This is the kind of friend I haven’t seen in years, even though we now live mere blocks apart. This is the kind of friend who fizzled out of my life for really no good reason (or none that I can remember now). This is the kind of friend that, despite the distance, I continued to think so very fondly of over the years. This is the kind of friend whom, when she suddenly reappeared, brought a huge smile to my face and a sense of warmth around me.

Earlier this week, we finally got together again. While we indulged in extra fresh sushi and splashes of Prosecco (nectar of the Italian gods), we caught up on our relationships, jobs, travels, health and life. I was reminded how beautiful this friend is. She has stunningly smooth, pink skin and is one of the few women I know who can rock out a pixie haircut.

But, it’s her internal beauty that stood out. At one point, she was describing the reason why she left her old interior design job is because she wasn’t able to combine bright colors and textures; she was being denied her artistic voice. Just talking to her for a few hours … it was like I saw those colors and textures come to life through her voice.

It was during this dinner I was so thankful for the kind of friend she is. The kind of friend who, after years apart, can come back into my life and pick up where we left off. No questioning the whys of yesterday. No uncomfortable silences today. Just a genuine warmth that reminds me why I am so fond of her place in my life.

We spent some time that next weekend filling out a budget. Breaking out our expenses line by line. Things like housing. Utilities. Transportation. Groceries. School debt. Insurance. Credit card payments. Gym memberships. Dining out. And so on. By the end of that exercise, we realized we weren’t in as bad of a position as I had originally thought (yes, I always expect the worst and am surprised at the best).

Earlier this week, we had a follow-up conversation with our financial planner, who had reviewed our goals, our financial situation and our monthly expenses. I was ready for the bad news. I was ready for him to tell us we can no longer buy clothes. That we have to get rid of our data plans on our phones. That we have to choose HBO or Showtime, but cannot have both. That we have to cut down our grocery shopping costs, even though we’ve already slashed them recently. Essentially, I was expecting our lives to dramatically change.

The reality is, it’s not that bad. If we want to continue living the same quality of life when we retire as we have today and we were to continue saving the way we currently save, we’d have two-thirds the amount we need to retire when we’re ready to start pulling that money out. The bad news is we need to start saving more; the good news is it’s totally doable. Well within our capabilities and means.

How do we do it? Well, we need to make some changes. But, the changes aren’t as dramatic as I expected. I need more life insurance, which at our age still doesn’t cost all that much. Sweets needs to re-balance his investment plan at work. We need to change our tax deductions from our paychecks. We need to look into refinancing our mortgage. We need to pay down some debt. And we need to take some of that freed-up cash to start putting more dollars away each year.

The important thing is it feels manageable. Our financial planner thinks we’re in a pretty good place and don’t need to make a dramatic overhaul of our lives. The key for us, right now, is shifting things around so we can access more of our money. Which means, the ball is in our court. Yes, our financial planner has plenty of great advice for us, but only we can refinance our house, change paperwork with our employers, fill out and sign paperwork so we can consolidate some accounts and so on.

It’s a big fat pain in the butt to have all this extracurricular homework hanging over our heads. But, we see the light at the end of the tunnel. And it looks bright.

What about you? Maybe you’ve been meaning to call that mortgage broker to start talking in detail about a loan for a new home. Maybe you’ve got a bunch of different, small investment accounts that you’ve been meaning to consolidate. Maybe you’ve been meaning to look into life insurance. Maybe you need to consolidate debt and haven’t yet started investigating your options. Or maybe you’ve been meaning to find a financial planner and have been too skittish to take that next step.

Whatever your needs and goals, from the comments in my last post on the subject, it sounds like we all want to do something next. Does anyone want to join us in taking a step (or many) towards that next financial goal? How many of you think you can take that next step before the end of the month?

I started my weekend off with my first training run for this 10-mile race I will be completing in May. I wanted to bring SoMi for part of it, but knew she’d be exhausted from her first week of running (she’d already run a total of 6 miles that week). So, I brought her on a short 2-mile loop, dropped her off at home and finished the next 3 miles on my own. It was the perfect start to the weekend.

I wore comfy yoga pants and a warm fleece vest for the 2½ hour car ride from Chicago to Madison, thinking I’d change once I got there. Instead, my girlfriends and I immediately walked out the door and up the street to the Great Dane Pub. Apparently this place is a landmark, so we had some microbrews (of which there are plenty in the area) and downed some greasy pub food for lunch.

Walking down State Street, the main pedestrian thoroughfare in Madison, we window browsed at hippy-dippy tie-dyed, patchouli-smelling shops to high-end, overpriced cute little boutiques better situated in trendy Chicago. And then it was off to the Botanical Gardens, where we saw a small flower show, learned about where chocolate comes from (no samples, though, boo!) and walked through the snow-covered gardens.

It wasn’t until we were talking about our evening plans that I finally snuck away to change into the proper clothes I intended to wear that day (jeans and a sweater, perfect for Madcity). That  night, we tried to go to the Roller Derby. Only, they were SOLD OUT. It was crazy how many people were already in the parking lot when we arrived. Thankfully, Chicago has their own team, so I’ll have to check them out here at home. Instead, we went out for drinks, out for dinner and out for more drinks (while I pretended not to watch UNC get their asses handed to them by Duke).

