Oh, irony.

It seems, since I haven't posted in a solid two months, that the name of this blog is apt.

Life has been hectic. No, hectic isn't even the word. Life has been insanely chaotic, at times in a good way and at other times in a suffocating kind of way.

There's been work, of course, eating up the minutes and hours every day from 9 to 5 and a good chunk of the time in between. There's been the wedding planning - oh, the wedding planning. Exciting and invigorating one second, stressful and debilitating the next. The good news is most major details have been ironed out (not without many, many arguments, mind you). The bad news is it's still five and a half months away, so there is plenty of time for more of those migraine-inducing aforementioned arguments. There's been heartache in a multitude of forms - the breaking up of loved ones' relationships and the plain old breaking up of loved ones. And in a totally unselfish way, there's been such extreme devastation and death with natural disasters, and just so many horrible stories in the news that jade your sense of humanity in the world.

That whole roller coaster analogy would fit in really well right about now, but the thing is, I've never liked roller coasters. All that screaming and stomach-dropping and idea that death could take you out at every dip and bend - not my sort of thing. So life, as of late? Not my sort of thing, either.

In any case, there's hope on the horizon. For one thing, spring is on its way. The snow (oh gosh, I didn't even mention the feet upon feet of paralyzing snow, did I?) has melted, the temperatures are rising and - very soon - there will be tulips and daffodils popping out of the ground and adding a bit of color to the landscape. I was even able to take Piper for a walk yesterday without a jacket. (It may have been a bit too soon for that, actually, but the sentiment was nice.)

Now, there's been lots of good stuff the past couple of months, too, and I'm certainly not one to drown in my sorrows. It's been hard - incredibly so sometimes - to be happy, but being happy always beats being sad, so I've been okay.

Oh, and the good things? I won two New Jersey Press Association awards - a first place in environmental writing and a third place in column writing. That's a state-wide award with a near-thousand entries per category for our division, so I was pretty happy about that. I've been cooking more and eating healthier. (I need to get back to the gym, but I was going regularly for quite a while in there, too.)

John and I are officially looking for a house, which is bittersweet for me, really. I can't wait to live with John and to marry him and to enjoy all of the benefits that come with that. I've also lived with Ryan for the past two years (and off and on through college before that), so it's going to be sad without her. It's amazing how well we get along. My friend Shanon always remarks that it astounds her two roommates could fight as little as Ryan and I do. In fact, you could barely call it fighting - if one of us gets annoyed or upset with the other, we typically remove ourselves from the situation and cool off and let it go. We don't hold grudges and - when the situation calls for it - we address the problem and talk it through... but rarely do we need to use all of these tactics, because rarely do we get upset with each other. It's going to be sad to lose someone like that in my every day life, but it will be so wonderful to gain someone like John. So, yeah ... bittersweet.

Anyway, life has been tumultuous, and I imagine it will continue to be so. There are so many wonderful things to look forward to (first house, wedding, school, new job), so all I have to do is keep that in mind. And I'm going to post on here more often, too. I really do love blogging. It's a way to unwind for me, and I certainly need that.