2020 Q2 Update: First Date After Divorce

Hey pals! I’m back with my Q2 2020 recap. Spoiler: I went on my first date after my divorce (well…my first date that was both intentional and not with a longtime friend)! Check out the Q1 update here if you missed it.

Blogging again feels good! Do me a favor? Share my posts, please! Let people know your favorite blogger is back! So many of you have been reading about my life for over a decade. I appreciate all of you – new readers and longtime – so very much. One day I’ll write you a love letter.

Here we go! Q2 2020 update:

I wrote in the last post about struggling with depression, loneliness, and anxiety the first part of 2020. It actually got better with quarantine. A worldwide pandemic really put my own issues in order!

April, May, and June are kind of blended together in my mind. Here are the nightlights:

I moved my body. A lot.

I was more active than ever before in my whole life. And it didn’t feel like exercise or working out. It was just part of my routine and something I enjoyed. I rode my bike all over Tybee Island, took long walks on the beach, and went to beach yoga twice a week.

If you’re visiting Tybee Island, check out Tybee Yoga and Healing Arts.

I chilled outside.

Because of all the outdoor activities, I spent more time outdoors than ever before, too. When I wasn’t biking or at the beach, I chilled in the front yard or the second-floor deck with my kitty boy, Milo.

I made so many cat friends.

Milo loved Tybee Island. LOTS of cats love Tybee Island. They are all over the place. This one, a 16-year-old named Smokey, walked right into my rental house one day and climbed on my lap.

I went on my first date after the divorce.

This will be it’s own post one day. It didn’t work out, but he was young and cute, the flirting was fun, and doing the big scary thing (going on my first date after being in a relationship my entire adult life) felt good.

It rained inside.

The rental house had major leaks. We got rained on inside on two floors and multiple rooms. To make up for the inconvenience of living in a construction zone during the repairs, the rental company showered us with gift cards to Tybee Island restaurants!

I hung out with my friends virtually.

My friends and I got together for a weekly virtual game night. There were four of us in the core quaranTEAM (and sometimes a puppet), but I think 14 different people were in the rotation.

I soaked up time with my daughter.

Both of my college babies came to me when their schools went to online at the end of March. One only stayed about a week and then went back to Florida to be with her boyfriend. My baby who goes to college in Texas was with me all spring and summer. She got a job on the island that kept her busy and we did some great exploring when she off.

We even drove three hours each way to get her favorite restaurant – The Juicy Crab. It was takeout only and I do NOT recommend eating crab in a car. But it was a fun day. I hope our random adventures are what she’ll remember most about her childhood and beyond.

The dogs loved having her around!

I loved having her with me for Mother’s Day!

We took long drives around the Savannah area.

This is Wormsloe Historic Site.

We ate so much yummy food.

We enjoyed the randomness of Tybee Island.

And she joined me at the beach.

I got obsessed with TikTok.

This was a trend where you turn old leggings into a shirt. (It was a fail.)

I had some car issues.

My windshield wipers went out while driving over a bridge in the rain. It’s the motor and I still haven’t gotten it fixed yet almost a year later. (Coming soon: Is it ADHD, trauma, anxiety, or depression to blame for my forgetfulness and inability to keep up with life most of the time?)

I got my first speeding ticket since I was 19 in Tybee Island. My first ticket in decades, period. And I got multiple tickets. I also got in multiple minor car accidents. Oops.

I bought a dress from my favorite drag queen.

Kelli Randell was the first drag queen I ever saw in person. My recently-out friends brought me to a gay bar so I could meet their new friends. Kelli made them feel so loved and accepted. Seeing her perform over the last two decades always brought me back to those nights loving my friends so fiercely and being so proud of them for being their true selves. Kelli took me out for pizza and shots to celebrate my divorce two years ago.

She cleaned out her drag closet during quarantine and sold sold items on Facebook live. My friend Nicole actually alerted me to the sale. I was out picking up Chinese food off the island, but pulled it up anyway. So I was standing in a Chinese restaurant waiting for my order when I heard Kelli say, “This dress is too skanky for me. SOLD to Nicole!” and I laughed so hard.

I wound up with a dress, too.

I wore it one of the times my friend Brit drove down from Atlanta to enjoy Tybee Island with me.

Kelli passed away unexpectedly in June. I’m so glad Nicole and I were able to get the dresses.

I took a lot of selfies.

While the tickets, accidents, and losing Kelli were low points, overall I felt really good during April, May, and June. Maybe it was gaining perspective on my own problems because the whole world was in crisis. Or maybe it was all the exercise and vitamin D. But I felt good and I took lots of selfies!

This is the dress I wore on my first date after 20 years:

Did I mention I went to the beach?

And I had to leave Tybee Island

COVID allowed me to extend my original rental agreement at Tybee Island from three months to six months. But as Georgia reopened, more and more people started visiting Tybee, which means I got priced out of the off-season winter rental rates. WAY out. So the last bit of June was spent packing and figuring out a plan.

More on that in the Q3 recap!