It fiiiiiinally happened:
I caught COVID.
I’m home!
I hadn’t planned on leaving northern California for the rest of my work assignment, but when Yukon got sick and Ryan told me he wouldn’t be able to come spend Christmas in Nevada City with me, I decided to spontaneously book a flight home.
When I say spontaneously, I mean spontaneously. I overpaid for a next-day flight from Sacramento to Phoenix and then promptly checked in for it.
I’m back with a continuation of yesterday’s post!
I recently traveled back to Michigan to attend my college roommate Kendall’s wedding, and I figured I might as well take advantage of the current remote work atmosphere and make a full week-plus out of it.
I also really wanted to show Ryan around Chicago! He’d only been once for a few hours back when he was a teenager, and since I spent a good chunk of my 20s living in Chicago, I wanted to spend a few days showing Ryan some of my favorite places and introducing him to my friends.
So, we did that!
At long-last, my Michigan return!
My college roommate Kendall FINALLY got married after postponing and rescheduling her wedding a million times due to COVID, which means I had an excuse to head back to Michigan to see friends and family — and to drag Ryan around my home state!
I’m not really one for Thanksgiving. The history of the holiday is… eh, kinda icky?
But, FRIENDSGIVING?! I can totally get behind Friendsgiving!
Unfortunately, I’m out sick this holiday weekend (not COVID!) and Ryan is downstate with his family, but I was lucky enough to have most of my close (all fully-vaccinated, mind you) Flagstaff friends over for a Friendsgiving dinner last Friday.
I mentioned that a few weeks ago I started a work assignment on the Tahoe National Forest. While a lot of the world is in a remote work situation due to COVID, a lot of my job has to be conducted on-site and in the field. Which means that I don’t always have the luxury of waking up, making coffee and plugging in to start my workday from home in my pajamas.
While I’m back in Flagstaff for a few weeks, I spent the first three weeks of my new work assignment in the Tahoe area, for a few reasons. Given that I work in land management, I have to actually take some time to familiarize myself with the land itself. It’s really important for me to tour districts and see things like recreation sites, project areas and burn scars. Talking about something you haven’t actually seen is really, really hard. And, since a lot of what I do is photo and video work, I need to be physically located in the area to do that.
I managed to find a long-term Airbnb to book for the rest of my time on the Tahoe (I head back at the end of the month!), but my first few weeks were spent living in a hotel.
Which meant packing was a little unusual.
Well, I’m three weeks into my new temporary gig on the Tahoe National Forest…
…and I’m alive!
I’m also back in Arizona for the next few weeks.
I’m working remotely from Flagstaff until my longer-term rental in California is available, and I wanted to take a second to catch my breath and share a few highlights from my first few weeks on the Tahoe.
Wheeeew. After a bit of a drive (and a stop at Yosemite National Park!) I made it to my new home on the Tahoe National Forest earlier this week!
Well, the last few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind!
Between moving to a new apartment and hosting friends and preparing to relocate for my new work assignment (which, oh hey! By the way! Relocating for a new work assignment — more on that later!) I feel like I’ve been moving nonstop for the last several weeks.
Luckily I had a chance to take a “break” (is it really a “break” if it involves hiking multiple miles?) and check out Yosemite National Park this past weekend.
I only had a few hours to explore, but it was still totally worth it.
I am one more year into my thirties, and I gotta say: I don’t hate it!