Sunday, we finished our visit with a 4-mile walk. Along the way, we stopped off at Lazy Jane’s for breakfast. Only, there was nowhere to sit and we didn’t want to wait. So, we continued on our walk and wound up at Eldorado, where we not only were seated immediately, but we were seated next to the visiting roller derby team. One of the girls had a beat-up eye where the white part was bloody. Clearly, we missed a crazy night.

But, that’s ok. Our night (and whole visit) consisted of catching up on years of history. Recent break-ups and exciting new relationships. Walks down memory lane of our joint trip to Spain too many years ago. Discussions of travels recently completed and soon to be had. Conversations about work-life balance. And debates about life in the way you only can with friends whom share your history. Friends who don’t need to be filled in. Friends who just know. Because they’ve been there with you. Through all your ups and downs, ins and outs.

Our next meeting may be in Chicago. It may be in Madison. We’re not really sure. And it doesn’t really matter. Getting to soak up time with these friends warms my heart. Fills my soul. And reminds me just how valuable these kinds of relationships are.

When was the last time you got together with some of your besties? How did you celebrate your time together?

****************We interrupt the previously scheduled program to bring you the winner of last week’s giveaway! If your name is highlighted in red below (hi, Alice!), you are the winner! Please confirm your mailing address, though I think I already have it!!!

To everyone who played, thank you! To everyone who purchased something from Christyn, a double thank you. We now return to your previously schedule programming.****************

As I was saying, this blogging journey I started three years ago? It just keeps getting better.

Year 1, I was just getting the hang of blogging. I expected it to be a space where I could write down my thoughts on the world around me. I was surprised by the interactive nature, not just from friends in real life, but from the greater blogging community.

Year 2, that initial wonderment with how big the blogosphere really is turned into growing that seed. This whole blogging thing kind of went to my head. At times, I became focused on reading as many blogs as possible in the hopes of ramping up my own readership (and comments, which were more important at the time). I began selling my soul to blog ads (let’s just say, I come for the cheap price of less than $10 per month). I also continued to broaden my reach into the more personal side of blogging, by meeting other bloggers and nurturing relationships outside our blogs.

Now that Year 3 is coming to a close, I have been a bit reflective about my year. The attempts to expand my blogging horizons reached its pinnacle when I attended BlogHer last spring. And while I was thrilled to meet some really interesting and fun women, I was mostly overwhelmed by the sheer madness that blogging can become. Thanks to my experiences with that conference, I took this blog back to the basics.

I went through a solemn period where I tried to figure out what I was all about. I stripped my blog of ads. I skipped the big blogger meet-ups in my town and didn’t even think about traveling to meet large groups of bloggers. I even simplified the content of my blog, making it more and more about me and my views of the world and less about other people’s lives.

This week is the start of Year 4 as a blogger. And, just like I’ve started each new year of blogging, I don’t really have any big goals for the year ahead. Blogging has always been and continues to be this fluid experience for me. Changing as I change and as the world around me changes. I expect this year will be no different—there will be some changes around here, but I couldn’t begin to tell you how.

I guess that’s what makes these anniversaries blogoversaries so darn cool. It’s a time to reflect and a time to look forward. A time to be proud of how far you’ve come and a time to be excited for what’s yet to unravel.

Do me a favor by telling me what you’d like to see from my blog (or for that matter, what you’d like me to stop immediately) in the year to come!

Woods! As you all know, I took a pretty strong stance on the whole Tiger Woods situation. It took me a whole blog post to write what could’ve been summarized by an If-Then flow chart.

{source: Cheesy Good, postbourgie}

Happiness! After the chance to meet Jess a few years ago, I became a very regular reader of her blog. She’s an incredibly mature, astute, beautiful person who has had quite the amazing last few years: marriage, cross-country move, new house, new dog, weight-loss surgery. The list goes on. This week, she wrote about how people compliment her on her weight loss and how some compliments are really quite damaging. Because, sometimes when you compliment a person on what they look like today, you are, in turn, saying damning things about the way they used to look. The beautiful thing about this post is Jess shows how her happiness is independent of her weight. She’s had an amazing life. Period. And finding that happiness outside of how we look … if only we could all achieve that goal! {source: Du Wax Loolu}

Truth! Amy does a beautiful post on 10 truths in her life. And if only we could go back to our teenage selves and really ingrain these truths. Unfortunately, we can’t do that. But, what we can do is make sure the young people in our lives learn these truths, hopefully sooner versus later! {source: Just a Titch}

Words! I know a lot of you out there are like me. We’re sticklers for the correct usage of words. When I was active on Match.com, using “their” instead of “they’re” was a deal breaker for me. These days, I roll my eyes until it hurts when I see “your” instead of “you’re” (can’t we just use “y’all” and be done with it?!). So, you can imagine my excitement when one of my favorite bloggers (who just got TENURED – which is a HUGE promotion in her field!) found a website with 10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling. OMG, I about fainted into a happy place. I can only share a few with you here. You’re going to HAVE to visit the website for the rest.

{source: Hotch Potchery, The Oatmeal}

Stogie! The other weekend, we bought SoMi a bag of rawhide bones in all different shapes and sizes. After her 2nd successful 3-mile run of the week, she deserved her choice of bone. So, she picked one. And then she smoked it like a stogie. And, well, I had to snap a shot of her, because a description doesn’t do her justice.

Alright, friends, that’s all I’ve got for this week. Have a fabulous weekend and I’ll see you on the flip side!