Instagram I found a post with the teeniest, tiniest puppy that they’d just rescued down south who was alone and in need of a foster parent in the next few days. I immediately responded that I’d be interested in taking him (then panic called my boyfriend Ray, asking if I was crazy…), and then by the next day he was coming home with me – all 2.8 cute pounds of him.

He was pretty freaked out the first few hours (after a 9 hour drive up to Chicago), but since then he’s become a loving, best buddy that I can’t imaging living without now. I failed fostering as soon as I saw him (and told the foster people, “what if I want to keep him though?”) and now he’s officially a part of the family. It’s been really nice to have something else to focus on and take care of, and he’s been coming out of his shell, meeting new puppy friends and generally living his best life. I even made him an Instagram since I’ve gone full “crazy dog”/ stage mom on him 🙂 So anyways, that’s the update thus far from 2020. Total firey garbage can, with some puppy snuggles along the way – which is better than not having any puppy snuggles at all.

Hope you’re all hanging in there (I’d say “hope you’re all doing well”, but we all know things aren’t great right now) – and also staying safe and healthy. Wear a mask! Get some puppy snuggles ASAP! And celebrate the little things because we all need more socially distanced celebrations right now <3