Nine years later, on September 1st of 2011, I was in a car, traveling from Washington, DC to my boyfriend’s hometown of Buffalo, NY. We spent a long weekend there and I had a terrific time. I met all kinds of wonderful people and saw all kinds of cool places, like…

…the Connecticut Street Armory…

…Delaware Park at sunset…

…and Niagara Falls at night.

Additional photos can be found in my Buffalo photoset on Flickr.

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In unrelated news, I received word the week before my trip that my dear friend Janet lost her baby at 26 weeks into her pregnancy. I had just seen her a few weeks before and we talked extensively about her baby plans. I was devastated to hear about her loss and continue to send love and support her way.

Since my birthday fell during the week, I worked all day like I usually do. I kept saying it didn’t really seem like my birthday until I got out of work and met up with the BF for dinner. Then my day was complete.

However, I did throw myself a party last Saturday night. I had to leave some people off the invite list due to space limitations (I had about 20 people in my 1-bedroom apartment), but it ended up being a good number and I had a terrific time. It takes quite a bit of prep work to pull something like that off — and quite a bit of time to clean up — but I had help from friends which made the task a lot easier. (I even had a security guy come up from the lobby because a neighbor called in a noise complaint. As we all know, a party in an apartment building is not complete without a noise complaint.)

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Birthday Stats

Number of calls received: 2
Number of emails received: 2
Number of texts received: 3
Number of cards received: 5
Number of bouquets of flowers received: 2
Number of messages on my Facebook wall: 84 (clearly Facebook wins)

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This is what I look like at age 31.

If, for instance, I decided to move to a new apartment…my goodness! That could be multiple posts right there (and in the past, it has been). Last November I wrote that the rent for my studio apartment was increasing. Luckily, I decided not to include the follow-up work: exploring various locations, feeling some stress when my lease was about to expire and I didn’t have a new place to live, the moving process itself, and settling into the new space.

My life doesn’t work that way anymore. I no longer feel like writing online as much, so I leave out a lot of the details I used to share. It’s not because I’m too busy — there are plenty of people with much more hectic lives than I have who are able to find the time. I just don’t make the time anymore.

However, sometimes the mood strikes and I feel the need to click the Publish button on a post again. Here are just a few things that have been going on in my life:

So yes, I moved…again

I found a place in southwest DC and moved out of Arlington in mid-December. One of my brothers and my nephew drove up from Richmond to help out, and I also had the assistance of a bunch of local friends who made the moving process happen pretty darn quickly.

I’m living in a 1-bedroom apartment again, instead of a studio. Thank goodness. Although some people are able to thrive in studio apartments, I really like my sleeping area being separate from my living area. I’ve had a number of get-togethers in the past few months (I’ve hosted football-watching, pizza-making, and a bachelorette party for my dear friend Shannon, among other things), and I love it. I’ve never been known as a host in the past, but the change is awesome.

I’m Not SAD (SAD = Seasonal Affective Disorder)

The months of November through February are generally my SADdest times of the year. It happens to a lot of people; I am not out of the ordinary. I have recognized this tendency for years and I accept that I will feel more melancholy during this period of time.

Yet, a funny thing happened recently. A week or two back, I was leaving work after 5pm and it struck me that it wasn’t as dark outside as it had been. Right after that, I realized Spring is hovering just around the corner and I haven’t been nearly as affected by SAD this season. I think it’s pretty cool that I didn’t even think about it this year until I happened to notice the changing of the season.

What made the difference? I like to think there are multiple reasons. Moving to a new location that I adore (even if it is less than 5 miles from my last apartment). Spending more time with friends because of being in closer proximity to them. And also rediscovering a super-cool person in early November who has become a pretty great source of distraction.

I’ll close this post with a photo

My youngest sister is expecting her first child this summer. This photo was taken on Christmas Day, so she’s quite noticeably larger at this point.