*Titled as such even though I prefer tea because saying “if we were having tea” sounds so high brow for a Midwestern American.

Hello! Happy Sunday afternoon! Life’s been busy and hectic, and post-wedding became pre- and during-Christmas, which then became post-holidays and now I’m finally finding the time to sit down and blog. I’ve read books (a couple that I finished at the end of 2019 went up earlier today) and I even prepared a Seasonal Rewind for Summer and Fall 2019 that is so crammed and unfinished it just…makes me cringe.

So in lieu of the Seasonal Rewind — which I’m thinking of revamping…we’ll see how that’ll look when I post it for the first time in April for Winter 2020 — I’m giving you a quick snapshot update of life pre-/post-wedding and pre-/post-Christmas. Grab your favorite hot beverage and let’s swap updates!

If we were having coffee… I would show you the complete wedding photo gallery so you can see the hundreds of amazing, jaw-dropping shots my photographer took of our wedding! But because the internet is what it is, I’ll redirect you, dear Reader, to my IG page and the photographer’s blog instead. We had some preview shots not long after the wedding, and then as a wonderful Christmas gift we received all the pictures and a lovely golden flashdrive with the hi-res copies. I selected a few here and here to share with the world. And if that’s not enough, you’re welcome to go through the wedding highlight in the profile! All that planning, all that time and energy, was completely worth it. What a wonderful, beautiful, fantastic day we had!

If we were having coffee… I’d tell you how I hit the ground running coming back to work after the wedding, and had very little me-time to process it all, even during the holidays. It was stressful but in the best kind of way. I’m so thankful to have a job that I love. It makes all the crazy ups and downs completely worth it.

If we were having coffee… I would tell you all about my new and severely delayed obsession with Parks & Rec and Ron Swanson. Oh my god, Ron. I love all of the characters, but Ron is truly my spirit animal. He says and does things I wish I could say and do when working with the public, and he’s so strong in his convictions and no one pushes him out of it (well, except maybe Leslie). He exudes the confidence and lack of interest in drama that I wish I could do publicly, bahaha! Instead I smile, keep quiet, and scream inside. *spins in the infinity desk chair*

If we were having coffee… I’d tell you how I’m trying to figure out how I want my social media to look and how to utilize these as tools rather than taking over my life. (A book review to come soon that inspired this.) (Spoiler alert: I went nuts about it on IG.) I want to go back to my hobbies of knitting and scrapbooking (pump the breaks, it’s not that intense — I just stick photos in an album with little captions — but I haven’t put photos into albums since 2016…), yet I claim there’s no time to do those things. But there is. There is time, I’m just scrolling endlessly on social media platforms that don’t always bring me joy. FB is slowly falling by the wayside, Twitter is work-only in promoting clients’ books, and IG was meant to be my escape, but even there it becomes toxic once in a while (for my mental health — they’re actually very calm in their discussions about big issues which I really appreciate!). I do miss the blogging days. I want to make an effort to bring this one back to life, to interact with my friends more on their blogs too, so we’ll see how that goes. Until then…less screen time on my phone, and closing out when I seem to be going down a rabbit hole.

If we were having coffee… I’d tell you about the really cool people I’ve met on IG and overall bookish accounts that I thoroughly enjoy interacting with, namely @justagirlwithabook, @idlewildreads, @theardentbiblio, @thebrunettebookworm, and @bookrepository. Of course there are the usual crew from the blogging and Twitter days, but three I tend to find have the most relatable and discussion-worthy posts and two have really great fantasy recommendations.

If we were having coffee… I’d tell you how there are big, happy changes in the air and I’m really looking forward to 2020 overall — even if my brain is hamster-wheeling at the moment. We’re preparing for our springtime Swiss honeymoon, which is all sorts of exciting and fun to look forward to (and then go on!). My clients are awesome and brilliant, and I hope to find more wonderful work in the year. Honestly, I haven’t been more excited for a fresh slate/year in…ever.

If we were having coffee… I’d pretty much just word-vomit in your general direction all the wild things bouncing around in my head that aren’t emergencies because generally my life is great and I’m happy and content. But at the same time, I’ve always been the kind of person to plan ahead, even though I know that all that planning could be for naught because that’s just how life works. You’re sent curve-balls and bumps and obstacles, and you learn and grow from them. (But I’ll still plan and save and think like crazy.)

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What’s new in your life? Which posts should I check out, here or on another platform, that you’d like to talk about? What would we chat about if we were having coffee?